Wait! Wait a minute. I thought I was living through the summer of brats: a carnival of bacchanalian excess. The mood was set by British pop singer Charli XCX, codified through her lime-green album. Golf club and popularized on social media. Right now, I’m supposed to be living like a selfish teenager, breaking away from the patriarchy and, “most importantly,” having fun.
But just as I was going into full brat mode, along comes another coda, more prescriptive, very restrained, rather bland. This one comes courtesy of Jools Lebron, a transgender woman and TikTok influencer who has exploded on social media thanks to her videos calling for a new kind of feminine aesthetic in which the goal is to look “modest.”
The original video has already been viewed around 40 million times on TikTok and inspired tens of millions of hashtags in its wake. “I don’t look like a clown when I go to work,” says Lebron, who until very recently worked at a grocery store in Illinois but has since made enough money from his newfound fame to complete his transition surgery. “I’m very conscious when I’m at work. See how I look very presentable — the way I came to the interview is the way I go to work. A lot of you girls go to the interview looking like Marge Simpson and go to work looking like Patty and Selma. Not demure… You see my shirt — just a little bit of chee-chee out, not my choo-choo.” [lexicographers are still debating the meaning of ‘chu-chu’]. Keep in mind why you were hired.”
The videos themselves are a strange mix. On the one hand, they satirize the current convention of “quiet fashion,” in which bland women emulate the late Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in taupe cashmere capes and $1,000 flip-flops. They also play into that other baffling trope of TikTok femininity, the #tradwife — an extremely demure expression of womanhood, especially popular among Mormon influencers, who have adopted the ancient maxim that women should be pregnant, barefoot, and poised in front of the stove.
On the other hand, the “modest” mode is one that Lebron seems to champion, as his practice. In his recent interview with legendary American drag queen RuPaul, Lebron said, “I feel like modesty is like a mindset. I used to be crazy and out of control, and then I found some modesty, and along with that came success.”
Naturally, you’re probably wondering: what the heck is going on here? You surely have much better things to do than sift through ridiculous TikTok memes for the summer.
For Team Kamala at the Democratic National Convention, however, this hashtag medley has been a gift in trying to appeal to young voters. In a US presidential election that will be heavily influenced by the few million voters who have come of age since 2020, “modesty” could well be a factor at the ballot box.
There are an estimated 150 million TikTok users in the United States, and according to a Pew Research Center study, the share of voters aged 18 to 29 who get their information through TikTok has grown to 52%. Of those, the majority are Democratic voters – a significant enough number that US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo recently told Bloomberg that shutting down the Chinese-owned platform, as proposed, would lead to the Democratic Party “literally losing every voter under 35.”
Team Harris has seen a massive surge in popularity since tapping into the @kamalahq meme machine on TikTok. Along with Charli XCX’s endorsement of “Kamala is a brat,” Harris’ social media team has spared no opportunity to prove how relevant the presidential candidate is. There’s been no shortage of moments where she’s been found “very demure, very conscious” in Chicago, rocking her brown Chloé suit this week. Indeed, her understatedness compared to the grotesque outfits of Messrs. Trump and Vance is a telling point of difference: the author of Peasant Elegy It seems much more likely that he’ll apply a “green cut,” as Lebron calls it, than Harris would do before taking the stage.
And Harris is “very aware” of the surge in youth interest. Last weekend, it was reported that her campaign will spend $370 million on ad buys between September and the election. In The Hollywood Reporter, the campaign announced that $200 million will go to digital platforms, although that figure does not include social media ad buys.
So far, Harris has run the gamut of bratty. She embodies joy. Unlike Hillary Clinton, who never quite mastered humor, Kamala the giggly is all about fun. For the maudlin Gen Z voter, this stuff is deeply appealing; perhaps meme empathy is a more valuable commodity than political awareness these days. Plus, it helps, when you’re trying to get serious about protecting reproductive freedoms or moderating gun violence, to lighten proceedings with the occasional coconut joke. Memes are the great social emollient of the 2020s: they soothe divisions and build the team. No wonder we’re all riding those great bratty currents, desperate to stay relevant and try to stay afloat.
These are strange times for female representation. And for men too, frankly: this summer, they’ve been lumped into weird categories like #sportsdad and #rodentmen. I’m an #almondmom (according to my daughter: very toxic, not very aware) who can’t even do #mathforgirls and prays she’s not a #pickme type. Neither of these things are especially edifying. Or intellectually nourishing. But they do speak some truth.
“Demarity,” as Lebron describes it, is actually a pretty decent rule for any human being. Essentially, it warns us to be respectful and think of other people’s feelings, and keep our choo-choos a secret. It’s very demure, very sweet, and very thoughtful. Ultimately, I think that’s #ratherchic.
Email Jo at jo.ellison@ft.com
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