Take It From a Woman: It’s the Year of the Girl. Don’t Be a Dick About It.

After spending last weekend with my longtime girlfriends at a bachelorette party, I’ve spent most of this week reflecting on womanhood. This rumination just so happened to occur in the backdrop of breaking political news: President Joe Biden announcing on Sunday he would not run for reelection, then endorsing his VP Kamala Harris, who could go on to become the first female president of the United States (not to mention the first Black female president, among other firsts). And that groundbreaking news just so happened to occur during the Summer of Girly Pop.

What does it all mean? First, it means that, after Biden’s announcement on Sunday, you may have finally been exposed to Brat Summer.

What is Brat Summer?

There is already an overabundance of Brat Summer explainers on the internet, but to add to this slime-green horn of plenty for those still confused, the viral meme is connected to British pop star Charli XCX’s latest album Brat that was released in June. The record is an assortment of catchy club classics with shrill synths, screeching vocals and cheeky lyrics (“It’s okay to just admit that you’re jealous of me,” she sings on “Von Dutch”). It has an early 2000s grungy club-rat energy.

After its release, Brat quickly transcended into an internet meme and full-fledged aesthetic for summer 2024. Charli XCX herself described Brat Summer as “trashy,” equating it to “a pack of cigs and a Bic lighter.” Think of a crowded, sweaty dance floor with zero inhibitions and an endless flow of vodka sodas. The memes associated with Brat Summer are also endless. The specific shade of off-putting chartreuse on the record’s cover is everywhere, as is the album’s slightly blurry Arial font.

What does this have to do with the coconut tree?

The final Brat Summer boss is, unequivocally, the trifecta of Brat Summer x Kamala Harris x Coconut Tree.

There are now many iterations of this Russian nesting doll meme since Harris announced her candidacy, but the original was created by Twitter user @ryanlong03. That initial video edit features some of Harris’s viral moments interspersed with Brat’s now-iconic imagery and music. While she’s had many videos of herself go viral (“Wheels on the Bus,” Venn diagrams), a kooky, out-of-context clip of the VP talking about falling out of a coconut tree is the genesis of the new political meme movement.

The coconut tree quote comes from a personal anecdote Harris shared during a speech at a White House event in May 2023.

“My mother used to — she would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”’ Harris recounted while laughing. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”

While rumors of Biden’s announcement to bow out of the presidential race circled the internet prior to Sunday, users across Twitter and TikTok began heavily sharing the coconut tree quote and Brat edits, calling themselves “coconut-pilled” and proclaiming that they were “unburden by what has been.”

Once Harris officially announced her candidacy, though, the memes increased exponentially, and started to include references to another pop princess.

Who is Chappell Roan?

Chappell Roan’s debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, which exploded in popularity this year after being released back in September 2023, is an ode to unrepressed femininity, female sexuality and queerness.

“We need a femininomenon,” Roan declares on the opening track. “Who can blame a girl? / Call me hot not pretty,” she demands on “Hot to Go!” (Gen Z’s version of the “Y.M.C.A.”). And on “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl,” she sums up the modern dating experience for most women:

“You know what they say / “Never waste a Friday night on a first date” / But there I was / in my heels with my hair straight / And so I take him to this bar / This man wouldn’t dance / He didn’t ask a single question / and he was wearing these fugly jeans / It doesn’t matter though / He doesn’t have what it takes to be / with a girl like me.”

In a TikTok video posted this week by Kamala HQ, the official TikTok account for Harris’s campaign, a simple slideshow juxtaposing photos of former President Donald Trump golfing with images of Harris uses the enthusiastic lyrics from Roan’s song “Femininomenon.”

“But what we really need is a femininomenon,” the song proclaims over the stills. “A what? A femininomenon!” At the time of writing, the TikTok has 44 million views and 5.9 million likes.

So we’re having a femininomenon?

Yes, much to the chagrin of a lot of men.

For the first time in years, the Democratic base is energized. Meanwhile, their opponents are slinging as many misogynistic and racist insults Harris’s way as they can muster. A resurfaced video of J.D. Vance — Trump’s recently announced running mate — shows him equating Harris with “childless cat ladies” who he says are “miserable” about their lives; Vance goes on to claim that she has no direct stake in America because she is not a mom. (Harris is, in fact, a stepmom to two children.) Other tweets I’ve had the misfortune of seeing this week are of the slut-shaming variety: extremely crude jokes about blowjobs, assertions that Harris slept her way to the top and completely irrelevant investigations into her dating history. One user tweeted, “If you’re a dude and you vote for Kamala Harris for president, your man card gets revoked immediately.”

As a woman, especially a woman living in a post-Roe society, while these comments are gross and disappointing, I’m not at all surprised by them. I’ve seen countless videos of alpha-male podcasters and right-wing pundits bashing women of a certain age for still being single and childless, whether it’s of their own volition or not. Male politicians have proposed doing away with no-fault divorce. (Vance himself once stated that women should remain in abusive relationships for the sake of their children.) Close friends tell me stories of men they’ve dated who have undermined their intelligence. One man cruelly commented to a friend that he’s sure she had “a few brain cells rolling around up there.” I’ve had men make vulgar jokes at me upon learning I’m a young woman who works for a men’s publication. These reactions to Harris’s candidacy are just the icing on the cake.

Meanwhile, the men who I have now decided to date and to spend time with are those who exhibit emotional intelligence, who respect my line of work, my bodily autonomy, my sexuality. Those who are inquisitive on dates and are complimentary. Who aren’t trying to assert their dominance or chip away at my self-confidence. Who are secure in their masculinity. I’ve decided to surround myself men who aren’t, frankly, dicks — and I’ve noticed the women around me are deciding to do the same.

And your first rule for not being a dick? Learn who Chappell Roan is.