Feminist or Fad?: Cornell’s Performative Male Contest

It’s 5:30 p.m. on the Arts Quad and there’s a sea of males wearing variations of the identical outfit. Books learn upside-down, Labubus, matcha lattes — they’re in every single place. The viewers of over 500 college students is abuzz with conversations about menstrual cramps and feminine musicians (Laufey and Clairo to be particular), and also you ask your self, “What is this?”

To the untrained eye, it could possibly be an underground indie band’s live performance, or possibly an unlimited ebook membership. To these of us up-to-date with the newest social media mind rot, although, it’s clear it might solely be one factor: a Performative Male contest.

“The Performative Male” is the man who’s strategically crafting his persona to cater to what he thinks ladies are interested in. He’s the feminist, the social justice warrior we didn’t ask for. And but, he fights for girls in every single place anyway. (Well, supposedly.)

You’ll discover his six-foot-one determine casually posed in opposition to a pillar on the Goldwin Smith stairs, whereas he’s working his fingers over a Jane Austen novel. Or possibly you’ll catch a glimpse of him admiring the newest addition to the Johnson Museum (and sporting a shirt that claims “Empower Women,” naturally). His aura is an ideal mixture of Pride and Prejudice and canvas tote luggage.

So clearly, the Arts Quad supplied the right background for figuring out the one, true performative male on this campus.

The occasion was characterised by an abundance of cliché one-liners, primarily within the type of speeches and T-shirt textual content. One participant was sporting an “I hate cramps (6’ 2” by the best way)” shirt, a reasonably correct illustration of the vitality wanted to dominate this competitors.  When requested to call a lady, Yash Moitra ’27 immediately and confidently replied, “God.” Gosh, they respect us a lot!

But regardless of the excitement from the self-declared woman-lovers, some ladies within the viewers appeared past the wired-headphones “feminism” — noting the irony of all of it.

“I was thinking,” began Cole Tao ’28, “What if they had a Performative Woman contest? Like, we couldn’t even do that because everything that women do is seen as a performance.”

Tao went as far as to notice that she believed the lads weren’t “performing” for the ladies, however actually, “other men, or street-cred as a campus celebrity.”

Jesse Pearlroth ’29, a performative man lounging on the A.D. White pedestal, purchased at this time’s matcha from “the classic on-campus woman-owned bisexual carbon neutral matcha place.” When questioned additional in regards to the precise identify of this café, he clarified that this description additionally occurs to be the official identify. Hmmm, bizarre. I haven’t heard of it.

Pearlroth additionally defended his place that his persona — who occurred to be majoring in feminist literature and minoring in durations — was greater than only a efficiency. And but, his reply to the query of who his favourite feminist literature creator was simply so occurred to be the identical reply as virtually the entire different opponents requested this query — Simone de Beauvoir.

While most males held up Jeff Buckley vinyls or twirled of their white tank tops, some individuals took their time on the pedestal to warn the viewers about present laws infringing on ladies’s rights or to encourage the viewers to mobilize on campus. It appeared that feminism was not all the time so performative.

But regardless of the very actual political points touched upon, it appeared as if the largest concern at this explicit occasion remained an unlucky matcha latte spill. There had been screams. (Almost as loud as when one participant threw his tank prime within the viewers.)

I additionally suppose it’s price mentioning some unattributed quotes overheard within the crowd. “I hope women are fully empowered every day,” was one which caught out to me — how might it not have you ever mentally picturing the teary-eyed emoji. Another gem was “I won’t say I should win because I think a woman should always win.” How selfless. If solely this weren’t a contest particularly designed for males. My private favourite was in response to somebody’s single-use Zeus matcha cup: “steel straw, you asshole!”

The degree of intention in these males’s responses was, fairly frankly, spectacular. When requested to play a recreation of “Kiss, Marry, Kill” with ladies, Labubus, and matcha because the choices, Evan Chang ’29 responded that he would “marry women, kiss Labubus and kill matcha.” (Controversial take.) He elaborated additional on these decisions, explaining “women should never be hurt in any way” and likewise that “kissing women is a very superficial thing to do.” 

I’m not completely satisfied that this competitors single-handedly eradicated misogyny or eradicated the patriarchy. When requested to establish the operate of a DIVA Cup, all feminist confidence was all of a sudden changed with the awkward shifting of inexperienced Adidas Sambas. And there’s one thing to be stated for the resounding, if lighthearted, “NO” shared by all ladies who had been requested whether or not “these men actually care about women.” 

But whereas Cornell’s Performative Man contest didn’t destroy sexism, one factor stays true: 500+ college students confirmed up. And beneath the solar and occasional indie guitar strums, individuals had been speaking about ladies and society — nonetheless sheathed in irony. 

And I imagine that, regardless of the male-centered strategy and lack of ladies’s well being information amidst alleged empathy, it’s a begin.

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Maia Mehring is a Lifestyle co-editor on the 143rd editorial board. She is a junior within the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and could be reached at mmehring@cornellsun.com.

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