Please STOP the Americanisation of Australian culture!

Americanisation is when a certain culture in a particular country has become American in character, quality, and nationality. As many of you know, Australia has sadly become quite Americanised over the past 10 years in terms of our society and culture. We are being bombarded with U.S. ideologies and popular culture everyday, especially on television, streaming services, the internet, and in other forms of media, and this is influencing the way we speak, how we find a sense of community, our knowledge of our country, trends, and more, sometimes without us even realising it. As the U.S. economy is huge with a large entertainment industry, and has a population of over 300 million, this isn’t surprising.

However, the Americanisation of Australia is actually terrible because it is harmful to our national identity and character. It distorts our knowledge, connections to our country, what was once our own forms of respect and pleasures in life, and understandings of one another.

It also contributes to the increasing lack of cultural diversity around the world. Without cultural diversity, the world would feel the same and boring wherever you go, and life would not feel as enjoyable. It would not promote deep learning among each country, nor peace and inclusion (as cultural diversity would demand respect for, and inclusivity of people without worries of differing traditions and customs), and acknowledgement of history and environmental factors that have shaped citizens lives. Such acknowledgement helps to develop knowledge of how each country could solve the issues they face today.

How is Australia becoming Americanised?

I have seen too many young people approximately my age (I am 18-25 years old) and younger adopting an American cultural-mindset. American words are making their way into Australian English, like “candy”, and slang terms like “dude”, “homies”, “bruh”, and even the disgustingly racist word “n*gga.” My generation is unable to recognise our own slang words anymore. If you ever say any Australian slang word apart from “mate” or “G’day” to a young person, there’s a very good chance they won’t understand you, and even think that you’re bonkers!

Annual rituals and festivities originating in the U.S. are becoming more popular every year, particularly Halloween (the American style of it with jack o’ lanterns and spooky decorations, not the traditional version from the U.K. originally called 'Samhain'), Black Friday, and even Thanksgiving and 4th of July are slowly beginning to make their way here. Businesses are also giving into the demands for American festivities, even though they don’t have to. The aisles for Halloween, the demands for Thanksgiving turkeys, and the crowds for Black Friday are growing in shops every year. Not only is this happening, tourist destinations [such as theme parks], exhibition halls, schools, and universities are even proudly hosting large events for Halloween, yet they are rarely doing so for Easter, St. Patrick’s Day, or even National Reconciliation or NAIDOC Week!

Australian children are also slowly obtaining more knowledge of the United States than our own nation. They’re calling our prime ministers “presidents” and are unable to name their own prime minister. They know more about various American types of plants, animals, landmarks, locations, companies, literature, etc. than Australian, New Zealander, or British ones.

Additionally, we are now accepting aspects of American culture that were previously disrespectful and rude in Australian culture. A few good examples are:

There are more Australians clapping and cheering, shouting for fun, talking, or laughing loudly (during non-comedy films) at the cinema, something which has always been acceptable in the U.S. to a certain degree.

There are also a lot more young girls wearing very thin bras and bikinis (such as thongs or g-strings) at the beach, as if they’re almost completely naked. This has again been acceptable in the U.S. for ages but never in Australia until now.

Twerking, a sexually inappropriate dance move that use to be considered "disgusting" and "un-Australian" until recently.

In addition, until the 1990s or early 2000s, in Australia and New Zealand, whenever a person had fallen onto hard times, they were be commonly termed a “battler” which is a friendly term. However, young people then begun using some more “offensive” terms originating from America to describe someone facing difficulty, and they are “loser”, “you suck”, or “that sucks”.

How can businesses and other organisations help to stop U.S. influence on Australian society and culture?

Easy!

1. Please stop promoting Halloween, Black Friday, and other American festivities here, forcing them to become a general part of our society, when we’re a part of the Commonwealth and have strong ties with Europe and Our King. Our mainstream annual rituals are either home-grown or originate from Celtic and other European traditions (remember, the version of Halloween we know of today is American and barely references its original Celtic roots).

2. Use British / Australian English

3. Use less American slang and more Australian slang

4. Support more Australian movies, TV shows, music, literature, and video games. This can be done by making sure that 60-70% of all content on each free-to-air TV station (except for SBS) and streaming platform, music on each radio station, games at each video game store (including online ones like Google Play), and books at each library (all just at these kinds of businesses, it doesn't need to be at others like in cinemas) operating here are of Australian origin. Some of the amount of Australian popular culture / entertainment supported should be by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, which would be fantastic.

If this cannot be done, however, at least make sure that within each 60-70% range of content, media and popular culture from other Commonwealth countries such as New Zealand, Britain, South Africa, or Canada (since they have close historical, cultural, and political ties with us) are also supported. We can also have European content (France, Germany, Italy, etc.) in each range, because many Australians have European ancestry and our western culture is influenced by Europe in many ways.

5. Please stop trying to implement aspects of American culture formerly disrespectful in Australian culture. For example, companies that manufacture bathers can cease the sale of thongs, g-strings, etc. here.

Taking action to preserve both Australian Western and Aboriginal culture also creates jobs. Imagine the money our locals could receive if more of their work (especially movies and TV shows) was showcased so children could look up to them and not have to be mistaken between American and Australian values.

Let’s not force American influences to become a GENERAL part of our own Western culture (proudly connected to European historical ties) and Aboriginal culture, to the point where our national identity becomes unrecognisable!

What you can do!

When you sign this petition, you demand the Australian community, especially businesses, to resist bombardment of American cultural imperialism, and encourage a majority of us to strongly identify, both emotionally and culturally, with our country (and Europe because that is where many of our ancestors came from). Please also show this to any businesses who you believe aren't following the suggestions I provided above to stop U.S. influences in our society and culture (don't do it though if they make one minor mistake with their English, that's an overreaction. Only do so if they make several and put in no effort to fix them).

You can also sign my petition to change Australia Day to mid or late October to help stop Halloween from becoming popular, or my other petition to bring back ushers to Australian cinemas to stop people from clapping and cheering during a movie. Or you could sign both!

Thank you very much!