1. "First Blood": The 1960s Origins of the Australian Sharpie Youth Culture.
- Author
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Oldham, Paul "Nazz"
- Subjects
- *
YOUNG adults , *LIFE cycles (Biology) , *AUSTRALIANS , *MILLENNIALS , *WORKING class , *YOUTH culture - Abstract
The sharpies were a uniquely Australian youth culture that lasted from the early 1960s into the 1980s and were a significant continuation of the trajectory of Australian, male-dominated, working-class, consumption-based, rowdy youth-cultural traditions, which include the bodgies and widgies of the 1950s and the larrikins of the 1860s to 1918. Sharpies are under-discussed in social narratives and academic texts. This article focuses on the life cycle of the original generation of sharpies. In addition to exploring the origins of sharpie culture, I explore why it provided an outlet for its bored suburban, working-class youths, present explanations for behavioural attitudes and offer some insight into its attraction. I also explore how the first generation of this youth culture came to its natural end, how it was picked up again by the next generation and why. In learning about the sharpies' activities and behaviours, from the egregious to the mundane, we open ourselves to learning something not just about suburban, working-class Australian youths but about all young people who take part in group-based youth cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2025
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