You can easily recognize one: his shoulder is usually seen with a tote bag that has a Labubu securely attached. In one of his hands, a book on feminist literature — in his other, a matcha. The performative male is making his mark in the world of fashion, one graphic tee at a time.
The style has become nothing short of an iconic look in male fashion — including at Northwestern, where a performative male competition was hosted in Cornelia Lunt Park on Saturday.
There has been a shift in male clothing over the past few years, Weinberg sophomore Jackie Le said. Male clothing used to be about presenting one’s masculinity through clothing like skinny jeans and fitted t-shirts, she said. Now, people’s opinions on what they want men to wear have changed.
“What girl doesn’t want to have a partner that has similar interests to them? We want someone who is well-read in feminist literature and listens to Clairo,” she said.
Performative male clothing is geared towards appeasing and attracting girls of this generation, focusing on what a straight cis man would wear to seem sensitive, Le said.
For Weinberg senior Jeremy Lee, clothing is considered performative when people are “wearing things that appeal to other people.” Two people can wear the same outfit, but only one of them may be performative depending on the intentions behind it.
Medill sophomore (and five-star Depop user) Carter Chau said he has often been labeled a performative male because of his style, but his intentions of dressing are different from what many people may assume. Fashion is a form of self-expression and a hobby to invest in, Chau said.
“Everything I wear is intentional,” he said. “I wear clothes I like, and if I’m performative, so be it.”
Similarly, Weinberg sophomore Yuri Stahl grew up listening to rock music and was inspired by many band members’ loose clothes. He is often seen with tattoos, baggy jeans, rings, band t-shirts and a pair of Converse shoes, he said.
As a Florida native, tighter clothing never appealed to Stahl in the hot weather. He said he naturally preferred baggier jeans and comfortable t-shirts based on the environment surrounding him.
“I started dressing like this before performative male became a term, and then it became a term,” said Stahl. “I just happened to fall under it.”
The baggy look has transformed into more than a fashion trend. It has also grown into a pop culture and internet sensation that has resulted in many performative male competitions on college campuses and cities around the nation.
These competitions have gained social media traction, further expanding the influence of performative male fashion.
“It’s almost as if they’re isolating a certain type of masculinity in these contests,” said fifth-year performance studies Ph.D. candidate Daisy Matias. “In a lot of ways, they remind me of drag.”
The contests are a way of dramatizing and exaggerating social norms of gender, Matias said.
Often, women are expected to care about fashion and to dress for the male gaze, but the opposite is true for men, she said. Instead, if a man thinks about fashion, he is considered not masculine, she said.
“To say that men can’t think about aesthetics in this way, or men can’t read feminist theory — it’s kind of policing from an anti-intellectual approach,” Matias said.
Chau has been called out for being a performative male, even when it doesn’t relate to his style. Once, he was called performative by a friend for reading a book for a homework assignment in the library.
Performative is not just about clothes anymore; instead, it’s being used to describe hobbies, he said.
Chau said the label does not affect him because he dresses for himself.
Stahl said he never takes the performative male accusations seriously, because his style is authentically him.
Young men and boys who are interested in fashion amidst this performative male epidemic shouldn’t feel limited by the labels that other people put, Lee said.
“(They should) wear things that (they) want to wear and not care what other people think,” said Lee.
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