A spoiled brat, imo, is a person, who, regardless of his/her walk of life, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnic or cultural background, has a tendency to demand what they cannot or should not have or do, be given to tantrums when their desires are thwarted, or even to manipulate, trick or even be nasty to people who refuse to accede to what they wish. I've always been taught that the spoiled brat who got everything s/he wanted only came from a background with money or whatever, and not from a lower-class background. However, on discovering that it's not necessarily and always true, I have expanded my meaning of "spoiled brat", to include people from all walks of life who're that way.

Anybody can be a spoiled brat, imo. While a rich brat who acts like that is generally used to getting most, if not everything they want can and will become frustrated when denied what they want, it's also true that even people of a lower socioeconomic background can, at times, also be like that if they're not stopped. Spoiled brats from any part of the socioeconomic spectrum, imo, are often spoiled by a too-permissive upbringing in a permissive environment, or they're often reared in stricter, tougher lowerclass environments where deprivation of the various necessities and even luxuries in life can and often enough does make people into meaner, nastier individuals, as opposed to people who're accustomed to and accept the fact that things come harder to them.

College kids who party loudly and drunkenly, play loud music until all hours of the night, use people's backyards and/or porches as toilets and either pull up or destroy long and lovingly cultivated plants, and disturb their neighbors who're trying to get a necessary good-night's sleep so that they can go to work, school, or whatever the next day, are a perfect example of that. Many of these students have been reared in households/environments where they don't have to think of anybody but themselves, and, having this new-found freedom as young adults, fail to realize that, in order to get along and be respected, a certain amount of consideration and respect for the people around you are every bit as important as education, and that respect and consideration must be earned. Or, if a kid is accustomed to getting whatever s/he wants at home, and on getting out into the world, finds that this doesn't always happen, s/he may become upset at being denied things at times.

Or, if a kid who's accustomed to having wholesome or rich food is confronted with food that's not as good, s/he may also grouse about that and refuse to eat the meals in the dorms, even though their parents are paying for it. When I was in college, I encountered a number of such people, and, having eaten food that was far worse than the dorm food on my past travels to other countries where people had little or nothing to eat at all, I couldn't bring myself to feel sympathetic with them.

Another example, I believe, is when people who've opposed what our government is doing in Iraq have come out, sat in the middle of a busy main thoroughfare and blocked rush-hour traffic, creating a nasty gridlock and making it extremely difficult for emergency vehicles (i. e. ambulance, police, fire) to get through, creating unnecessary and dangerous delays, not to mention raising people's ire and alienating potential support rather than garnishing it. It infuriates people when they are told they can't sit in the middle of the street blocking traffic, but I believe that a line has to be drawn.

On the other end of this particular spectrum, spoiled brats can also come from tougher, poorer backgrounds where they've have to grovel and scrounge for what they need or want, because, unlike people from better-off backgrounds, they do not have things at their disposal. A good example of this, I believe is the practice that has long existed and persisted in some neighborhoods in our city, of saving a parking space for oneself by placing a piece of furniture, a trashcan, sawhorse, or recycling box, etc., in order to mark that space after shoveling it out so they won't have to find another parking space later when they come home from wherever it is that they've been.

Inotherwords, the "you shovel it, you own it" mentality exists. This can be very frustrating for someone who's come from a long day a school, work, or wherever, who have a tough time finding a parking space because all the spaces are reserved with traffic cones, furniture, etc. Some people, either out of sheer frustration, or out of not being aware of the "score", have moved space-saving markers and taken spaces, invariably leading up to things ranging from subtle notes, to keying and trashing of cars, to slashing or letting the air out of a car's tires, to screaming abuse, to actual physical fights. Imho, people who act that way are like spoiled children who have tantrums when they've been denied a new toy that they've badly wanted, or told not to have too many candies. In order to help to combat this practice, the city of Boston cracked down and said that nobody could reserve themselves a parking space in the street for more than 48 hours after a winter storm. Many people in some neighborhoods didn't like it, especially when they were told that after 48 hours, one could expect their space-marker to be removed, either by the city or by a neighbor, and not to be selfish. Many people didn't like that, but I believe that this is a good compromise.

Another example is when a person from a very cushioned, insular community who is involved in a wrongdoing is pardoned, protected and cushioned by the rest of the community, and therefore don't get to face consequences for wrongdoing. I believe that this is wrong, no matter what kind of background a person comes from, because the wrongdoer is affectively being spoiled by the community at large. Not good at all, imo.

All of the above having been said, I believe that a spoiled brat is a person, regardless of their gender, socioeconomic status, walk of life and ethnic/cultural background, who feels that s/he is entitled to do whatever they want when they want without facing any kind of payback for it.