Male chauvinists and ranting libbers: Representations of single men in 1970s Australia

Abstract

For the letter-writer—dubbed ‘Fed Up’, from Mt Gambier in South Australia—the life of the single man deserved pity, sympathy. Expectations of marriage lingered, as did those of financial security; a man had to be ‘well off’ to even contemplate marriage, ‘Fed Up’ reckoned. Read on its own, the letter reveals something of the uncertainty that shaped the lives of single men in the Australian 1970s. We might recognise the 1970s as a period in which the transformations of the 1960s continued to unfold with increasing visibility, but for ‘Fed Up’, at least, more conventional ideas about masculinity continued to burden unmarried men.2 The publication of the letter suggests a complex gender order operating in the 1970s, particularly as it functioned outside the continuing legitimacy of marriage.