I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Brat Summer intersected with a period of serious political anxiety in the United States. The prolific lime green movement, a response to the cocaine-starved party-never-stops aesthetic of Charli XCX’s Brat, rode the wave of a rising impulse in our generation to party, cry and party again, such that the whole world scrambled to embody ‘brat’ itself. In the aftermath of a brutal presidential debate which raised existential fears over our generation’s future (to defeat fascism, to save our climate), it seemed that the only remaining option was to indulge ourselves at the withering end of prosperity.
It appeared a blessing, then, that the Democratic party would replace Joe Biden with a brat candidate — a progressive woman that would both beat Donald Trump and heed a younger generation. But we should be wary, I think, of the way in which liberal politicians leveraged the trending term to resituate themselves in the two-party system.
TikTok’s Etymology Nerd argues that ‘brat’ is a self-contained concept: “You can only gesture at what ‘brat’ really is by talking about other related concepts. … ‘Brat’ is something more, something ineffable that can’t really be captured with a cohesive definition.” It doesn’t help that the album constantly defies itself thematically — from the indifferent egoism of “360” (“I don’t f*cking care what you think”) to the vulnerable and doubt-filled “So I,” a heartbreaking tribute to late hyperpop artist SOPHIE. ‘Brat’ is multidimensional — “me, my flaws, my f*ck ups, my ego all rolled into one,” says Charli. It is the character of this contradiction itself that gives ‘brat’ meaning in context. Though, a word defined by contradiction is highly susceptible to change by misinterpretation.
When Charli XCX declared outright, “kamala IS brat,” we saw the emergence of a massively successful cultural-political symbiosis. The presumptive nomination of Kamala Harris became the biggest boon for the word’s usage in internet discourse since the album’s release. By some metrics, Brat Summer saved the Harris-Walz campaign millions of dollars worth of media exposure in a frenzy that even Charli did not expect. One tweet alone was both able to reinvigorate a fad and imbue it with explicitly political meaning.
In that ‘brat’ is defined by proximity to other cultural symbols, liberal politicians have invited themselves into proximity. Chuck Schumer is brat. Barack Obama is brat. And somehow, they appear safe from the ridicule that politicians normally face by relating themselves to emerging cultural trends (i.e. “Pokémon Go to the polls”). This damned ‘brat’ to even greater ambiguity, to a point of almost entirely void meaning. What does Schumer have to do with “365” (“Wanna go real wild when I’m bumpin’ that // Meet me in the bathroom if you’re bumpin’ that)?
Charli stands by her endorsement of Harris in a subtle effort “to prevent democracy from failing forever.” This is the essential narrative of the Harris-Walz campaign: Trump is a serious threat to American democracy, and a second Trump term risks a hostile takeover permitted by the July Supreme Court ruling and mapped by Project 2025. Leftists will hesitantly remind themselves of the omnipresent question they face this election cycle: is it harmful to criticize a liberal Harris while her opponent threatens a fascist uprising? It’s the same question that undermines the uncommitted movement for Palestine and already-trivialized pleas for genuine systemic change — an America that does not profit from war, an America that is not bought by corporate interest — in an increasingly hostile setting for the political establishment. ‘Brat’ has come to validate a political candidate that promises to “ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.” It turned Bushwick socialites into cultural proponents of a neoliberal agenda. Is imperialism brat?
If anything, Brat is a self-possessed and defiant project. There is a much better argument that the term, in its pre-Harris context, meant something more authentically progressive. Impulse, ego, sincerity — these are all qualities that our generation requires for any meaningful opposition to inherited violence. Partying is a politically significant act in that it is an unambiguously social one. Anti-capitalist action need not always mean militancy, council meetings and regulation. When people socialize, and enjoy themselves doing it, they remember the value of collectivity; we don’t have to conduct our lives in opposition to one another. I think it’s beautiful that, for our generation, socialism has become less and less associated with esoteric political jargon and more with a pleasurable lifestyle that embodies empathy. This is the most organic response to the world we live in now — one that is bleak but still indulgent.
A choice: abandon ‘brat,’ endorse the politics of the Democratic party, or refuse to associate the two. If ‘brat’ has lost meaning, we would do best to reclaim it. It’s not too late to win Brat Summer, even if only by revision. Do your part – be brat.
Eric Han is a co-editor of the Arts & Culture Department at the Cornell Daily Sun. He can be reached at [email protected].
Elfbar Ideology is a recurring series. It runs occasionally throughout the year.