Men of the past?: Barry Humphries and Australian masculinity

Abstract

Over his fifty-year career as a performer, Barry Humphries has offereda sustained critique of Australian masculinity via several well-knowncharacters and a host of lesser-known figures. Through all of his theatrical characters, Humphries's satire questions aspects of accepted expressions of Australian masculinity. Humphries's nostalgic critique of masculinity ranges from the gentle satire of the monologues of the aging Sandy Stone, to the contemptuous portrait of the excesses of Australian homosocial behaviour in the Barry McKenzie comic strips and films, through to a scathing parody of the empty promise of cultural nationalism in the 1970s via the revolting yet genial Sir Les Patterson. During the 1960s Humphries also satirised other equally unappealing expressions of masculinity in characterssuch as the puffed up Australian academic Neil Singleton, the pretentious experimental film maker, Martin Agrippa, and the swinging, acoustic guitar playing Morrie Tate. Sandy Stone was based on one of Humphries's parents' neighbours in the suburb of Camberwell, Melbourne.