Bodgies and widgies

Bodgies and Widgies refer to a youth subculture that existed in Australia and New Zealand in the 1950s, similar to the Teddy Boy culture in the UK or Greaser culture in the US.

The males were called Bodgies and the females were called Widgies. Bodgies were well-known for their often loutish behaviour. On February 1, 1951 the Sydney Morning Herald wrote on its front page:

What with "bodgies" growing their hair long and getting around in satin shirts, and "weegies" cutting their hair short and wearing jeans, confusion seems to be arising about the sex of some Australian adolescents..

The Mazengarb Report (Report of the Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents) of 1954 was partly a response to the emergence of the bodgie & widgie subculture.

In 1956, the Sydney Morning Herald suggested:

The first bodgies were World War 2 Australian seamen who as well as impersonating Americans were black marketers and the first bodgie gang was the ‘Woolloomooloo Yanks’ who congregated in Cathedral Street Woolloomooloo. By 1948, about 200 bodgies were regularly frequenting Kings Cross milk bars. Soon, bodgie gangs formed at other inner-Sydney locations. After a time, moccasins and American drape suits complete with pegged trousers replaced their attire of blue jeans and leather American Airline jackets or zoot suits. For bodgies, almost all of whom were working class, emulating the high status Americans who had so recently occupied Australia as military personnel was easier than achieving upward social mobility.

In 1983, the Melbourne Age suggested:

the term "bodgie" arose around the Darlinghurst area in Sydney. It was just after the end of World War II and rationing had caused a flourishing black market in American-made cloth. "People used to try and pass off inferior cloth as American-made when in fact it was not: so it was called bodgie"... "When some of the young guys started talking with American accents to big-note themselves they were called bodgies"

See also

• Beatniks
• Bogan
• Sharpies
• Skinhead

External links

• Scarborough Beach once again comes alive to revive the imfamous Snake Pit days, when the bodgies and the widgies danced to rock ”n‘ roll music
• Scarborough Beach History Site - The Snake Pit showing a picture of bodgies and widgees dancing in the 1950's
• George Negus Tonight :: people :: Transcripts :: Gang History
• Bodgies, widgies and moral panic in Australia 1955 – 1959, Paper presented to the Social Change in the 21st Century Conference