“It’s time to perform!” Lucy Bucheit `29 projected through her hot pink megaphone, encouraging people to participate in Grinnell’s first Performative Male contest on Saturday, Sept. 27. “Be performative, be here! There’s a dog! Sign up for the performative male contest here! You don’t have to be male to be performative!”
Bucheit’s calls brought an audience of 50 members to participate in a contest organized by first years Olivia Brightly `29, Lily Lockwood-Keil `29, Libby Huff `29 and Bucheit. Over the course of the next hour, 11 contestants of all genders were weeded out through audience applause, to crown the most performative, performative male.
Performative males are a current internet meme referring to a male archetype characterized by performative feminism and emotional sensitivity. Performative males are associated with things like matcha lattes, tote bags, Labubus and listening to Clairo, which are often considered interests that women have.
For Brightly, Lockwood-Keil and Bucheit, the contest was a way to poke fun at the character.
“I think the contest is fun because it’s lighthearted and an easy way to kind of call out disingenuous behavior,” Lockwood-Keil said.
“There are plenty of men that I have known in my life that are like, ‘Oh, I am, a nice guy.”” Brightly said. “I know a guy who was like ‘I listen to Clairo, I read feminist literature’ before performative males were a thing. And he was like, evil. He treated women horribly. Like, genuinely, but he thought he was a great guy because he listened to Clairo … he was not.”
Bucheit, Brightly and Lockwood-Keil made their official announcement of the contest to Grinnell College’s Yik Yak about three weeks before the event.
“Someone on Yik Yak said, is there an actual organization hosting this or is it just randos? I was like, ‘I’m the rando, please come’,” Brightly added.
“That’s honestly the fun part about Grinnell being such a tiny school. People show up. Put posters up. Go do something and it’s not that hard.”
The contest was conducted bracket style — pairs of contestants stood up to give their best performative male performance to audience members who selected a winner through applause.
The first round consisted of a pitch from each contestant on their performative maleness. Each displayed their feminist literature, tote bags or vinyls of popular female artists and preached to the crowd on their love for women.
Despite the 85 degree weather, Quentin Patrick Kelly `29, the winner of the contest, was decked out in jorts and a crew neck sweater complete with a Ruth Bader Ginsburg necklace, bass guitar, unplugged wired earbuds, and two matcha lattes — all while carrying a Lana Del Rey vinyl, tampon and menstrual pad in his tote bag. Even after the contest Patrick Kelly remained in character.
“People are always talking about performative males and like, to me, it’s not really performance. It’s a lifestyle,” Patrick Kelly said. “I love wearing what I do. I love making sure women are safe and comfortable.”
For runner up, Nino Kirtava `28, said her participation in the contest was very much a performance. Kirtava credited her entire outfit to her male friend who was painting her nails before the contest.
“Today, the most performative thing is that I lied. I said my grandma was a feminist philosopher. Well, no, she wasn’t. I’m not even French. I’m Georgian,” Kirtava said.
“I applaud the winner,” Kirtava added. “He was very performative … he had the guitar and everything.”
The contest organizers agreed that you do not have to be male to be a performative male, and hoped that audience members walked away from the contest with a little bit more self awareness about the parts of themselves that are performative.
“I don’t know that Grinnell necessarily needed the reminder to be genuine and not performative,” Brightly said. “But, this was a fun thing and I’m glad people showed up. I encourage people to go to other events because or do their own. Even if five people show up, you just met five new people.”
Patrick Kelly said that the contest shows how supportive Grinnellians are of each other.
“At the end of the day, we all just want everyone to be safe, everyone to be equal,” he said. “Maybe women are a little bit more than equal. Am I right? Am I right?”
