Performative Men
Recently, the trend of performative men has been a widespread discussion on the internet. Aside from specific traits (wired headphones, labubu, matcha) it refers more generally to men who curate their outward appearance and actions to appeal to women, or the “female gaze”. This is a signifier of a number of trends within society, but this blog will focus on the neoliberal drive for optimisation and improvement, and how it can lead to a kind of hollow progress, divorced from real understanding or intent.
First, we have to look at the root of the movement. It is essentially a subversion of traditional gender roles. In the past, women have been forced to adjust their actions and appearances to satisfy their male counterparts. However, as feminism has progressed, and with it women’s autonomy, this has begun to shift. Men, in an effort to find partners and stave off the loneliness epidemic many face, have begun actively curating their outward selves. This curation has been largely informed by what is now a wealth of online content informing the supposed ideal man.
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This has quickly been noticed, however, and calling out this performance has become the trend itself. This critique stems largely from the inauthenticity of this performance, pointing out that engaging with aesthetics rather than deeper ideas is inherently shallow. The idea that someone can seem progressive but, under the surface, still be deeply misogynistic, is an understandably scary thought.
However, criticism like this, and its more conservative nature, can drive men away from ideas that, when engaged with, are very positive. If the idea of reading in public, or being in touch with less traditionally masculine ideals, is dubbed performative and inauthentic, approaching it at all (even with good intent) becomes difficult. Liberalism has given us the freedom to discover our “authentic selves”, but at the same time, it has applied even more pressure to perform and optimise.
Finally there is the argument that calling out performative individual is redundant. We all perform our genders on a daily basis. Be it what we wear watch or read, we are products of our social ecosystem. We do these things to conform to wider ideals, the central idea of Judith Butler’s Gender Performativity theory. Following on from this interpretation, we can see how neoliberal forces have essentially commercialised this performance, setting and then shifting the goalposts to fuel consumer demand in the market. Companies and algorithms influence us so profoundly that knowing what is ‘authentic’ vs. marketed is a near-impossible distinction; however, that is another issue unto itself.
Whichever view you ascribe to, I feel the acknowledgment of the performative man as a symptom is essential. Critiquing the trend's shallowness offers us nothing. Instead, a look at why people feel the need to perform and who is choreographing the performance.
