Tag Archives: performative

The Right’s Performative Toughness – Jeremiah Johnson

The Right’s Performative Toughness – Jeremiah Johnson

Last week, the Department of Defense renamed itself the Department of War. Never mind that the department’s name is prescribed by Congress and can’t actually be changed by presidential fiat. The Trump administration and its allies made a big show of renaming the department anyway, with a social media blitz emphasizing WAR in capital letters and a speech from Secretary …

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Latte-swilling ‘performative males’: why milky drinks are shorthand for liberal | Men

Latte-swilling ‘performative males’: why milky drinks are shorthand for liberal | Men

Another week, another somewhat fictional online buzzword to parse. This time it is the “performative male”, basically the idea that posturing straight men only read books to get laid, outlined in recent trend pieces including the New York Times, Vox, Teen Vogue, Hypebeast, GQ and millions of TikToks. According to the Times, this man “curates his aesthetic in a way …

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Matcha and Clairo: What is the “performative male” trend on TikTok?

Matcha and Clairo: What is the “performative male” trend on TikTok?

If you live in a major city, you might have seen what looks like a hipster drag show playing out in a park or on a sidewalk recently: a parade of young men strutting with tote bags, holding up feminist literature, and showing off their newly purchased vinyls. That guess wouldn’t be totally wrong. Over the past month, Gen Z …

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