November 27, 2009

Today, in honour of anti-capitalism, I will be a hoser.

“You’re a hoser!”

frenchelon:

In Canada, hoser was previosly used as a jocular slang term meaning rube by members of the same (working) class in Western Canada and Ontario towards others within the same class. It was not a term used by urbanites, intellectuals, or non-Canadians as a pejorative, historically.

Today, the word hoser evokes—sometimes sympathetically, with gentle ribbing, and sometimes negatively—a stereotypical Canadian male, typically lower to middle class, white and English Canadian. He is especially concerned with drinking beer and watching hockey or curling. The hoser is understood as a product of a poor and white upbringing, but never from a more cosmopolitan lifestyle—he is more likely to come from a small town or a rural farm community than a big city, although hosers may also exist in the suburbs of major cities. He is generally assumed to be unemployed, although he may also be a farmer, a labourer working in primary industry (manufacturing, mining, forestry, etc.), a tradesman or a manual labourer. He is typically not university-educated: if he has any education past high school, it’s a college trade program. If he does go on to university, or moves to a city, he will still have preferences for “hoser” food, clothing, music, and sports, and will retain the language inflections of his upbringing.

He’s often imagined wearing heavy winter clothing, usually a flannel lumberjack shirt, Kodiak boots and a tuque. He is generally a young adult to middle age, and may be somewhat aggressive given the beer and hockey, but may conversely be passive and amiable, given the beer. In musical culture, he is correlated with classic and mainstream rock music, particularly with Rush, April Wine, Trooper and the earlier, rowdier works of The Tragically Hip. If he goes out socially, it’s usually to a doughnut shop.

A hoser’s flannel shirt may also be referred to as a “Kenora dinner jacket”. (Some regional variations of this term also exist, usually substituting a hoser-stereotyped local community’s name in place of Kenora.)[2]

A woman who dresses and acts similarly may also be referred to as a hoser, although this is much more rare.

  • Flannel?  Check.
  • CBC Tuque?  Check.
  • Sorels?  Check.
  • Two-four of Molson?  Check.
  • Leftovers?  Check.

READY FOR BLACK FRIDAY!  TIME TO PLAY VIDEO GAMES!

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