ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the ways that Arab-Australian young men with creative interests do not fit into the locally dominant version of masculinity and who therefore experience marginalisation within school-based peer groups within Bankstown. Rather than treat this as problematic, the chapter examines how the informants in this study frame their marginalisation and exclusion in positive terms, as part of their broader strategies to distance themselves from Arab-Australian young men from Bankstown that are stigmatised and demonised in the Australian media and public discourse more generally. The chapter shows how subcultural interests are subsumed within the broader narrative about the development of creative biographies. That is, participating in 'Leb style' represents a rejection of creativity. In exploring this theme, the chapter also shows how creativity is interpreted and used by informants as symbolic of social mobility.
