Molly Ringwald Says the Nickname ‘The Brat Pack’ Was Practically A Slur
According to Generation X’s favorite former moody teenager, “brat” is a deeply insulting term that disrespects young artists. Molly Ringwald is going to blow her bangs when she hears about Charli XCX.
Back in the 1980s, the rise of the rebellious, teenage coming-of-age film and the peak of cinema legend John Hughes’ power created a new class of movie star whom writer David Blum described as the “Brat Pack” in a now-infamous cover story for New York Magazine. This iconic cadre of young performers, led by “Brat Pack President” Emilio Estevez, co-starred in so many of the most memorable and impactful movies of the late 20th century, and the success of their shared filmography added prestige to their names that remains to this day, despite the fact that both they and their original fans are now old enough to empathize with Vice Principal Vernon.
But for as much esteem as the image and cultural cachet of “The Brat Pack” brought to Ringwald, Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy and Anthony Michael Hall, the “brats” themselves have long bristled against their collective moniker, and, in a recent reunion panel for The Breakfast Club at MegaCon Orlando, Ringwald reiterated that she thinks Blum was way out of line when he coined such a snappy nickname.
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I mean, do you know how popular she is?
“It was a play on the Rat Pack, which was a group of, you know — Sinatra and Sammy Junior, those guys,” Ringwald stated of the “Brat Pack” label when asked about it during the audience Q&A, remembering Blum’s 1985 cover story about Estevez that would place a catchy and inextricable label on her and her co-stars’ oeuvres. “It was a term that was coined after this New York Magazine piece, and then we all sort of fell under this, this banner.”
Upon the publishing of Blum’s article and the assigning of the name “The Brat Pack,” the stars immediately pushed back against what they felt to be a derogatory label, especially Estevez, who was the main subject of the story. Forty years later, Ringwald, 57, still finds the name infantilizing, saying, “I think it kind of in a way sort of minimized the work that we were doing. I mean that’s the way that I felt.”
Ringwald said that the phrase “The Brat Pack” is “a pejorative,” even if it was the coolest nickname anyone could possibly give to a group of teen stars.
Last year, “Brat Pack” member Andrew McCarthey released his documentary Brats about the lives and careers of his co-stars, and, in the film, numerous other former teen sensations expressed lingering umbrage about Blum’s objectively catchy epithet. But, following the premiere of Brats, Blum defended his most iconic turn-of-phrase in a conversation with Vulture. Blum said of Ringwald and her friends’ frustration with him four decades later, “In truth, I still don’t understand why some Brat Packers feel so victimized.”
After all, what would they prefer to be called? Princess?
