I have been wanting to talk blokedom for a very long time: How and why it defines so much about Australia; how it excludes and masks the existence of class inequalities; and how it holds us back as a nation. The myth of the larrikin bloke is something writer Lech Blaine has been studying for some time. Hailing from a very working class background in Toowoomba, Queensland, he went on to be the first person in his extended family to go to university. He wrote a Quarterly Essay in September last year titled Top Blokes: The larrikin Myth, Class and Power (which I highly recommend reading). And in this month’s Monthly magazine he has written an epic overview of the election, which assesses Scott Morrison's demise as a reflection of the need to move on from the "top bloke" trope. The wild idea on the table this episode: Might it be time to kill off this sexist, racist myth...and move forward to better and fairer and kinder?

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LECH BLAINE: The death of "blokes" (strap in for this one!)