When hearing the story of a teenage girl suing her parents for not paying her school tuition, it's hard not to throw up your hands and shout "God, what a spoiled brat!"
The truth, however, is a bit more nuanced than that—the teen in question is an honors student looking to become a biomedical engineer whose parents revoked high school and college funds after she either 1) ran away for refusing to do chores or 2) went to live with a friend because her parents were controlling—depending on whose account you believe. The person bringing about the lawsuit is her friend's dad, who presumably has some better inside knowledge of the circumstances.
Yet despite the fact that we don't know exactly what's going on, people have been quick to pounce with the "spoiled brat" label or some colorful variation thereof (including, in the comments section of this representative story, "ENTITLED SPOILED BRAT").
Here's the rub: if this girl were a boy doing the same thing, "spoiled brat" would likely not be so central to the narrative. Because somewhere along the line, this term became—like "old maid" or "slut"—a negative gendered term with no ubiquitous male equivalent.
"Spoiled Brat" as a Female Term
It's important to note that "brat" itself is not a gendered term. The root of the word is likely the English brat rag or bratt cloak, and Merriam Webster defines it neutrally as "a child who behaves badly." And anybody, of course, can be "spoiled."
Yet here's the example Urban Dictionary uses for it: My cousin Jodie is the biggest brat I know. Here's the example Ask.com provides: A young lady from a wealthy family gets whatever she wants [and] she becomes accustomed to that.
On TV and in movies, the "spoiled brat" characters are typically girls: Think Veruca Salt in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Angelica on Rugrats. TV Tropes maintains a detailed list of such characters, while explicitly acknowledging the trope is "usually, but not always, female." (Oh, and these characters may grow up to become the "Rich B*tch" or "Alpha B*tch." Nice.)
Why This is Lame
It's not difficult to discern why this term has become so loaded from a gender perspective. It's focused on materialism, which is usually associated with shoes-loving, credit card-hungry ladies. There's even a female fashion company called, you guessed it, "Spoiled Brat," and another business called "Spoiled Brat Jewelry."
It also adheres to existing patriarchal assumptions: one of the most common manifestations of the trope is a "daddy" giving a little girl everything she wants, which fits neatly into the paradigm of men as dominant givers and women as submissive takers.
Not surprisingly, this idea can turn ugly fast on the Internet, like this slideshow of female brats that asks the "thoughtful" question "Do women need to be dominated over to not be spoiled brats?" Or this male advice page that frames a question about pre-approved credit cards as "When your wife's a spoiled brat." (First piece of advice: Don't attack your wife as a spoiled brat.)
Listen, can girls be spoiled brats? Obviously. But so can guys, just as they can act like "old maids" or "sluts." So can we please move away from using this annoying and loaded term?
Then again, I am a woman, so maybe I'm just being a spoiled brat.
Image: YouTube
