Episode Three: Masculinities

The Heteropessimists

Dr Matt Allen, a historian at UNE, and to date, the only male-identifying participant on The Heteropessimists project, is interested in exploring male forms of heteropessimism as well as the role of masculinities in explaining heteropessimism.

Being a historian, his focus here is on the past. Particularly a strain of what he contends might anachronistically be called heteropessimism in Russel Ward’s famous Australian legend which centres the mate-ship of egalitarian bushmen. In this far-reaching discussion, Matt explores these ideas with Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History at the Australian National University, and the author of the first ever history of sex in Australia, the award-winning, ‘Sex Lives of Australians’.