A Dispatch From Our Man In Australia

An American friend visiting family in Australia sent this musing about Australian men and women. He's been doing some manual labor there:

When I go out in the evening I'm filthy and hardly fit for presentation. We've gone all over town (library, grocery store, etc.) and frequently I'm not the only one who looks like they've been working. Women respond the same way to filthy guys and guys in clean clothes. I don't think I realized how much American women like guys to be pretty until I came here. Oh, just realized that I haven't shaved for a couple of weeks either.

Do American women really like their men pretty? It reminds me of something I read in a recent issue of GQ. A former staffer in New York had finally started fitting in and wearing more fashionable clothes (slimmer-cut jeans and shirts, etc.) just before he left for a job in D.C. The response he got there among all the roomy, pleated khakis was overwhelmingly negative. Is it even more profound in Oz?

My friend asked an Australian friend about gender relations:

I asked him what Australian women are like. He said, "they are tough, real tough. You're best to keep your head down and do what the fuck you are told. Australian men are pussies."

Later we were talking about where to install a pump and my Dad said that Anna wanted it somewhere else. Neil responded with, "put your damn foot down. You tell her where it's going to go". This was said with humor. I said that he'd said Australian men were pussies. He said, "except for anything related to pumps. Then we are the boss".