A New Wave of Authenticity: Indulging in Pop Culture Has Never Felt So Cathartic

By Isabel Gallacher

Summer 2024 will forever be remembered as ‘brat summer’: a cultural phenomenon sparked by the release of Charli XCX’s album brat. These songs unabashedly address partying, self-doubt, and the inevitability of making mistakes. In turn, they have prompted candid conversations about the modern female experience. Charli’s declaration that “it’s so confusing sometimes to be a girl” and “I don’t wanna feel feelings” oozes with relatability and encapsulates the complexities and intense rollercoaster of emotions that accompany being a young woman. It could be said that brat became the new Barbie in terms of being the summer’s zeitgeist, with the question of womanhood being at the core of both.  

While the release of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie in 2023 sparked a new-found appreciation of the power of pink and inspired many to embrace the ‘hyper-femininity’ of ‘Barbiecore’, Charli’s album rejects the ‘classic’ notions of femininity in the most personal, messy, and vulnerable way. Unlike the polished Hollywood glamour of ‘Barbiecore’, ‘bratcore’ consists of garish lime green, cigarettes, Bic lighters and strappy tops that show off lower back tattoos. Despite their aesthetically diverging portraits of women, both Barbie and brat seek to challenge the ‘ideals’ of womanhood by exposing insecurities and fears. For instance, they feature the brutality of societal standards and the feeling of not being ‘good’ enough (brat: “I don’t feel like nothing special”, Barbie: “I’m not pretty anymore”). They ask existential questions regarding motherhood and a woman’s purpose (brat: “If I don't run out of time// Would it give my life a new purpose? // I think about it all the time”, Barbie: girls “could only ever play at being mothers, which can be fun… for a while.”). It is in this unembellished commentary of the female experience that viewers and listeners are able to hear their own thoughts reflected in pop culture.  

The vulnerability and candour within these pop culture phenomena mean that they serve as a kind of emotional outlet for the frustration of being a woman in a patriarchal society. By sharing these feelings and experiences, opportunities are created for relatability, validation, and in turn, unity and empowerment.  

Our ability to turn to pop albums and movies in the hope of feeling understood demonstrates that, despite the glorification of celebrity and the pedestal on which we place those who reach fame, the creators of this content are just like us: people who share the same thoughts, feelings and experiences.