radical chic
1
9.7
- noun
- /ˈrædɪkəl ʃik/
- Offensive
:
radicalismo de salón
- The magazine featured an article highlighting how radical chic became a trend among celebrities who advocate for social justice.
- Wolfe on radical chic
This is not just, this is not something for radical chic white liberals to sort of pay lip service to.
- This is not just, this is not something for radical chic white liberals to sort of pay lip service to.
Examples
-
Tom Wolfe noted this attitude years ago in a satire on radical chic in posh urban USA.
Blog text (31) -
It is faculty-lounge radical chic.
Blog text (16) -
It's not so much radical chic as an excuse for sadism.
Fiction book (1997) -
It's just radical chic posing.
Blog text (31) -
This is not just, this is not something for radical chic white liberals to sort of pay lip service to.
-
Many wealthy individuals embraced radical chic by wearing berets and participating in protests to appear socially conscious.
-
During the event, the guests showcased their radical chic outfits, which included vintage clothing and symbolic accessories.
How Sincere
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound literally combines 'radical' (extreme/political) and 'chic' (fashionable), so a learner who knows both words can infer a general sense of being fashionably radical. However, the phrase carries a specific ironic/social nuance — performative adoption of left‑wing politics by elites — that is culturally loaded and not fully predictable from the parts alone, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Radical chic may come from a famous 1970s event where rich people held stylish parties for political radicals. The word radical means extreme political ideas and chic means fashionable, so the image is of treating those ideas as a 'trend' or to seem 'socially conscious', which is why it now means taking on radical views as a fashion rather than from real belief.