KAMALA HARRIS’ LOLITICS OF POP POLITICS
One thing is for sure – it is hilarious to be on social media for the last few days. Infinite scroll is even more infinite and funnier than ever. Memes are more hysterical than ever. Since Joe Biden announced he is no longer running for a second term in office, Vice President Kamala Harris has been in the centre of political news. The minute news was announced, TikTok, Instagram and X exploded which means only one - memes started arriving.
Famous figures like Beyonce, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande showed their endorsement of Harris. Grande shared Biden’s post about withdrawal and wrote: “Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.” Perry used this news to promote her latest single woman’s world and posted a video of her singing lyrics It’s a woman’s world / and you’re lucky to be living in it while drinking a cocktail. Finneas shared photography of him, Billie, their parents and Biden from the Oval Office showing an „enormous amount of respect„ for his decision to step out. Beyoncé permitted Harris to use the song „Freedom“ for a campaign and she walked out to it at the first campaign headquarters visit.
There is nothing new about American celebrities publicly supporting certain political candidates. What is new is the speed at which Kamala Harris took over the left-oriented part of social media and how. Madness started when she made TikTok and X account naming it Kamala HQ. As the header of X, she put a photo in the style of the latest Charli XCX’s record “brat” – lime green coloured background with blurry text. Shortly after, the musician posted “Kamala IS brat” on her X account acknowledging Harris’ use of her template and showing her support. After that, Harris’ team made a TikTok video with a screenshot of “Kamala IS brat” and put a remix of Charli XCX’s song in the background. It looks like Harris is trying to have her brat summer. The most watched video with over 31,8 million views in almost two days is the one where hers and Trump’s photos are put against lyrics Make a bitch go on and on (make a bitch) / It's a femininomenon (it's a fem) from the song Femininomenon by Chapel Roan. In that video, she created a contrast campaign on two levels: age, gender but if deeply analyzed, race.
It is worth mentioning her official accounts are not named Harris but Kamala which makes her more approachable, like she is a friend and not a politician. Harris would look and sound too formal and possibly boring naming her social media Harris HQ. With the help of the Internet, she portrays herself as down to Earth, one of us. This is called humanization and politicians’ ultimate goal is for people to see them as ordinary. Harris does it in a manner to escape the traditional what equals boring but make it genuine. Harris’ target is Gen Z which is clear from visuals, use of Internet discourse and music.
The key word when talking about Harris’ case is authenticity. When a politician tries to be authentic it should be crystal clear that it is not an authentic authenticity but rather performed. Professor Simon M. Luebke was writing about preformed political authenticity describing it as “not as a sincere presentation of inner self to the outside world, but as a specific type or mode of performance that aims to construct an authentic image for the audience.” It is impossible to not address the elephant in the room: how someone can create a whole image of authenticity when it should come from within? The point is that performed political authenticity is created to be seen and absorbed as organic. More importantly, someone can try to be authentic but it is a social construct meaning it is negotiated in multiple communication processes. Harris is trying to be funny and according to some reactions on the Internet, she is. Her team wisely used her quirkiness which sets her apart from her rival Donald Trump. Kamala HQ TikTok and Twitter accounts were created for the sake of her taking control of the narrative. The team noticed potential of her pop culture moments in the last five years and used them as her forte.
@flextillerson kamala harris edit to 360 by charli xcx. brat presidency #kamalaharris #kamala #biden #harris2024 #charli #charlixcx #brat #360 ♬ original sound - aly
Memes became unstoppable at this point. Her (in)famous coconut tree speech became viral again calling her campaign Coconut Project. Speech has been remixed to match, once again, Charli XCX’s. She quite literally took the whole “brat” trend and hype to build her new image. Profesor Geniesa Tay called this LOLitics which are “often created in response to news or political culture.” Just an example of LOLitics is “Hope Maya Rudolph has cleared her schedule” meme, alluding to Rudolph’s widely recognizable SNL sketches embodying Harris. LOLitis is largely driven by pop culture meaning it refers to books, television, film, music and more. It would be wrong to claim that there were no memes about her before the change of candidates for this year’s election but there is a difference - Harris’ public appearances were met with harsh criticism on both conservative and liberal sides. Now, in many TikTok videos, she is represented as a strong woman, her bursts of laughter are seen as original whereas before she was the butt of the joke.
However, this is not the first time pop culture and politics were mixed to reach and appeal to wider audiences. This shift in public image and perception happened to Hillary Clinton. In 2012, texts with Hillary happened. Precisely, photography of Hillary Clinton looking serious while texting with sunglasses on the plane became viral. The reason why that happened is thanks to its memeability – it communicated a clear message which can be easily paired with other moments in pop culture like the Hey Girl Ryan Gosling meme. Effective photos like this one “can communicate meanings within just a single frame, which can encourage further dissemination” as Tay wrote. The next shift in Clinton’s political life that happened described by professor Jonathan Dean who wrote that she “became a pinnacle of class, respectability, and a representation of female empowerment.” When she joined Twitter in 2013 she used that exact photo as her cover and profile photo and added a “hair icon” in her bio. Former president Barack Obama was the first politician who recognized the power of the Internet. Back in 2011, Obama used Tumblr for his campaign and started posting about policy issues. Harris and he did the same move in different periods on the most influential platform of that time.
American politics have been connected with pop culture for decades and never underestimated its reach and power. On the other side of the pond, Tony Blair was a pioneer in this approach to election campaign using the popularity of Brit pop back in 1997. Shapeshifting is the key to political communication. Politicians are seen as celebrities and certain groups of citizens have characteristics of fandoms. It is left to see how sentiment toward Harris will change in the following days and months and whether the strong presence of pop culture will harm her in the long run. Currently, it is all fun and games but what will happen when brat summer ends?
@microplasticcat Bratmala: I guess the coconut don’t fall far from the tree 🌴🥥💚 #coconutpilled #kamalaharris #brat #bratsummer #charlixcx #edit #meme #apple #remix #coconuttree #kamala ♬ Coconut Tree X Apple - Microplastic CAT 💚
@thatssofetch333 Kamal Harris edition 😭 #kamalaharris #popculture ♬ original sound - thatssofetch333
Literature used for research:
Dean, J. (2017). Politicising fandom. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 19(2), 408-424.
Luebke S. M. (2021) Political Authenticity: Conceptualization of a Popular Term. The International Journal of Press/Politics. Vol. 26 (3): 635 – 653.
Tay, G. (2015) Binders full of LOLitics: Political humour, internet memes, and play in the 2012 US Presidential Election (and beyond). European Journal of Humour Research 2 (4) 46-73
