The expression “radical chic” it was coined in 1970 by the American writer and journalist Tom Wolfe and is often used in a derogatory sense. The term criticizes the alleged inconsistency of those who, despite declaring themselves politically left-wing, live with a lifestyle that contradicts the traditional imaginary of radical militancy, characterized by egalitarian ideals and simplicity.
The meaning of the expression “radical chic”
The term “radical chic” is made up of two words: “radical“, which in English means “radical” and refers toactivism political or progressive ideas, and “chic“, a French term meaning “refined” or “elegant”. The combination of these words suggests, critically, the display of radical political ideas by people who live a wealthy and privileged lifestyle. According to the definition of Treccanithe expression refers to those who, for fashion or convenience, embrace non-conformist and radical political ideas, while theOxford Dictionary defines it as the tendency to flaunt radical and left-wing political views as a way of being fashionable.
The origin of the expression: Tom Wolfe and the Park Avenue party
The expression “radical chic” originates from an article published by Tom Wolfe on June 8th 1970 on New York Magazine. Wolfe recounts a party thrown by the famous composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia Montealegre in their luxury apartment on Park Avenue, Manhattan. The evening, apparently elegant and worldly, had as its aim the fundraising in favor of Black Panther Partyan African-American political organization created to oppose the racial discrimination suffered by the black community and with a Marxist-Leninist and anti-capitalist imprint.
Wolfe, crashing the party, describes an environment in which the cultural and intellectual elite of the American bourgeoisie met to support an apparently radical cause, but in a context decidedly distant from the struggles of the streets. This party was attended by prominent figures from the cultural scene, and the contrast between their privileged status and the Black Panthers’ revolutionary cause did not go unnoticed by Wolfe. White waiters served canapés at Roquefort to avoid offending African-American guests, underlining the irony and hypocrisy of attempting to appear sympathetic to social struggles while remaining deeply anchored to one’s privileges.
Tom Wolfe’s criticism
In the article, Wolfe coins the term “radical chic” to describe the fashion of endorsing left-wing political ideas by the more affluent classes without actually engaging in the risks or difficulties of radical politics. The Bernstein party, for Wolfe, represented a “short circuit” between two opposing worlds: on the one hand the progressive bourgeoisie, which ran no risk and on the other the real political struggles, led by groups like the Black Panthers, who instead put their lives and their future at stake. According to Wolfe, radical chic was a kind of ridiculous public marriage between progressive good conscience and street politics, where the rich could feel morally superior without having to give up their privileges.
Diffusion and use in Italy
The expression also entered Italy thanks to Indro Montanelli. On March 21, 1972, the journalist used the term in an article in Corriere della Sera entitled “Letter to Camilla”. The article was aimed at the Italian journalist Camilla Cedernawho had dealt with the anarchist’s case Giuseppe Pinelliwho died under mysterious circumstances during an interrogation. On that occasion, Montanelli criticized a part of the Italian intelligentsia, who, according to him, supported radical causes for convenience or to appear non-conformist, in perfect line with the concept expressed by Wolfe: supporting revolutionary ideals without giving up their privileges, underlining the contradictions of a certain type of superficial progressivism.
