I’m Still Processing CNN & Jake Tapper Explaining ‘Brat Summer’
Watching boomers and Gen Xers try to explain Gen Z nonsense to each other never fails to alter my brain chemistry.
Screenshot/Art by Kylie Cheung Politics
Lately, I am reminded every day that we are living through history—or at least we are living in the context of all in which we exist and all that came before us. On Monday, something even more historic than President Biden dropping out of the presidential race and passing the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris happened: CNN’s Jake Tapper and a panel of other…let’s say, 50+ year-old people (sorry, Jake and co!) had to explain “brat summer” to their equally, erm, 50+ year-old audience.
No, the segment did not just fall out of a coconut tree. Here is the context: Shortly after Biden stepped down and endorsed Harris on Sunday, Charli XCX—the British singer, noted drug enthusiast, and queer icon and “cuntress”—tweeted, “kamala IS brat.” brat, of course, is Charli’s latest studio album, which came out in June and sparked an immediate, chartreuse-colored vibe shift, particularly among Gen Z, queer, and insufferably online communities. A “brat” is, essentially, a vibrant, fun, cunty goddess who is always up for a good time. Harris’ campaign, in a smart play for the youth vote that had largely turned away from 81-year-old Joe Biden, immediately ran with this, branding the campaign’s social media accounts with “brat” symbols and imagery. The official campaign Twitter account’s banner currently reads “kamala hq” in the brat font and is overlaid on a chartreuse background.
The Biden campaign’s official account, Biden-Harris HQ, has officially rebranded to Kamala HQ with a ‘brat’ theme. pic.twitter.com/xy4FhdE5h7
— Pop Base (@PopBase) July 22, 2024