WASPs in Brisbane? (not the insect)

[tiaramerchgirl]

The WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) stereotype in the US generally refers to either affluent white people of "old money"/privileged background, or suburban middle-class people. (Urban Dictionary says the former but somehow I always imagined it to be the latter. hmm.)

What's the equivalent of a WASP in Brisbane?
Are they still called WASP? Is there another name?
Which suburb would you find them in?

(context: I'm doing The Vagina Monologues and my bit references "the WASP moan", which is silence. I was thinking Ascot/Hamilton but think that's a bit too posh. Or spot on?)

Comments

[america-divine.livejournal.com]

Don't know Brisbane so can't be of much pertinence, but you make me think.

The contexts in which I hear "WASP" have less to do with economic class and more to do with British Isles ethnicity. This is probably holding out more in the rural Scots-Irish & Germanic region I live in than in urban areas. But I also note that there's a primarily ethnic referent--more than class--in the deployment of the word to distinguish between white Protestants and Latino Catholics.

Usually, when I hear it it is a dismissive like "milquetoast" and refers to bland reserve. Nothing's WASPier than Episcopalianism (and we ain't got high/low church distinctions).

But when I think of class and WASP (and boring), I think of Henry James.

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

Make it as poncy as possible. Yes, "posh" is quite a good component for that WASP moan.

Clutch pearls, too! XD