Move Over Brat Summer, It’s Time for Demure Autumn

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | September 5, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | September 5, 2024 |

On Tuesday, September 3rd, 2024, Charli XCX declared the official end of the cultural phenomenon she created: Brat Summer.

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A post shared by Charli (@charli_xcx)

The term “Brat” comes from Charli’s recent studio album of the same name, which was released to the world on June 7th of this summer, thus beginning just under three months of clubby, grungy, girly revelry. The Brat ethos is one of laissez-faire amusement mixed with tongue-in-cheek sincerity. With songs like “360,” Charli puffs herself up with her popstar persona: “That city sewer slut’s the vibe / Internationally recognized / I set the tone, it’s my design / And it’s stuck in your mind / Legacy is undebated / You gon’ jump if A.G. made it / If you love it, if you hate it / I don’t fucking care what you think.” Then there are songs like “Everything Is Romantic” that paint a more emotional picture: “Bad tattoos on leather tanned skin / Jesus Christ on a plastic sign / Fall in love again and again / Winding roads, doing manual drive / Early nights in white sheets with lace curtains / Capri in the distance / In a place that can make you change / Fall in love again and again.”

But don’t call it sentimental; at the end of the day—or should I say, at the end of the night, when you’re sticky with sweat from the dance floor and a little drunker than you wanted to be and standing in line for a slice of pizza—Brat is nothing if not an eye roll. And like any good night out, or like the season it was born into, it can’t last forever.

Somewhere within the whirlwind that was Brat Summer, TikToker Jools Lebron posted a video. “You see how I do my makeup for work?” She teased. “Very demure, very mindful. I don’t come to work with a green cut-crease. I don’t look like a clown when I go to work, I don’t do too much, I’m very mindful while I’m at work.” Thus launched the memeification of the word “demure.”

@joolieannie #fyp #demure ♬ original sound - Jools Lebron

“Demure” is defined as “reserved, modest, and coy.” You’ve probably read it in a Jane Austen novel or overheard your mother-in-law using it to describe you as something you’re not. It’s not a new word, but Lebron reintroduced it into the cultural lexicon, and it went so viral that she now says she can afford to pay for her gender transition.

All of a sudden, one day in August, the internet was split: you were either Brat, or you were Demure. The discourse revolved around what it meant to be one, or both, or neither. It was like a college Women and Gender Studies class, but all of your best friends were invited and there was no homework and your favorite pop stars were the professors. But If Charli was the one to handle the Brat side of the curriculum, then who was covering Demure?

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A post shared by Eli Rallo (@eli.rallo)

While all of this was going down, Sabrina Carpenter released her latest album, Short n’ Sweet, on August 23rd. If Brat is an eye roll at the end of a long night of clubbing, Short n’ Sweet is the wink you give your lover as you crawl into bed for Netflix and chill. Carpenter is the picture of demurity—five feet tall and bouncing blonde curls, eyeballs that look like they were surgically removed from a baby doll. While Charli is starting her “Sweat” tour with Troye Sivan, Carpenter is opening for Taylor Swift on the Eras tour. They’re both pop girlies at the height of their power, but their sensibilities are night and day. One is Brat, one is Demure, and like the moon and the sun, you can’t have one without the other.

Such is the clever logic behind Carpenter’s lyricism on Short n’ Sweet. While Charli pairs even her most sincere lyrics with thumping bass and synthesizers, Carpenter hides rollicking horniness behind her peppy, silly pop melodies. Her first single off the album, “Espresso” was laden with innuendo and catchy rhymes, but it’s songs like “Taste” and “Juno” that reveal her artistry. “Taste,” in which Carpenter addresses an ex’s new girlfriend, tells a familiar tale of romantic revenge: “I heard you’re back together and if that’s true / You’ll just have to taste me when he’s kissing you / If you want forever, and I bet you do / Just know you’ll taste me too.” “Juno” is a dancey bop about being so horny for someone you want them to get you pregnant: “I know you want my touch for life / If you love me right, then who knows? / I might let you make me Juno / You know I just might / Let you lock me down tonight / One of me is cute, but two though? / Give it to me, baby / You make me wanna make you fall in love.”

Remember when I told you the dictionary definition of “demure”? “Reserved, modest, coy.” It’s the word “coy” that I think is most important to the 2024 version. “Coy” is defined as “a pretense of shyness or modesty that is intended to be alluring.” Carpenter’s one and only intention is to be alluring, and seduction is the goal of allure. Therein lies the secret of her demureness: she’s demure on the outside, but her heart is all Brat. Demure in the streets, Brat in the sheets, if you will. She’s a messy club kid wrapped in a sugary coating, while Charli’s dark chocolate shell covers a gooey, caramel filling.

Brat summer may be over, but Short n’ Sweet came just in time for the transition into fall, when we must trade in our mini skirts and crop tops for jeans and sweaters, quite literally demuring ourselves to the elements. But we’re all still naked underneath.