What is the “performative male”, the new male archetype that infested our feeds?

A new species has just appeared in the zoo of male archetypes. An almost mystical look, with one Tote Bag often embellished with a suspended labubu as an accessory, wired headphones, shorts and, in hand, a book of Joan Didion whose pages seem strangely intact. In recent months, this character has attended parks, coffee and, above all, Tiktok, under the kind appellation of «performative male “.

Male archetype appeared on social networks in 2025, He takes care of his physical appearance to make himself more sympathetic to progressive women and is the antithesis of toxic man. “It is the men who try to respond to what feminist women want,” he explained Guinevere Unterbrinkco-deductive of a competition to find the perfect incarnation of this new male, last June. A definition that says everything: it is not so much a question of convictions as a aesthetic calculation, a staging calibrated to seduce.

In the United States the phenomenon has become viral. In Seattle, the famous “Male Contest performing “ He attracted hundreds of spectators. The competitors paraded in large jeans and shirts with feminist slogans, reciting some verse in favor of female emancipation – sometimes on the contrary – and proudly brandishing their vinyl records Clairo. The winner won a highly symbolic trophy: The will to change of the American author and activist Bell Hooks.

The performative man arrives

The success of the term is not insignificant. It is part of a transformation of the word “performer». Rendering popular by the American philosopher Judith Butler To think of the genre as a performance in its essay Trouble Dans Le Genre of 1990, the performer It is based on a “staging of legitimacy”, the production of a credible authority. Since then the concept has slipped into an ironic and worse use. After the “performative activism »identified during the movement Black Lives Matterwe now have the “performative man”, whose deconstruction is reduced to an instagrammable apparition.

On social networks, the portrait of a robot has become a meme, with Mullet haircut, nail polish, match tea, mustache, wide jeans and readings Of Mona Chollet Waped as cultural totems. A sort of moodboard of heterosexual man’s heterosexual man that embraces a fake femininity. The actor Jacob Elordi He is regularly associated with the host of performative males due to his style of clothing. Some books inserted in the pockets of the cargo pants, a shoulder camera and a vast collection of bags that make all the fashionists tremble, Timothée Chalamet has not been able to escape this label, as well as Pedro Pascal.

Vulnerability on display

Sociologically, the performative male It illustrates a mutation of masculinity under the relentless eye of the networks. Where some men take refuge in the virilist speeches of Andrew Tate Others invest in opposite panoplia. Showing their vulnerability, managing as “female”, ostentatiously reading feminist texts. In both cases, these are gender performances: only one exhibits the domain, the other deconstructs him in his own way.

Some men are already mocking this trend and deliberately embrace her to avoid the accusations. For Tony Wangfounder of the consultancy and forecast of trends Office of Applied Strategythe game often tinged with self -irony. “There is something meta-ironic in all this, like an armor», He explains on the columns of New York Times. Clearly, exaggerating one’s role, the performative man protects himself. If criticized, he can always respond that he was kidding.

But behind the irony there is a paradox. These men do not try to be better as to appear better. Their vulnerability is a weapon of seduction, their “personal growth” an optimized SEO showcase for Instagram. In other words, You don’t drink match because she likes, but because you want to be seen while drinking it.

Parodic competitions

If the phenomenon is so fascinating, It is because it touches a central question: what is sincerity in the era of networks? The Z generation, obsessed with authenticity, is rapid in recognizing falsehood. From here the Tiktoks teased her who collect millions of views and parody competitions all over the world. But it remains an ambiguity. What if the criticism was itself a performative? The term “performative” is rarely applied to maleers, even if they are equally on display. So it is the progressive aesthetic that is under the microscope, and men are not forgiven to play feminism without really practicing it.

At the end of the Seattle competition, the organizers submitted candidates to a simple test: some basic questions about women’s rights. The result: most has failed. One did not know of the existence of the menstrual cups, another did not know in which year the women obtained the right to vote, reports the New York Times. Choosing the right disguise is therefore not enough.

Do clothes really be man?

In the end, the performative male It could only be the avatar 2025 of an old story: the man who tries to seduce by confusing with an image. A peacock that performs a sort of courtship 2.0 to attract the attention of females and affirm their domain on other males. Instead of waving the long feathers of the tail, use one female gauze.

So we have to worry about this new species? Not exactly. Between a podcast lover obsessed with bodycount and a guy who reads Just Kids Of Patti Smith while listening Mitskithe choice seems soon made. In essence, The real problem of performative male It is not that it exists, but that does not go beyond the accessory. Going around with a feminist essay is a good thing. All that remains is to browse the pages.