She'll be right!

It’s incredible how many hits one gets if they Google this phrase! The reason for this “popularity” is that Aussies use it and believe in it. Therefore, it characterizes their attitudes and gives the extreme laid-back flavour to the land Down Under. The actual meaning is “No worries, all will be fine in the end!” Indeed, when there is a problem, one would worry and want to solve it immediately, but here the attitude is a lot more mellow and people really “take it easy.” They think the problem will be solved anyway in the end, so why rush to solve it? I am not sure if this “insular” attitude is related to the fact that Australia is an island isolated from the rest of the world. And it is true that most disasters don’t reach this island, making people truly believe “she’ll be right.” Look at the world financial crisis of 2008. Not even that ever arrived in this remote place. From the smallest trouble to the biggest, “she’ll be right.” I find the phrase also derogatory towards women; see the use of “she” not “he,” as if any hardship or common nuisance is feminine. We went the other day for a walk in Wattle Park and Tiziano, who loves all bugs, opened a nest of leaves trying to figure out if it was the amazing construction of ants or spiders. As you see in the picture, it was a spider mother who was just trying to protect her brood. When we realized what we did, we felt sorry, but it was a sunny and really warm day, so I said “she’ll be right,” thinking that the spiderlings will not need protection for much longer and will be fine in the wide world after we opened their nest. I am not sure I was right, but my defaulting into the Aussie attitude scared me a little bit…