Bogan babe from Logan

There’s quite a s*&t storm brewing in the outer reaches of the Gold Coast at the moment. The Logan City Council has decided to dump a chunk of taxpayers hard earned dollars into an advertising campaign based on pedalling their assumption that ‘Logan is no longer for bogans’. This has made the locals a little restless. Imagine a campaign aimed at raising the areas profile, to raise house prices, to effectively price the current residents out. The same residents who have funded the campaign.

Oh, it’s just too fun and juicy and farcical for words!

If you have been living under a Laura Ashley themed rock and aren’t privy to what a bogan is, here is a little piece of Australiana for you. According to bogan.com.au, the bogan species can usually be characterised by a “pronounced lack of dress sense (flannelet shirt, soiled jeans and black thongs/ugg boots), a lack of personal hygiene (the most common fragrance is Odour of Toilet), a particular choice in motor vehicle (Holden or Ford), and the ubiquitous mullet hairstyle.

Sounds like Pam and Kid Rock to us. In a nutshell.

So, you may ask yourself, what is the difference between a ‘bogan’ and a ‘hipster’ ( a hipster being this new socially acceptable little mess)? Neither seem to be particularly fussed on hygiene. Nor do they care much for the buzz of the electric shaver (or razor for that matter). Tattoos are in. Clean cut is out. The short answer is, location.

Bogans are from the western suburbs (like Logan) and hipsters are from the inner sanctum (like The Valley in Brisbane). When we say ‘are from’, this means ‘live now’ in the case of hipsters, and ‘have lived all my life’ in the case of the bogans.

The long answer is, that bogans have remained where they grew up and live their lives in a community atmosphere that does not care about $500 jeans, and are fiercely proud of their heritage (like supermodel Catherine McNeil who comes from Logan). On the other hand, hipsters are generally from bogan areas and have revamped themselves into the fresh young things of the inner city and think nothing of splashing out $500 on a pair of jeans that are suitably ‘distressed’ and can’t be washed for a month in case the neoplasticblahblah compound in the material doesn’t set properly and the just don’t look cool enough.

Because McNeil was brazen enough to admit that she was in fact a proud bogan from Logan, an avid Supre lover, and couldn’t even pronounce ‘Versace’ prior to her turn as one of the hottest babes on the planet, the Logan Council have reportedly in all their wisdom said ‘no’ to having her model in their new campaign to change the face of their city.

You could go on for hours about how ridiculous this is. About how beige (note: beige is a hipster synonym for ‘boring’)  it is to offend almost your entire population base with a campaign that is akin to running people out of town with pitchforks in a bad old western movie. You could wax lyrical about how McNeil is a fantasy creature, and that the fact that she comes from Logan should be enough for them the claim their roots and be proud about their boganism.

But, there’s no point trying to reason with a hipster (or a poli).