In an article published on ABC Everyday, Greek Australian comedian and content creator, Kat Zam, wrote about her struggle to conform to the pressures of being a “Good Greek Girl.”
“Being a Good Greek Girl means being polite, following the rules, not asking questions and always getting up when your Papou (grandfather) comes to sit in his chair at the end of the table,” wrote Zam in the article.
Zam moved to Melbourne from the small country Australian town she grew up in, wanting to remain connected to her Greek roots.
She decided to go to church by herself one day and found the visit to be a “reminder” that she “wasn’t a Good Greek Girl” after a Greek grandmother asked her a series of questions: “What’s your name? What do you do for work? Do you have a boyfriend?” followed by a comment, “Your dress is too short for church.”
“Greek grandmothers are like FBI agents,” Zam wrote.
Zam is part of the LGBTQIA+ community and says she felt “connected to [her] Greek culture while also starting to feel more comfortable with [her] sexuality.”
Though her feelings changed in 2017 after seeing her local Greek church post about the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey on social media and announcing their stance against same-sex marriage as “they wanted to keep marriage ‘traditional’.”
That day, Zam decided she would never go back to church unless there was a wedding or funeral.
“A part of me died that day, because Greek culture and tradition are so tightly woven together; they’re inseparable,” wrote Zam. “But I couldn’t continue supporting something that didn’t support me or my fellow LGBTQIA+ Greeks.”
Today, Zam posts a comedy skits and content on her social media, where she has amassed over 13,000 followers on Instagram, with a lot of her content being about family and Greek, and Australian, cultural experiences.
Source: ABC.
