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Today I Learned What a “Performative Male” is
Published:
The Philadelphia Inquirer went out to Penn to cover a jocular “performative male” contest. There are Temple students complaining in the comments, saying they did this first, but anyway, let’s take what’s available and do some analysis:
The caption says “The ‘performative male’ is Gen Z’s version of the poser,” which is interesting because these guys look like they’re straight up spoofing hipsters. Maybe this is the evolution of the hipster? I guess hipsters are posers in a way, because hipsters are trying to be something they’re not, trying to fit into some subgenre, yet they all wind up liking the same things and looking exactly alike. How can you be unique and alternative if everybody is playing shitty vinyl and wearing cuffed jeans? You go so far off the spectrum that you come around to the other side. It’s the same reason why the sports media hot take isn’t a hot take anymore, because everybody is doing it. The real hot take is pragmatism.
This just goes to show that “poser” is a self-sustaining umbrella term that manifests in various ways across generations. “Poser” exists at the top of the flow chart, then it breaks off into different sub genres, like a migraine-inducing version of the phylogenetic tree, only for human sociological patterns.
Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, the most concerning sub genre of performative male was the wigger, especially prevalent in Philadelphia’s exurban regions, like Boyertown. All of these guys were from lower Berks or white upper Montco but acted like they were from Pottstown, racing up and down Route 100 in their “souped up” Honda Civics that had exhaust and a drop kit. And they all thought they were poker players, too. It was so weird. If you take the Fred Durst-looking guy from The Offspring’s “Pretty Fly for a White Guy” video and put him in The Fast and the Furious, that’s what everybody was trying to be about 25 years ago. I guess there wasn’t much else to do.
No doubt, the poser’s ultimate goal is the same whether we’re talking Gen Z or Gen X. It’s to show off and impress other people, mostly women. In this case, progressive women, according to the quotes in the Inquirer’s Instagram post. But that’s always been consistent, the concept of performance. If you think about it, there’s a lot of fakeness in the act of courtship. Whether you’re a frat boy doucheknozzle, or gym selfie taker, or one of those insufferable dudes who played acoustic guitar in the college dorms, there’s always a bit of an acting job involved. It’s about as authentic as being a Cowboys fan from New Jersey.
Anyway, a nice moment of levity and humor on the Penn campus. Now, let’s get it back to the Eagles.
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Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com