You’ll know one when you see one.
Matcha in one hand, The Awakening in the other. A tote bag strapped around their shoulder in a show of poser feminism. Maybe it’s just a joke, a sarcastic jab at the desperate man seeking the gaze of a woman. But maybe, just maybe, it has the potential to be something more, something with real societal implications.
True to their name, performative males perform in an intentionally harmless fashion. Everything a performative male does is in an attempt to attract women by appearing more sympathetic and relatable. This, however, is something that the mythical performative male has failed to do with any degree of success.
Still, it can be a little difficult to pin down exactly what a performative male is, but using the responses to a poll conducted on the Ghostwriter’s Instagram, we can understand performative males’ fundamental effects.
When asked how they felt around performative males, only 30 percent of 188 poll respondents felt more comfortable around men who appeared to be performative, while 34 percent voted that they felt less comfortable, meaning that the actions of performative males generally did not have the desired effect on their on their target audience.
So taking into account that the performative male archetype isn’t actually a successful way to appear more attractive to women, why does it exist in the first place? An answer to this question can be found in past social trends.
Traditional masculinity dictates that certain foods, pastimes, and styles are more masculine and more acceptable for a man to have. This is exemplified in social trends such as the infamous “alpha male” character, which at its core is also just a performance designed to advertise a method of attracting women, albeit unsuccessfully and in a more toxic manner.
“The alpha male title has earned a bad reputation in the female community,” author Michelle Jones wrote in a Medium article. “When women think of alpha males, images of how a man often asserts power and dominance over a woman pop into mind — anything to do with toxic masculinity — thus deterring women from even considering dating [an alpha male].”
This trend shares a lot of its core principles with the ideas associated with the performative male, except in the opposite direction. Performative males embrace subjects like fashion and art that the traditional alpha male purposely avoids. While the alpha male champions misogynistic views of women, the performative male has made a key aspect of their performance to, at the very least, appear feminist or as an advocate for women’s equality.
Despite their benign behavior, many argue that the performative male is inherently a joke about men, and that their intention de-legitimizes any of the performative male’s potential impact. And while it may be correct that the performance aspect of the performative male has spawned multiple jokes, and ironic impersonators that can’t sincerely be called feminist, this argument underestimates a key variable: the power of the social conscious.
One hundred and fifty-five WA poll takers were asked what they thought the trend’s effect was on what tastes are socially acceptable for men to hold, and the results were surprising. Forty-eight percent of poll takers answered that they thought that the performative male trend made certain tastes more acceptable for men to have, whereas only 25 percent responded that they thought the performative male trend made tastes less acceptable for men to have.
While performative males have been anything but successful in their ultimate goal of attracting women, they may be a sign of change in the roles that men are expected to fit into. More than this, the performative male is a departure from male caricatures that the social consciousness has realized doesn’t bring success, such as the extreme alpha male stereotype.
It is incredibly important for society, especially for men and young boys, to be able to move away from these traditional gender norms, especially when, according to a 2021 mental health study authored by Simon Rice et al., the roles may be harmful.
“Gender norms around masculinity commonly confer power and status to boys and young men, which might in part explain why norms around masculinity are difficult to shift,” Rice et al. said. “Paradoxically, these dominant masculinities carry risks for poor mental health. Globally, the rate of male suicide is two to four times that of females, and males fare poorly on indices of substance misuse, risk taking-related injury, conduct problems, violence, aggression, and by extension incarceration.”
The same study also outlined how young men should be engaged to avoid harmful male gender norms, and in doing so, it echoed a key part of the performative male ideology.
“Engagement should also thread concepts of gender equity to confront positions of assumed privilege and disrespect,” Rice et al. said. “Mental health risks to an individual and others arise from traditional male stoicism and dominance, including entitlement to power over women, girls, and other men. Changes in attitude and behaviour can be reinforced by honouring and leveraging the bravery and courage (positive masculine norms) of those boys and young men who reject harmful norms and challenge and change stereotypes such as that men don’t cry and that boys will be boys in public and private arenas.”
The performative male trend has the potential to have a positive impact on society, and to create an environment where men are accepted and appreciated for holding views contrary to the traditional and harmful male gender norms. An environment that holds respect over violence, expression over stoicism, and equity over dominance, is for the betterment of not just men and young boys, but everyone else as well.
Although it might just seem like a joke, the performative male trend is real, and it can really make a change.
