Feral (subculture)
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The term "feral" means "wild". In Australian slang, a "feral" generally refers to a person who dresses and acts in what is seen to be an uncontrolled manner: In some instances it is a derogative form instead of the more positive Hippie. There is a strong correlation between this manner and what the most noticeably different-from-mainstream poor do.
It often used as an equivalent to the American epithets white trash (although it does not denote any particular race) or trailer trash.
Note that without any popular texts defining the term, (unlike bogan), perceptions of what a "feral" is range widely. Stereotypically a feral is a passionate (if somewhat dogmatic) activist for animal rights and the environment, with hippie or punk- style clothing and dreadlocks.
Poor Ferals
Ferals are usually from the lowest stratum of Australian society, lower than the roughly equivalent bogan/bevan/westy. They typically live in cheap houses, usually situated in the outer suburbs where employment is low, or ex-industrial suburbs that are yet to go through urban renewal.People in urban areas do not usually associate them with the rural poor, perhaps due to the traditionally idealist views which surround "the bush" and its rural inhabitants. However, such people are found in many rural areas, and are known as "ferals" by their neighbours.
Their speech is characterised by an excess of the Australian tendencies to roll successive syllables into one continuous diphthong, as well as a broad, nasal drawl that would make Steve Irwin sound Elizabethan by comparison.
Both sexes wear thongs (the footwear, not the underwear) and cheap tracksuit pants (the colloquial "two-dollar trakky daks"). Females will wear cheap, revealing synthetic tank tops and boob tubes. A female who persists in wearing such clothes during pregnancy will almost certainly be presumed to be feral. A male feral will usually aspire to buying an older, barely running but often heavily modified Australian or American car, the Holden Commodore being the model of choice. Such cars are termed "bombodores" by non-feral observers, the "bomb" prefix meaning a car that is old and unreliable.
In sharp contrast to other pejorative labels such as redneck or nigger, very few if any people identify themselves as "ferals" out of a sense or ironic or countercultural pride. Adjacent residents of caravan parks will freely lambaste each other as "ferals" without any attempt at conscious irony.
The label frequently functions as an adjective, usually in the context of a pejorative insult commonly exchanged between females. "You feral mole" is something akin to calling someone a slut and does not necessarily require that the recipient be lower-class.
Certain suburbs are notorious for their association with feral populations. Macquarie Fields and Mount Druitt near Sydney are identified as such as are Ipswich and Inala in Brisbane.
Left Wing Ferals
Often people living alternative lifestyles or who are associated with radical left wing politics are also called "feral" even if they are educated people. Right wing tabloid columnists often deride "the feral Left" or the "feral Greens", perhaps to reserve an extra layer of vitriol for those to the left of even the lesser-hated-but-still-reviled centre-Left chattering classes and chardonnay socialist.Ferals in the
In the town of Cairns, a segment of the population simply lives in the Daintree rainforest, either on freehold blocks or squatting. Cairns is tropical and tropical fruit is available wild all year round.
Australian Aboriginals, even if they live a native lifestyle (not owning property, etc), are not often referred to as ferals. The term applies generally to non-aboriginal persons.
Feral as Alternative Lifestyle
During the early 1990's, the term "feral" was used in the Australian media to describe a distinct subculture which combined elements of the punk and hippie countercultural movements. The "feral movement" could be seen as the Australian equivalent to the European New age travellers. The feral movement adopted the disparaging moniker "feral" in a similar way that the counter-culture of a decade earlier had adopted the punk label. The typical image of a feral as a person with dreadlocks and dirty homemade clothes came out of the movements' association with the hardcore environmental movement. The earliest ferals were inner-city punks and squatters who attended environmental blockades, often in remote and inaccessible areas of the bush. As a result, washing of clothes was a difficult task, and filthy clothes later came to be a symbol of attachment to the subculture, a mark of defiance against consumerist culture. The feral ideology was/is influenced by Neo-Tribalism, anarchism and environmentalism. Early feral fashion was also influenced by post-apocolyptic depictions of the future current at the time, particularly the Mad Max films. A number of bands are associated with the feral movement, such as the folk/punk band Mutiny, the John Butler Trio, and the band/collective/cult Mutation Parlour [link].
See also
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