Radical chic is a term coined by journalist
Tom Wolfe in his 1970 essay "Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's," to describe the adoption and promotion of
radical political causes by
celebrities,
socialites, and
high society. The concept has been described as "an exercise in double-tracking one's public image: on the one hand, defining oneself through committed allegiance to a radical cause, but on the other, vitally, demonstrating this allegiance because it is the fashionable, au courant way to be seen in moneyed, name-conscious Society." Unlike dedicated
activists,
revolutionaries, or
dissenters, those who engage in radical chic remain frivolous political agitators. They are
ideologically invested in their cause of choice only so far as it advances their social standing.