AustLit

'Recently, Wilson, a Chinese-Australian writer, asked to hang out with me. He wanted to collaborate on a work that explored class, race and toxic masculinity in Western Sydney. We agreed to meet at Volcano's Steakhouse in Parramatta. I'd seen him around online and, because he was Asian, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. When I met him in person, he was wearing Nike TNs and an Off White-brand bum bag slung over his shoulder. His outfit was riffing on lads, a Western Sydney subculture made up of young men from low socio-economic backgrounds. Lads draw inspiration from Black American hip-hop, British chav and Dutch gabber cultures, with interests in rap, hardstyle, graffiti and sneakers. An Australian sense of irony ties these together - in the early days, they dressed in Nautica polos tucked into tracksuit pants, bent-brim dad hats balanced precariously on the crowns of their heads. Lad-speak includes words like 'shank' (stabbing) and 'eshays' (Pig Latin for a pot-smoking 'sesh'), and thus lads as a subculture are associated with criminality.' (Publication abstract)