Goth Brat Winter is Here
1818 to 1847 to 2025/2026
aka: Mary Shelley walked so Emerald Fennell could run so the girls could absolutely tear down the patriarchy once and for all.
With new film versions of Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights dropping, I’m convinced: we’ve officially entered Goth Brat Winter.
Because the vibe on the streets right now?
Women are SO done being polite while our rights get pulled out from under us.
We’re done being told to smile while the country slides backwards.
We’re done being the emotional support animals of patriarchy.
But this energy didn’t start with us.
It started with a teenage girl reading by her mother’s grave in 1818.
And another girl staring down the Yorkshire moors in 1847 like,
“Actually? WTF. No.”
1818: Mary Shelley drops Frankenstein at age 20.
Anonymous, obviously. Because a woman’s name on a title page meant critics would dismiss it as “sentimental garbage” before reading a single line.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley grew up surrounded by radical ideas and constant grief.
No formal schooling because… patriarchy.
So she educated herself in her father’s library while waging a Cold War with a stepmother who wanted her smaller, quieter, and easier.
At 16 she runs off with Percy Shelley.
Gets exiled from polite society.
Los(es) children.
Lives inside scandal.
And still writes the first sci-fi novel ever published.
A book about creation, responsibility, power and what happens when the people in power build monsters and then refuse to claim them. (Sound familiar?)
This wasn’t just horror. It was a warning.
And honestly? It still is.
1847: Emily Brontë publishes Wuthering Heights as “Ellis Bell.”
Nearly thirty years later, Emily Brontë looks at the world and says:
Fine. You want a man’s name on the cover? I’ll give you one.
Even with the alias, critics absolutely lost it:
“Savage.”
“Monstrous.”
“Unnatural.”
…which is how you know she was on to something big.
Emily wasn’t here to write a cozy romance.
She wrote about obsession, violence, class, gender, and what happens when men are allowed to run wild while women are told to endure and hush up.
She did not hush.
And I cannot wait to see Emerald Fennell’s adaptation this winter!!
2025/2026: The girls are done being quiet.
1818 gave us the monster society created.
1847 gave us the original red-flag king.
2025/2026 is giving us a political climate where both novels feel less like fiction and more like prophecy.
Women’s rights under assault.
Curriculum censored.
Authoritarian masculinity on the rise.
A president telling a female reporter: “Quiet, Piggy.”
Of course Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights are having a resurgence.
But they never stopped being relevant.
We just should’ve listened harder.
Mary Shelley and Emily Brontë weren’t goth icons.
They were feminist truth-tellers before the word feminist even existed,
documenting the violence of patriarchy long before we had the language for it.
That’s what Goth Brat Winter really is:
Women using rage, grief, intellect, and creativity to expose—and dismantle—the systems trying to silence us.
1818 → 1847 → 2025/2026
GOTH BRAT WINTER IS HERE.
Here’s a playlist I made to get you in the mood:
And having a lead role in both films mentioned is one Jacob Elordi, of Euphoria fame. If you have seen Frankenstein, you know that Jacob's performance proves he is more than just a pretty face.
When Elordi first got the part in Euphoria, she formed a friendship with the actress who would play her mother, a now 61 year old beauty by the name of Paula Marshall. She to me is a cult actress and I happen to be part of that cult; perhaps a leading member. And remember a few days ago when we discussed Trump and Bubba? You may remember the classic Seinfeld episode where Jerry and George were mistaken for a couple, which prompted the memorable line "not that there's anything wrong with that"?. Well the NYU reporter that mistook Jerry and George for a couple was played by the same Paula Marshall.
About seven or so years ago I discovered Paula on Twitter* and recognized the name and I started "conversing" with her. I found out that she was a big fan of the NFL especially the Cowboys and she also likes the same kinda music, especially the Beatles and her view on Trump is the same as yours and mine, so to speak. We have had a good parasocial relationship ever since.
In fact I think we have enough in common to warrant at least one date. One slight problem. She has been married to Danny Nucci of Titanic fame since 2003 and the only way that marriage is gonna end is through the obituaries. And I am more than OK with that.
*-Paula is no longer a resident of Elonland.
Mary Shelly's mother, proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, died due to complications of childbirth 11 days after Mary was born (hey childbirth was rough during the late 18th century) (Spoiler alert: In the new Frankenstein movie, Victor's mother dies giving birth to his brother)