Getting Off at Redfern: Bleached Male Desire and the Fake Crisis of Masculinity

Premature ejaculation, tradie funk, Barbara Kruger, Chatroulette, and the crisis that never ends. Thisepisode tackles the sweaty aesthetics of masculinity and the violence of straight male desire. From schoolyards to sports fields, from public confrontations to the digital shadows of webcam sex, Melletios and Tim wade through the rituals that shape, perform, and deny straight male identity. In this unhinged, wandering conversation, we ask why straight men are so obsessed with policing queerness while secretly building homosocial bonds. What’s the function of denial? What’s the cost of repetition? And what does it mean to critique masculinity while still playing in the bleached band?

We unpack the gendering of public and private space, the difference between care and protection, and why the so-called "crisis of masculinity" has dragged on for nearly two centuries. With Mogwai as our unofficial soundtrack and the bleached stain of privilege as both costume and curse, we stumblethrough misreadings, microaggressions, aggression, and the awkward joy of getting it wrong.

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Chapters:

0:00 - Fixing mics and Redfern slang

2:32 - Trucks, dinosaurs, and fascist aesthetics

5:01 - Tradie funk and “smelling like a man”

8:38 - The violent tradie on Enmore Road

11:21 - Tradies get the ladies: stereotypes and spectacle

13:13 - Cops, soldiers, and homoerotic structures

14:19 - Webcam sex, Chatroulette, and male-to-male desire

17:23 - Straightness, violence, and denial

22:04 - Barbara Kruger and the skin of other men

23:25 - Boys’ schools and shared adolescent rituals

26:02 - Football, scrums, and the spectacle of straightness

29:01 - Mogwai marries Sabrina Carpenter

30:59 - Masculinity is the problem

33:27 - The fake crisis of masculinity

36:49 - Protection vs care: gendered politics and power

38:14 - The politician, the family, and unwaged labour

40:58 - Being read as brown and living inside violence

44:39 - Everyday friction and white presentation

47:32 - The joy of getting it wrong

48:50 - Podcast form as gendered medium

49:40 - Disobedience, discomfort, and speaking from within