“Brunch” can mean many things. It can mean a greasy family meal in a Hoboken diner where the kids get to choose either a fried egg or a PB&J sandwich. When two other families come over after church for hot cinnamon buns, while coffee flows profligately and the kids pound orange juice, that’s also brunch.
But increasingly, “brunch” is taking on a specific meaning, with specific class and demographic connotations: Brunch is now a long, languid, often luxurious and typically boozy meal among young adults on Saturday or Sunday morning; the price tag is high, the mimosas are bottomless, and the brunchers are childless. It’s also a bit gay.
Brunch, and its meaning, became a topic of social media debate following the “No Kings” rallies on President Donald Trump’s birthday, which took place on a Saturday morning.
Liberal influencer Victor Shi, a former Kamala Harris and Joe Biden staffer who now works for Los Angeles, celebrated one protester for bringing “the most Los Angeles sign ever.”
“If Kamala were president, we’d be at brunch,” the sign proclaimed, illustrated by dirty martinis painted on the margins of the sign.
The message was a bit unclear and a bit self-absorbed, which might have been telling in its own right. “And if Kamala had been capable of appealing to people who don’t brunch, she’d be president,” populist liberal writer Tyler Austin Harper noted.
Plenty of posters objected to the suggestions that brunch is a luxury good for the childless, liberal elite, but there’s good evidence that the word is taking on that connotation.
Study the recent pages of the New York Times, and you’ll see the valence of the word today.
In the two weeks before the “No Kings” rallies, the word “brunch” appeared about 10 times in the Gray Lady. The mentions involved the phrases “chic,” “luxury,” and, repeatedly, “upscale.”
Brunch is attached to the word “queer” in two of those articles, including one whose headline states “The Chef Definitely Recommends Something Gay.”
Even the MAGA brunchers are elites: One Times article includes lobbyists and administration officials having an inauguration brunch featuring former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Search other newspapers for the word “brunch” in June, and you’ll find a few Father’s Day items, but mostly you’ll learn about all the “drag brunches” in your area.
One story from Martha’s Vineyard hit the bullseye.
“Year-round resident Heather Mangione said it was her first Drag Brunch at the Red Cat Kitchen: ‘I usually work weekends, but I made it a priority to plan ahead this year. Drag brunches are like a community to me — it’s like going to church on Sunday surrounded by your people.’”
Bon appétit, I suppose.