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You need to party!!!
Plus, Nepal's Gen Z revolution.
Natalie Feliks
September 28, 2025
It’s been a tough few news weeks (she writes, almost every week). After last week’s newsletter, I think now is a good time to introduce a new initiative I’ve been waiting for the right time to launch… introducing Joy Rant.
Every month we’ll invite a friend of Zee Feed to rant, in essay-form, about something they love. There are no limits on topic or category, I just like reading people write about stuff they like. And I hope you will too. For the first ever instalment of Joy Rants, we have the incredible Natalie Feliks on why she will not feel guilty for partying, and you shouldn’t either. Enjoy!
Partying Is Good For You (And Your Activism) by Natalie Feliks
We live in a time where political action is unavoidable. There are rallies for Palestine every Sunday morning in Melbourne, national rallies for transgender healthcare in Australia and the UK, and anti-police protests across the world which, in America in particular, have transformed to brutal political violence. All of this is founded upon awful imagery of children being massacred, detention centres full of refugees, and a sentiment that our world is cruel, hostile and unforgiving.
So how could anyone go from thinking about the threat of nuclear war and encroaching climate change, to screaming “I don’t care, I love it!” at the club?
As someone who’s had her life saved by community care and mutual aid, I can tell you: partying is not insensitive, frivolous or a waste of time and energy. In fact, being a party animal could be exactly what we need right now.
This isn’t an essay on how “no one can pour from an empty cup”, because everyone already knows that and no one pays attention to it. It’s about the pure power of partying, love and community as a method of activism, and how it’s a shame that less attention gets put towards it. It’s not just possible to be a 365 party girl and an activist, being a 365 party girl is a great way to be an activist.
Any project within a capitalist society seeks to dehumanise and roboticise its participants. A perfect worker is someone who requires minimal food, sleep, and emotional nourishment to perform to maximum efficiency. That’s why cancelling a date to go into work is considered great professional behaviour, while any displays of emotion in the workplace are considered unprofessional. Activism, unfortunately, is no exception.
So many activists will say that they resent needing silly frivolous things like “rest”, “sleep” and “family time” when their lives should be devoted entirely to ending the brutal system bringing misery to so much of the world. There’s a sense of extreme guilt in forking out for tickets to your favourite DJ’s club night, when that money could’ve been spent on mutual aid. And yet, that mentality grossly underestimates how essential music, joy and parties have been to bringing a movement together and creating cultural change.
Take everyone’s favourite 365 party girl Charli XCX. For some, she represents the self-absorbed bratty entitlement that is everything wrong with Western youth. For me, her nihilistic shamelessness and refusal to respect authority is exactly the sort of vibe that I’ve needed to cope with the state of the world right now.
When she sings “don’t eat, don’t sleep, just do it on repeat”, it’s like catnip to a trans woman who has struggled like crazy to get her voice heard in any medium, who is frustrated, exhausted, and done with giving a fuck about what society thinks of me. Even if I lose career opportunities, at least I didn’t betray myself or my feelings along the way. And that’s exactly what being a responsible activist is all about.
I’ve always loved the ability of music to bring people together, inspire people, nourish people, even save our lives. Parties and music events are special because they bring societal rejects out of their dark bedrooms and unleash the flood of emotions that we are highly encouraged to bottle up. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the self-destructive rage of death metal, the fire-burning vitality of folk punk, or the irreverent escapism of EDM, people are brought together with the same goal. It’s no accident that these people tend to be the exact sort of people who we also find at protests.
The link is so strong that a lot of the music that bleeds into the mainstream has its origins in protest movements. Punk rock famously has its origins in anti-establishment bands, and has been critical for modern anti-capitalism, feminism and anti-colonial action. While punk music has been heavily co-opted by corporate record labels over the decades, those leftist roots still bleed through.
Likewise, the origins of electronic dance music such as house and disco began in underground black and queer clubs in America. These clubs were constantly raided by police, who knew of the importance of these venues to movement building, and one such raid led to the Stonewall Riots. Again, while electronic dance music gets heavily co-opted, it continues to evolve in underground clubs and raves, and it can never be detached from these origins.
Another reason why Charli XCX and her unabashed brattiness is so important to me is that her music evolution saw her collaborating with Sophie, a trans femme producer who pioneered the hyperpop trend. While Sophie passed away before brat was released, her imprint on the album is inescapable, and as people across the world were partying in Brat Summer, I couldn’t help but wonder if they knew the original 365 party girl was a British trans woman. I hoped that the trans women across the UK were able to enjoy Brat Summer as much as everyone else, even while they were being attacked by the British media and parliament, because their community is the reason it existed in the first place.
One of the most insidious parts of capitalist oppression is the impact it has on our own view of ourselves. An oppressive colony doesn’t even need police if its citizens police themselves, and it doesn’t need jails if we lock ourselves in our houses. The horror present in my news feed is often so overwhelming that there is a constant temptation to close my blinds, get high, play Age of Empires and hide away from it all. Parties exist to make sure we don’t do that. It’s not easy to go outside and face the world, but the alternative is giving up. I’m not giving up. I love my community too much.
Activism might be brutal, upsetting, draining and extremely dangerous. No one who gets into it expects it to be a pathway to private jets and luxury islands. But no movement would ever succeed if it didn’t also enable extremely special moments too. A movement can’t just be about raging against the machine and smashing windows, it also needs to invite people to connect with each other, love each other, and support each other. That’s why we’ve come this far in the first place, and why, despite all the odds, we’re still growing.
When the media is desperate to portray activists as angry brats, let’s not pretend like being a brat is a bad thing. Brats are kind, attentive, intelligent and loving people, and we take the streets not because we’re entitled and hateful, but because we care so much for the people around us. There is no changing that, whether it takes place in a blockade, in a house, or in a club. They are all critical parts of the movement, they are why I have the rights and freedoms I do today, and this continues into the future.
We need to remember that about our movements. We’re not just taking over streets. We’re also taking over playlists. We should embrace that.
Smart stuff on the Internet 💭
All the stuff I found on the web that made me think, smile, or have an ‘aha!’ moment. Spend your Sunday reading them – you'll be better off for it:
Is 'Dark Romance' just selling toxic masculinity to women? on Danielle Binks’ substack
A super interesting question! Not sure how I feel about the topic, but loved reading Binks’ thoughts on it (she is an author and literary agent). “I still wonder if Dark Romance is part of what I once assumed was a bygone era of romance publishing - whereby women know we’re in a dark timeline and are looking for books that will assure, comfort, or numb us to reality by repackaging terrible men as ultimate anti-heroes and viable love-interests?”
Everything you need to know about Nepal on Kalam Weekly substack
Nepal is currently in the grips of a political uprising, led by Gen Z protesters. I’m sure you’ve seen the footage of the protests, violent military response, and the parliament building on fire. The corrupt prime minister has been pushed out, and a new ‘clean’ PM installed. Nepalese independent journalist Pranaya Rana has been covering it all on his substack — that is where I’m learning what’s going on. If you’re catching up/following this story, I recommend:
This primer explaining the context and why this is all happening;
‘The week after revolution’ for what happened after the protests;
‘Gen Z must remember history to not repeat it’ for analysis on where this leads (in the ‘Deep Dive’ section)
Blood on the grass: The rise and fall of the Purnim Bears on ABC
This is the type of journalism the ABC should be doing more of. “The 1987 Mt Noorat League grand final was meant to be the Purnim Bears’ crowning moment. Instead, it became their last. From premiers to pariahs, the predominantly Indigenous side was expelled from the league after just one season. The video footage that condemned them remained hidden for decades. Until now.”
“You Don’t Owe Anyone Anything:” Gen Z & The Viral Hyper-Individualism Myth on Centennial World YouTube
Another banger of a deep dive video essay by our besties at Centennial World. This is one of the most deeply researched yet still mainstream examinations of a stereotype that’s thrown around readily online. Not just opinion or vibes-based, but really considering the societal forces at play (just look at that list of sources!)