As I sat down in my male-dominated, theatre-adjacent class in Pettigrew Hall, I heard footsteps next to me and the sound of a bookbag zipping. I looked up, ready to flash a smile or squeak some pleasantries, and was instead dumbfounded by what I saw. I made eye contact with the fluffiest, most precious puppy adorned with over-ear headphones, screen-printed onto an electric blue hoodie, above the dreaded 6-letter name: Clairo. Admittedly, I am a dedicated Clairo enjoyer. I’ve even seen her in concert—which is why this outfit disturbed me so. If you, like me, saw Clairo live in 2023, you would know that this angel of a puppy was only printed on black sweatshirts and sold for a limited time.
Though I run the risk of being accused of ‘gatekeeping’ Clairo, her music, and her motifs, I will instead point a finger at the man who ordered a Clairo puppy sweatshirt dupe off Etsy. He didn’t purchase this sweatshirt from the artist herself… Who knows if he’s even a fan? Or a listener at all?
This example of a larger, recently popular fashion sensibility has been coined ‘performative’ on TikTok. The term, specific to straight men, accuses an iced-matcha-latte-carrying, guitar-playing, bell-hooks-reading man of adopting these accessories and habits for the purpose of appealing to women.
A performed appreciation for female indie artists, ‘girly’ sweet treats, and feminist literature creates an illusion of sensitivity and safety.
A cheeky movement to satirize these men, or perhaps lean into the aesthetics mentioned, are “Performative Male Competitions” on college campuses and in large cities. At these competitions, men (or in Smith College’s case, ‘masc’ lesbians) dress in the caricatures of the Performative Male, sporting comically large carabiners or a ridiculous number of Labubus.
Bates held its own competition on the quad last Friday, held by the Student Center for Belonging and Community.
Because of the sheer number of upper-class, fashion-forward men who attend Bates College, Bates students have more sophisticated and specific definitions of what Performative Males look like on campus.
When asked about performative fashion choices at Bates specifically, Zain Ali (‘27) responded, “having more than four rings on at once,” and Dylan Patel (‘27) added, “Carabiner on the pants. Dudes rolling around with extra carabiners.”
In terms of activities, Jackie Coraci (‘26) expressed that “slacklining on the Quad” is the most performative thing one can do at Bates, while Reuban Pomerantz (‘29) thinks a Performative Bates Student “carr[ies] a Commons mug around school with some kind of tea or warm drink in it.” Pomerantz specifies that so overtly breaking the rules and stealing from Commons garners more attention than a travel mug would.
A significant number of interviewees mentioned reading, whether feminist literature or at all.
When asked about the dangers of men who pretend to be interested in feminist literature, Professor Lucy Britt, a Doctor of Political Science who engages in research of feminism and pop culture, responded, “I think it’s great if anyone reads feminist theory. That’s a net good for the world.”
She shared more thoughts about the phenomenon, continuing to address the nuances largely overlooked within discourse about Performative Males. She explained, “There’s the possibility that men dressing in more traditionally feminine ways or signaling through their appearance and behavior that they are allies of women. There’s a possibility that that’s a good thing, right? That this is kind of an opening up of gender beyond what Raylynn Connell called ‘hegemonic masculinity’. Hegemonic masculinity being a very macho, hypermasculine portrayal of masculinity. So maybe this is a good thing, and this is making it more socially acceptable for masculine people to be less macho… softer, maybe.”
However, Dr. Britt deepened this argument, adding, “I think it’s also worth asking what the word ‘performative’ means in this trend… because there’s two meanings of the word performative here. One is performative as in ‘inauthentic.’ Performative in that sense means not real, just performed. But there’s another meaning of performative, as in we all perform gender, which is the gender performativity theory of Judith Butler. If it’s the latter, is it a subversive performance of gender, which would be something that undercuts hegemonic masculinity, or is it what Butler called a ‘deadening cliché’ that commodifies subversive performances by repeating them over and over again in a way that devalues the possible subversion?”
Professor Britt’s insight only generates further questions. What might this trend mean for future gender expression? Might Performative Males revolutionize gender expression and normalize different interpretations of masculinity? Is this subversive performance already commodified? Is this manipulation dangerous for women?
You, Performative Males of Bates College, can decide.
