F News Amplified: ‘Brat’ For President

 

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A drunk cigarette, little bags of blue powder, a purse that’s only big enough for your phone, and a clunky digital camera. Making a guy say his big three and then bullying him no matter what the answers are, using Grindr, not to hook up, but just to learn Ableton, or going to see “Maxxxine” without watching “Pearl” or “X.” Or, better yet, not going to see “Maxxxine” at all, and merely absorbing the movie through 30 second fancams of Mia Goth. Or even better yet, not knowing that Maxxxine is a movie and just thinking, “that’s just Mia Goth” like in real life. That’s just what she gets up to.

All of these things were typical hallmarks of “Brat” summer, and if you’ve been living under a rock for the past four months then I’ll just say that you super missed out. Especially if you’re a girl, and especially if you’re a girl’s girl, and especially especially if you’re a girl’s girl that likes girls, “Brat” summer was kinda the moment for a lot of reasons. A celebration of femininity, and even more so, female hedonism; it was empowerment, but not in a “what we could be” way, and more in a “what we are” way. “Brat” summer was for the girls that only have like two bras, or no bras, or who choose not to wear bras deliberately because it irritates their nipple piercings. And “Brat” summer was for the girls who know that nipple piercings taste like keys!

But “Brat” summer was also a marketing event. Maybe the most successful one I’ve seen in my lifetime since “Gangnam Style” sold my little kid brain on South Korea as a concept. While “Brat” summer was by and for the girls, it was also grown in a laboratory by an army of executives to sell you on the idea of cis Hyperpop icon, Charli XCX, and of course the summer’s titular lime green album of certified club classics, “Brat.”  You’ve probably heard of her at this point, especially if you’ve spoken to a woman who isn’t your mother in the last year,  but Charli’s been in the game for a while. She started off by dropping singles on MySpace and playing shows in illegal warehouse raves in East London. But even in her early career, she had a few mainstream hits with “You’re The One” and “I Love It,” grazing the top 10s on multiple international billboards by 2013. But her music took a pretty drastic change with the “Vroom Vroom” EP in 2016, and she started working with Sophie, a legendary trans producer and key founder, if not THE founder, of the Hyperpop genre and subsequent scene.

Fast forward to 2023 with the release of the “Barbie” movie, and her domination of the film’s soundtrack with the song “Speed Drive.” Suddenly, Charli’s audience shifts dramatically from gay men and carb starved dolls taking poppers in the filthiest bathrooms of Berlin to bi girls in their early 20s with more popcorn in their lungs than a movie theater. With the unification of these audiences, not only do we get the beautiful cultural exchange of gay men in baggy pants and lesbians in rehab, we also see Charli’s success reach a new paramount in the year of our whore, 2024, with the July release of “Brat,” and it’s near immediate landing on Billboard’s top 200 at number 3, with 45,000 album sales, and 46.72 million on-demand streams in the album’s first week on the shelves alone.

Now, I feel like it’s my responsibility to say that I think this is a really capitalistic way to view an artist’s success, And while it’s certainly this editor’s opinion that we find other ways to discuss and judge value in creative and artistic fields, I also must insist that at the end of the day, I just love to see a girl winning.

Which is what brings us to the core subject at hand in today’s episode. It’s…not Charli XCX, and it’s not really “Brat” summer either. It’s…the 2024 presidential election. Sorry girlees, I did use a bunch of words you like, like “Brat”, cigarette, poppers, nipple, and gay men, to get you to listen to me talk about politics. And if you want to turn the episode off now, I totally understand, but trust it’s about to get juicy, and I will keep casually name-dropping substances, to keep you on the line.

So, with that being said, I’d like to welcome you all to the very first episode of F News Amplified! The official podcast of the official newspaper of the official School of the Art Institute of Chicago—officially!

[The jazzy music changes to a snare drum beat]

This is Amp, episode one: A “Brat” For President.

And this week, the F, stands for: F***! I’m so tired of “Brat” summer but because I love trans women, I have to keep listening, because the show’s produced by one.

[the Theme song plays]

Alright so if you haven’t guessed it yet based on the title and introduction, we are going to be talking about the famous, or infamous, tweet where Charli XCX said “Kamala IS brat” and the media — en masse — started wagging their tails so hard the Earth’s crust experienced measurable waves and extremities along tectonic lines all across the country. Okay, that didn’t really happen, but only because most journalists don’t have tails.

But yes, for those of you who deleted Twitter a long time ago and had to find this out from legitimate news sources, or more likely screenshots posted on Instagram, basically once Joe Biden stepped down from the presidential election on July 21st of this year, he endorsed his VP, Kamala Harris, to take his place. Excited for the prospect of a woman president, and a president who isn’t (and let me be perfectly clear this does not represent the opinion of F News or SAIC and merely reflects the opinion of this editor) a dead guy, the endorsements just kept piling up.

On day one of Harris’s campaign, before it was even technically Harris’s campaign, 49.6 million dollars were raised by what appeared to be genuine average joes and joans across the country. And that’s a very capitalistic way to view success, again, but this episode is about pop icons and presidential candidates, so it’s kind of hard to divorce those concepts.

And speaking of capitalism and pop icons, perhaps the most significant of these endorsements, other than the financial ones of course, would be that of Charli XCX; when in response to an overwhelming amount of memes and fancams of the vice president to her music, she said what was apparently already on the minds of her fans when she tweeted that Harris is, in fact, “Brat.”

Almost immediately, Kamala HQ, the official Twitter account for Kamala’s campaign, changed their profile pic and banner image to reflect the imagery of Charli’s album: A bright lime green background with black blurry text reading “kamala hq” instead of “Brat”.

Weirdly enough, you can’t find Kamala is ”Brat” merch on the official Kamala Harris website, even though they still have Dark Brandon shit for some reason, but that’s not stopping supporters from making their own shirts and posters and stickers and flags and yard signs, which you can find all over Etsy and Red Bubble.

Now this isn’t the first time memes have been used this way in a presidential election. In recent election cycles, memes have been implored a ton both in and out of favor of candidates. I already mentioned Dark Brandon, which was the meme where Joe Biden said things in a slightly “evil” sounding voice and had glowing red eyes…yeah, it wasn’t a hit. But there have been  plenty of Trump memes, like John Oliver’s “Drumpf” which had mixed success against Trump, or the tiny hands thing, or Covefe, which was kinda funny at first but was immediately driven into the ground by Hillary when she, according to TIME in 2017 went “Tweet-to-tweet” with Trump and said Covefe a bunch of times and it was soooo funny and cool and very effective and girl power.

I don’t know guys, If you’re listening to this episode you were probably too busy listening to Number 1 Angel, or too young to have been allowed to listen to Number 1 Angel, but let it be known, Covefe was REALLY popular with my parent’s generation of liberal REM fans.

Most of the memes that politicians find out about and try to use to their advantage usually distance themselves quite a bit from young voters, and since this is the first election in U.S. history where MOST of gen Z will actually be able to vote, the young vote is a HUGE part of winning this election. And weirdly enough, most young people seem to be embracing that Kamala is “Brat,” to some extent, and seem to not be as sick of the meme as they have been with past attempts at politicians trying to seem hip or I guess in this case, “Brat.”

And speaking of young voters, I’m gonna go ahead and corner and interview my coworkers at F to know what these young voters have to say about Kamala Harris and the whole “Brat” thing.

Kit Montgomery: “I don’t appreciate how it’s being used as an entertainment factor. I don’t like that. Advertisements in general, but specifically, like, political campaigning has been turned into that, and I don’t like the way that it’s been co-opted into a movement that’s like entirely centered around teenage girls, especially because of how unhealthy that movement is.”

Sivan Gilbert: “So I think ‘Brat’ marketing is great and I think it works very well. Um, sorry I was about to curse”

Gren Bee: “All good. You can do that”

Sivan Gilbert “I think, I think ‘Brat’ marketing works really fucking well, because the internet. Because of that, it’s gonna work for wider audiences for wider reasons. Um, but I do think it is weird to tie yourself to a specific political candidate. And I guess I don’t know a lot about how tied Charli XCX/the ‘Brat’ brand marketing is to Kamala, but uh yeah, strange.”

Alex Lee: “For the record I don’t know if this is going to be usable or not but as, um, a person of gen Z who is young, and technically terminally online, but only in the spaces such as Tumblr, uh I have no idea what the fuck is going on, or what anyone is talking about. But this seems, maybe not great for our presidential candidate that could be like the first female president ever. I really appreciate that this is getting a lot of people into politics and it’s probably going to be the reason some people go out and vote. But like, could we maybe be adults about, literally, this one thing please? Thank you.”

Gren Bee: “Do you think that Kamala Harris is ‘Brat’?”

d.l adams “Oh my God, yes. No? I don’t know! What even is ‘Brat’?”

Gren Bee: “Do you think that Kamala Harris executed “Brat” by continuing to fund, uh, the uh, Palestinian genocide and continue to support Israel militarily?”

d.l adams: “Oh, that’s not ‘Brat'”

Alright now that we’ve established the basics, I just want to go ahead and say that It is not my aim to make this show into some kind of Twitter recap podcast, because frankly I hate those. I really hate them. It’s also not my aim to just cover what other news outlets and podcasts have been doing for weeks after Charli’s endorsement. Because I know that this story isn’t new news. Instead, I want to go ahead and reflect on the coverage you have already seen, and drop an entirely new take that I’m not seeing anyone else cover. You see, all that I’ve found from other outlets like The Atlantic, and the Guardian, and The New Republic and other well-known sites is their coverage of whether or not the “Brat” memes are working in favor of the presidential candidate or not, and for just how long the success will last.

And of course, they’re reflecting on whether or not Harris is, indeed, “Brat.”

According to Edith Olmstead of The New Republic Kamala is plenty brat, writing, “Is she not, for all intents and purposes, in addition to being a moderate Democratic politician and former prosecutor, sort of an internet it girl?

And David Hogg, a prominent gun control activist in Washington, tweeted “The amount [Charli’s] single tweet may have just done for the youth vote is not insignificant.” Later he added, “Nancy Pelosi has been informed of the meaning of Brat.”

So yeah, there’s lots of “Brat” speculation and everyone thinks Charli and Harris are besties, and Charli has officially ordained Harris as “Brat” president, and we don’t have to worry about anything anymore. Nobody said it like that, obviously, but that can be how this kind of vague coverage feels, at least that’s how it felt to me.

I think my favorite thing anybody had to say on the whole Harris/”Brat” debacle is this quote by Annie Wu Henry, a digital strategist for Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Senator Jon Fetterman, who said this to The New Republic:

“People don’t want to feel bad about politics. They want to have fun, they want to enjoy, they want to be excited about a candidate.”

[music vibe change]

People don’t want to feel bad about politics…irls, I hate to be the one to say it, but we should absolutely be feeling bad about politics. Maybe not all the time, of course, obviously there’s a time and place for feeling bad about politics. You gotta pace yourself, but the state of the world is super busted right now, abortion rights constantly up for debate, anti-trans legislation nationwide is being passed, and Gaza under constant genocidal siege from Israel — we absolutely shouldn’t be feeling good about politics. The stakes are truly life or death, and this election is a huge part of it. And let me be perfectly clear, I am absolutely not reporting that the lynchpin between life or death is a win or a loss for Kamala Harris, because that’s irresponsible, and I personally believe that covering the election under that perspective is in really poor taste, albeit a popular taste.

Unlike Charli, my voice, in this context, is not totally independent to directly endorse any politician over another. Now, I obviously have my opinions in my own life, and you can probably figure them out based on my general vibes or if you’re an exclusive member of my close friends Instagram story, but this isn’t a personal forum to just say anything I want. While my primary goal is to entertain you, I want the information presented on this show to carry the same journalistic integrity and weight you should expect any news or media outlet to provide you. So while I’m not gonna tell you who to vote for, or even whether or not you should or shouldn’t vote at all, I am going to look at the facts, the coverage we already have, and talk about the responsibility of public figures and the public itself in situations like Charli’s endorsement of Kamala Harris.

And also, just to clear the air, no, I don’t personally think that Harris is “Brat,” alright? Call me old fashioned, but I haven’t seen her throw up in public, roll a crushed valium, or snort anything out of a necklace okay? I’m not saying she doesn’t do any of those things, and I’m also not saying you need to be bumpin’ that literally to be “Brat,” but I am just saying I haven’t seen her do any of it, and, y’know, if you think she’s “Brat,” then she’s “Brat,” but that’s not the opinion of this editor.

But whether or not she’s “Brat,” and whether or not that’s gonna help her in the election, is truly beside the point. Now that “Brat” summer is officially over, with Charli’s “Goodbye forever “Brat” summer” post on Instagram, we can take a moment to reflect critically — was it a good idea to rally around the idea that Harris is “Brat?“

The Harris campaign will of course say yes, but lots of others are saying “probably not” in response to some of Harris’s more recent activities on the campaign trail. For example, in light of protests and completely legal flag burnings in Washington D.C. protesting the state’s financial support of Israel’s invasion on Palestine, She came out with a statement condemning the protestors and directly equating civil unrest in support of Palestine as an implicit endorsement of terrorism AND antisemitism. Here’s an excerpt from her official statement:

“I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews. Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric is abhorrent and we must not tolerate it in our nation. […] I support the right to peacefully protest, but let’s be clear: Antisemitism, hate and violence of any kind have no place in our nation.”

This obviously alienated a lot of younger and more leftist voters, many of whom were excited at the prospect of Harris’s nomination specifically because Biden was so steadfast in his financial and militaristic support of Israel during the ongoing conflict. @offbeatorbit on Twitter reposted Harris’s statement and summed up what a lot of left leaning bystanders have been thinking:

“lol she literally could have said nothing and kept campaigning instead of releasing this handwringing statement.”

And as far as her campaign goes, I think it probably would’ve been a great idea to say nothing if you’re secretly planning on continuing to fund genocide, but as a voter myself, I’m actually really glad this statement exists. More on that in a second.

Another unpopular statement came from Harris at the Democratic National Convention, where she said, and I quote:

“As Commander-in-Chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.”

This definitely reads as…y’know, scary and war mongering to most people who heard it. Lethal should not be the goal of any military, unless the goal of the military is to kill as many people as possible which is weird if we’re still referring to the defense budget as a defense budget.

And when asked by the Washington Post if she planned to continue financially backing Israel and what limits she might potentially place on that funding, Harris’s team had this to say on her policy regarding endorsement of Israel:

“Harris has not directly answered the question, but has suggested that U.S. military aid to Israel would continue if she wins the White House. While she has highlighted the suffering of Palestinians, Harris has not said whether there would be conditions on weapons transfers to Israel.”

“Let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself,” she said when accepting the Democratic nomination.

Like I said, we shouldn’t feel good about politics. It’s scary, and weird, and we rarely ever get this level of transparency from a candidate. Anyone who’s considering voting for Harris, whether they ultimately decide to or not, should absolutely be keeping in mind that Harris has made it clear that she fully plans to continue her support of Israel and their ongoing genocide in Gaza.

And obviously, Trump is going to do the same thing, don’t get me wrong. In fact, according to a writeup by NPR from September 20, Trump has self-appointed himself the “protector” of Israel, and even went as far as saying this:

“Anybody who’s Jewish and loves being Jewish and loves Israel is a fool if they vote for a Democrat,” Trump said, telling Harris supporters, “You should have your head examined.”

Trump has also explicitly said that Israel must “finish the problem” in its war against Palestine, and that he will continue to support and uphold Israel in their genocide, and if he loses the election, then blame should be directed toward Jewish people who didn’t vote for him.

Cool! Uh, also let’s be clear, being Jewish and supporting Israel do not go hand in hand, and they are not the same thing. That’s probably obvious to you, because you’re smart, and cool, and a hot person, and hot people aren’t anti-semetic, but it’s worth saying just in case. Also, if you thought that was a weird thing for Trump to say, check out the rest of NPR’s piece. Trump loves to be backhandedly anti-semetic to Jewish people he’s trying to get to vote for him. I swear it’s like a second passtime for him, other than golf and narrowly avoiding assassination attempts.

But yeah, any vote is, unfortunately, also a vote for someone who’s most likely going to continue to fund genocide, and such is the American way, unfortunately. The country’s history is built on genocide, and this podcast is absolutely recorded on stolen land, and wherever you’re listening to it is also most likely on stolen land. Shout out to anyone listening on a reservation though! I think your reservation should be located where it originally was and also country-sized, but these are the unfortunate circumstances that we live in, and it is my personal opinion that we should not be continuing these kinds of damages in 2024, and especially not in places we don’t live and aren’t even at war with.

But I’m certainly not saying don’t vote, I cannot stress this enough, you should do exactly what you want to do and feel is right, and there are other things up for grabs in this election, like access to hormones for trans people, federalization of abortion rights, and the restoration of asylum seeking Mexican families still separated and unlawfully imprisoned in US border camps. These things are really important to consider, so please consider all that stuff. I just want to clarify that the purpose of this episode is to reflect on what’s already been done, and how what’s been done has been covered, not to steer you in one direction or another.

Charli is a public figure, she’s still an individual, and she can endorse whoever she wants to. That’s her right, just as it is anyone’s right to burn an American flag out of protest. But to attach her own marketing and branding to a politician, and to attach the “Brat” movement itself to Harris, also ties the movement to what Harris stands for. And if Harris endorses genocide, well…then so does “Brat?” And that can’t be right!

And that’s definitely not, probably, what Charli XCX meant when they said Harris is “Brat.” I don’t know what Charli’s stance on Israel/Palestine is, but I think it’s safe to say the 365-party-girl — as far as we know — is not a genocidal maniac. Just speculating here. That being said, I think that’s exactly the problem. She didn’t think about all the angles, and she probably should have, or her team should have, or at the very least we should have. We share a responsibility to make sure that we don’t implicitly endorse anything we don’t believe in, especially if it’s the worst things that humans can possibly do to each other.

We can’t control what our politicians say, or what our favorite celebrities say, and these days it’s even harder to control what media you consume, with contemporary social media being designed specifically to keep you engaged for as long as possible with no way to know for sure what’s on the other side of the scroll. And that can be a very dangerous thing. But all I’ll ask of my audience is to be careful what you share online. Because you have an audience too, and unless you’re Charli XCX, you probably don’t have a massive online following with a fleet of executives calculating all your social media decisions, but you do still have people that listen to you and respect you and want to know what you have to say and how you feel about things. And that’s awesome, but before you share anymore Kamala is “Brat” memes, or anything like that, just ask yourself if they’re fair or accurate. Because let me just say, the death of over 40,000 Palestinians is really really really tragic, and being a war criminal is definitely not “Brat.” Now Kamala isn’t a war criminal yet, okay? She’s the vice presidentt, but whether or not she decides to be one if she is elected is up to her, and we still have an opportunity to hold her accountable and make sure she knows that genocide can not be on the ballot this Novemember.

Well, this has been really fun. For me at least! And also intense, and sad, and weird, and probably a lot. Hopeful it didn’t ruin your commute. Uh, certainly it didn’t ruin mine but I also listen to really heavy stuff, so. Uh, future episodes are going to be a lot more chill, don’t worry. But! Regardelss, I do hope you liked this show, we all worked really hard on it, I worked really hard on it, there is going to be more of it, if you like it, keep listening. And if you’re in a band in Chicago or you like bands in Chicago, keep lsitening, because we’re about play music from a band in Chicago! We do that at the end of all these episodes, so yeah. Email me! My email’s in the description of this video, as are credits as are sources. So if there’s anything that I said that you’re like, “hm, that sounds too crazy to be true,” I have links! I promise, we’re being really smart and careful about this, but hey, if we miss anything, let us know, okay that’s important, we want to deliver hard-hitting good stuff to you, guys, and gals, and nonbianary…friends. I didn’t want to make- finish the rhyme. Anyway thank you so much for listening, this has been F News Amplified, my name is Gren Bee, and now, Something to Look Forward To.

[epic music]

This podcast is a production of F News, the official Newspaper of SAIC, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is paid for by the university. This show, and this episode specifically is written and recorded by Gren Bee, with production from Sid Gard, and oversight from Sophie Goalson. Music is provided by Drake and the Beatles and is completely royalty free, and for public use. Thank you so much for listening, this is F News Amplified.

“You’re not gonna get radio on TV like this anywhere else, we’re always game changing, we’re alway hitting hard, we’re always exposing how the game works.”

“You can’t be Dick Chaney! Actually! Sorry, it’s not allowed!”

“Animals don’t commit genocide actually”

“ [indistinct] are [indistinct] politics and ideology dipshit. It came free with your experiencing human condition”

This episode features the song, Freak Freak! by Marcilla Dmanisi, which you can stream here and find the video for here.