Daggy Dads and State Daddies: Theorising the Masculinities of Australian Men Political Leaders

Abstract

Australian politics has overwhelmingly been a boy’s club in which manhood and masculinity are seen to be integral to political legitimacy. However, conceptions of political masculine identity differ along party lines. This paper theorises two overarching Australian political masculinities: the traditional Daggy Dad, as adopted by former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison; and nurturing State Daddies—an affectionate and humorous label that arose on social media during the 2020–21 COVID-19 lockdowns—embodied by then-opposition leader Anthony Albanese and several Labor state premiers. I argue that in the context of COVID, State Daddies successfully mobilised a more caring and inclusive masculinity to challenge the Daggy Dad’s increasingly inadequate protective masculinity, thereby revealing the limitations of this persona in modern political leadership.