I Know What You did Last Summer
Well I don't .... not exactly. I don't know whether you went to Majorca or Margate for your holiday, or spent the whole summer stuck in an air conditioned office or on a building site just outside Glasgow. What I can guess at however is that you saw one of two films: Barbie or Oppenheimer. You may have even watched both on the same day at the cinema. I could assume that you had an awareness of the success of Taylor Swift's Eras tour and Beyoncé's Renaissance tour and that you were aware, perhaps, that summer 2023 could be considered the hot girl summer to end all hot girl summers.
It was a true explosion of femininity, and not just that but financially successful femininity (for lack of a better term). In the capitalist structures of western society, this is perhaps one of the most valuable gauges of where the cultural thermometer is pointing. Barbenheimer was, arguably, one of the most effective publicity campaigns for a blockbuster release in recent memory. It was fun, joyous and magically played off a key quality of human (specifically woman) kind that often gets forgotten: our ability to consume and enjoy more than just one tone of thing.
The real marketing work for Barbenheimer was done not in posters or in the cinema but via the magic of social media. The double billing of these two - apparently dichotomous - films cumulated in an atmosphere of what Empire would later describe as an 'all-out cinematic event.' Why? Because it made people feel like they had to be there and that when they were there that they were part of something monumental, something significant. People were dressing up to go to the cinema, wearing couples costumes, half and half Barbie and Oppenheimer. To go to the cinema became an event, became a celebration of film making, of art, and of the celebration of femininity, of comedy, of these things that have always been considered to be of lesser importance than the high arts. There was true appreciation for the diversity and complexity of the human experience.
The Barbenheimer phenomenon was only bolstered by the success of not just one but two hugely successful world tours led by women at the top of their careers: Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. Barbiemania met Taylormania and a cultural atmosphere was one of outstanding positivity for these women and the communities that they had fostered and built around them.
The Dark Side of the Pink: A Counter-Political Reaction?
There is a darker undercurrent however which flowed beneath these outpourings of communal uplift between women, men, and the LGBTQ communities. On June 24th 2022 the Supreme Court of the United States of America overturned a 1973 ruling titled 'Roe vs Wade'. This had guaranteed people with a uterus the right to an abortion up to around 24 weeks. The Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling ended the right to this access.
A year on from this dramatic shift in the legal protection of women's rights and abortion bans had been put in place in 14 states leaving 22 million women of reproductive age living in an area with no access to abortion. According to the BBC "24,290 fewer legal abortions overall between July 2022 and March 2023, compared to an average calculated in the months before the Dobbs decision."
In light of the oppression and restriction on women's rights to make decisions about their own bodies it is unsurprising that when offered the opportunity to celebrate themselves communities of women and those in the LGBTQ community took it. There is an exertion of power in Swiftageddon and in Barbiemania. It was a safe space that creates its own community and conversation about these problems in a very gentle way (consider Taylor Swift's The Man or America Ferrera's speech on the impossibility of being a woman in Barbie which was of course written and directed by indie feminist icon Greta Gerwig). These couldn't have been any more important last summer. That safe warm hug of glitter, laughter, and gently hitting truths, but in the summer of 2024 it might be worth asking: where are we now?
A Swing of the Pendulum: From Barbie to Brat
First of all, what is BRAT?
Brat is an album released by Charli XCX on June 7, 2024. The record is a vibrant throwback to the 2000s English rave scene, bursting with high-energy beats and edgy lyrics. Brat - much like a Taylor Swift album - isn't just about the music; it's a whole surrounding aesthetic. The album's cover art, designed by New York's Special Offer, Inc., features a striking lime green square with minimalist sans-serif text, intentionally chosen to provoke and challenge pop culture norms. The aim was to make something off-trend and a bit jarring. Its a vibe more than anything else and now its a trend bringing about not only viral dances on Tiktok but also a cultural commentary about motherhood, relationships between women, and questioning the clean girl aesthetic. In short:
brat is bright lime green
brat is 2000s digital cameras
brat is flashing lights and electronic beats, out till 6am
brat is Miranda Priestly making that speech about a jumper that is 'not blue, not turquoise, no, its cerulean'
brat is the acceptance of millennial anxiety rather than the glossy overcoming of it
brat is "yappy" Brooke Schofield doing an 16 part series on all the ways her ex-boyfriend (Clinton Kane) lied to her
brat is not taking off your make up before bed
As Charli XCX put it: “It can go that way, like, quite luxury, but it can also be so, like, trashy. Just, like, a pack of cigs, and, like, a Bic lighter, and, like, a strappy white top. With no bra. That's, like, kind of all you need.”
Swinging tastes and values
To some extent its a joke sure, being a brat is not necessarily a good thing, but it touches on a less shiny, more intimate reality of girlhood. Its the side that doesn't make it out on stage or to the workplace but holds a familiar place in everyone's experience of reality. In doing so this trend accepts - and in some cases praises - the aspects of humanity that women are so often criticised for exhibiting: frankness, desire, and self-possession.
That's not to say that some of these qualities were not and are not still present in the Swiftageddon that shook up last summer, in fact I would go so far as to argue that those collective moments of community building across the world and through the internet last summer walked so that the summer of Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, and Sabrina Carpenter could run.
Cultural trends - like laws of physics - arguably have an equal and opposite effect. When the pendulum ball swings one way it inevitably swings back the other. This summer is no less the summer of the girls only, the hot girl, cruel summer, pink, sparkle, sequin, clean girl aesthetic with old money tones summer has evolved into something new.
Forget the clean cuts of Barbie's pink suits, forget Taylor's sparkly Louboutins, this is edgier, messier, and a much, much yappier trend that has been utterly embraced by the Tiktok generation.
Its seems that having had our summer of barbie, we are all in need of a summer of brat. Its messy, its internetty, and Charli XCX may be a millennial but she is tapping into a desire amongst Gen Z to acknowledge the less savoury parts of getting through life. Its not all glam, glitter, and dating the boy on the football team; sometimes it is hooking up with an ex, getting too drunk, and crying on the bathroom floor when you get home from the club. The takeaway from this is that both are valid and inevitable parts of living; you don't have to be either or, you can be both. Brat is not bad, it is simply human. It is a relief to see the feminine experience so celebrated in two totally opposing and yet strangely harmonious ways.
Its also a cultural phenomenon that has significantly taken on a life of its own in the political sphere.
Political Brattiness
As often happens in the political arena, publicists and media teams will keep an eye on online trends that can be used to promote a candidate or a cause. The connection between the brat aesthetic and Kamala Harris's coconut tree quote was one of those happy moments of social media magic that mirrors the Barbenheimer effect. More and more people started to claim that Kamala Harris epitomises the essence of brat when President Biden was rerunning for office. This was only exacerbated when Charli XCX publicly endorsed Kamala Harris, tweeting "kamala IS brat" following Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not seek re-election and would instead support Harris.
Whoever is working to promote Kamala Harris in her campaign for office is taking full advantage of the memes flying about the internet. They are capitalising on her newfound image as a Gen Z icon: younger than her opposition, in touch with the population, and able to take a joke. Charli XCX's endorsement led Harris’s campaign to rebrand its social media presence to align with the brat theme, adopting the neon green and black colours from Charli’s album cover and using the slogan "kamala hq". The internet has exploded with video edits often featuring clips of Harris paired with Charli XCX’s music and the brat aesthetic. Harris's team has embraced this trend - yes to get onboard with younger voters - but also because it's fun.
Why is Kamala Harris brat? Its not because she is messy, or doesn't take her make up off before bed. It is something more integral than that. There is something un-selfconscious about the brat phenomenon that has moved a step further than hot-girl ever could. It is a general air of 'I don't care' that is founded in a deep sense of self-possession. Kamala Harris is brat because she standing up against the direction that American politics has been going in. She is looking at the man who has had a heavy hand in limiting the reproductive rights of over a third of American woman, who is a convicted criminal, who insults her behind her back but won't debate, and essentially saying to Trump: you are not good enough for this role, but I am. There is nothing more brat than that.
The brat edits working their way around social media go perfectly hand in hand with the other strategy that the democrats are deploying in this election: they are very gently ridiculing their opposition. This has sting because the Donald Trump campaign thrives in the outrage it causes; the hatred as well as the love that it inspires in citizens gives the campaign power. Reframing Donald Trump, not as an enemy that needs to be taken down, but as a weird, cowardly, old man contrasts Kamala Harris' image as a joyous fresh face in politics. Kamala may be brat but she is lovable and unserious brat. The memes about her on the internet are affectionate and they are laced with - and between - more serious media that emphasises one thing and one thing only: Kamala Harris is for the people, Donald Trump is for himself.
So what?
So what does this mean? Why do social media movements like this matter? Who even cares if its a brat or barbie summer?
Its a good point, that, in the end, these are fads and trends that peak online and then retract once more into the obscurity from whence they came. But this is a swing forward, not a swing back. Its an acceptance and celebration of the multitudes of existence rather than the boxing in of stereotypical roles and its taking place in a political space. Does this mean we finally, culturally have a rounder view of womanhood. One that has space for the girls and their glitter who love to be loved but also the messy room, unbrushed hair, white tank top girls who smoke Marlboro reds for breakfast. Potentially yes.
It is interesting that these movements emerge in moments of political despair or political possibility. These online conversations create communities that have a powerful voice. That is always worth listening to, whether or not it is barbie or brat.
Sources:
Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy on Barbenheimer release dates:
How Barbenheimer ruled the box office:
BBC article: How has Roe vs. Wade changed America
What is Brat:
Kamala and Brat:
Kamala Harris Coconut Tree:
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