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Up-and-coming journalist Nic Tolshmakoff reports on Nick Enright’s 1995 Blackrock, prior to its scheduled enactment at the 2018 Festival of Australian Drama. He discusses why its publicization is imperative in terms of the effect it will have on teenage audiences.
I magine you’re a 14 year old Australian girl. You’re sporting a new look – a low-cut top and a short skirt – what could possibly go wrong? 12 steps in and you begin hearing strange, shrill whistles coming from men of all ages. You’d never heard this before – at least, not before you’d grown out of the jeans-and-jumpers phase – maybe it’s the outfit? No, it can’t be. You walk a further 30 steps, only to be hollered at, once more: “hey, baby”, “damn’, girl!”. It finally clicks, you know it’s the outfit. You’re in a state of disbelief; these deranged psychotics make your skin crawl, your blood run cold. Your walk turns into a scurry; you just want it all to be over. As young men, we can all empathise with our female peers and the…show more content… With that being said, it’s a shame that the boys are only really themselves in the absence of any girls. Amongst environments shared by both genders, boys are constantly peer-pressured to act immorally in order to abide by the ‘bro code’ – though not always in the form of words. They are socialized to feel that masculinity is determined solely by their ‘body count’. On the other hand, if a female was to act in such a way, she’d best be prepared for what’s to come; she’d be labelled as a slut – a moll, if you will; at least, this is how Jared and Ricko like to describe
