Students participate in a “Performative Man” contest

Matcha, vinyls, labubus and even electric guitars gathered on M.A.C. Avenue on Wednesday at 4 p.m. These wired earbud clad competitors had all come to Howland Co-op hoping to be deemed “Most Performative Man.”

The co-op announced last week through an Instagram post that they would be holding a “Performative Man Contest” on September 10 with a “mystery prize” later revealed to be a tote bag with the phrase “I heart women,” a Plan B and a cassette tape. 

House member Violet Barrone helped to plan the contest. 

“These things are becoming more popular,” Barrone said. “This isn’t even the first performative man contest, they do them all over. It was just fun, I wanted to do it. I got to hang out with goofy people and have a good time.”

The basis of the performative male trend, that has been popularized over the last few months, is men changing their style or hobbies in order to impress girls. Popular items in the trend are feminist literature, carabiners, matcha, physical media, music from female artists, Labubus and more. These items and concepts are used to create an artsy and unique style with the intention of appealing to women. An idea central to this trend is that these men advocate for societal issues when they don’t actually care about them.

 “A man being performative would be pretending to care about women’s rights,” advertising management sophomore Mae Melaku said. “Exaggerating the things they know or what they do in their free time, being like ‘Oh, I go to protests’ or ‘I support local business.’ It’s kind of like the way that men try to get, especially with women who are liberal or more leftist with their views socially and politically, as a way to kind of be like ‘Well I’m woke too’ or ‘I care about these things too, you can trust me. I’m not like other guys.’”

As the performative male mania took off, people on the internet began to poke fun at not just those dressing up for the trend, but at people who coincidentally share a similar style to it, deeming them to be performative.

“That’s kind of why I did this,” Barrone said. “First, it sounded fun, and second, because a lot of the stereotypes and the jokes, over the screens, I feel like they come across really harsh. You know, there are people who genuinely act and dress like that. But, actually doing it (having a contest) outside, everybody’s just having a good time and we’re all having fun. There’s nothing wrong with any of it.”

Competitors lined up in the yard and took turns explaining why they should be crowned winner as the crowd watched from the house’s porch stairs. Then participants were paired up and the audience voted for a winner of each pair until there were only four men left. They decided a winner out of those remaining. 

“I don’t think we really had an ideal (guy), it’s one of those things like you know it when you see it,” Barrone said. “There was no real point to any of this except to have fun, so there was no ideal guy.” 

After all the matchas had been drunk, sketchbooks compared, Clairo and Beabadoobee songs played and votes cast, art education junior Logan Hewitt was the last one standing. 

When Hewitt first saw the post on Instagram, he reached out to friends inviting them to attend with him. Instead, they encouraged him to compete, telling him that he would win. 

Donning an electric guitar, vinyls, a tote bag and more, Hewitt noted that he only brought these items for the competition. 

“I got this guitar from Guitar Center a few years ago,” Hewitt said. “I spent about 30 hours practicing and then dropped it. I got this book from my professor, generously, (and) never read it. This is kind of a theme. I got these headphones from I don’t know when. Glasses that I broke during the performance. I got a Prince record that I antiqued. I have a Squishmallow that I got from an ex-girlfriend like four years ago. And then a rat jewelry box that I hand-carved out of wood. Those are my big items.”

While some items were only brought out to follow the trend, other pieces of the contest-winning ensemble are staples in Hewitt’s daily life.

“These bracelets I all made by myself or with people that I’m really close friends with, so I would say they’re close to my personality,” Hewitt said. “This (shirt) is from a Halloween costume I did last year with a whole bunch of friends. It’s just the accessories that I don’t really wear, so I feel like they’re all kind of true to my (personality). I genuinely wear almost all of this like on the daily. I wear baggy a**  jeans, Converse, flannel, band t-shirts and I do wear the bracelets every day. All the extra stuff is stuff that I don’t actually wear.”

Participating and winning this contest offered a new perspective compared to just viewing the internet discourse of the fad. 

“I did this because it was fun, but walking here felt extremely humiliating,” Hewitt said. “I enjoy committing to bits way too much, and this was like exactly that. I need to look in me after (winning), I need to better myself as a person. I feel like this is actually an L for me, but this is an awesome tote bag.”