{"id":945,"date":"2025-11-28T22:31:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T05:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/?p=945"},"modified":"2025-11-28T22:34:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T05:34:58","slug":"performative-males-vs-performative-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/archives\/945","title":{"rendered":"Performative Males vs. Performative Media"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The word performative<\/em> circulates widely in our current society. It appears in online discourse, political commentary, and everyday conversations, often used to criticize shallow or insincere behaviour. In its common definition, the Oxford English Dictionary describes performative<\/em> as: \u201cOf action, speech, behaviour, etc.: done or expressed for the sake of appearance, especially to impress others or to improve one\u2019s own image, typically with the implication of insincere intent or superficial impact.<\/em>\u201d This meaning focuses on the surface, and insinuates something staged, hollow, and self-serving. This meaning has become even more visible through contemporary memes, especially the \u201cperformative male\u201d trend spreading through contemporary social media. These videos mock exaggerated male displays of tailored \u201cfeminine\u201d habits, suggesting that certain gendered behaviours exist mainly as performances for a desired audience. However, when introduced in media studies through Bollmer\u2019s Materialist Media Theory, the concept of performance takes on a very different meaning. Instead of describing behaviour done \u201cfor show,\u201d Bollmer argues that media perform the world, and have a direct effect on our thoughts, behaviours, and actions. Rather than focusing on the intention, he examines how media shapes what becomes possible in experience and in social life (Bollmer, 2019, pp. 7\u201314). This contrast opens an important space for media theory, by proving that words do not carry stable meanings across contexts. When a term like performative<\/em> crosses between popular culture and theory, it lands differently and shifts in significance. By examining these shifts, we gain a clearer understanding of how media produce, condition, and intervene in human action. Under this framework, performativity is not about appearances, but about material consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does it mean to be performative?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Oxford Dictionary definition frames performative<\/em> as a critique. When we say someone\u2019s activism, fashion sense, or interests are \u201cperformative,\u201d we imply their behaviour and identity revolves around self-branding for the purpose of impressing others. The same applies to social media: a post can be performative if it signals virtue or outrage without genuine commitment. This meaning depends on intentionality \u2013 a performative gesture is insincere because the actor intends to cultivate an appearance rather than effect real change. Bollmer challenges this intention-based thinking by arguing that we should analyze media not by what they represent<\/em>, but by what they do<\/em>. The main idea is that media produce realities through their operation. They play an active role in behaviour, identity, and social structures at the level of matter, code, infrastructure, and embodiment (Bollmer, 2019, pp. 20\u201324). This reframing connects to other theorists like Verbeek, who argues that technologies mediate human perception and action by amplifying some possibilities while reducing others (Verbeek, 2006, pp. 364\u2013370). For Verbeek, the \u201cintentions\u201d of technology are embedded not in user consciousness but in the object\u2019s inherent design, allowing them to guide and shape experience. Media perform through the affordances they create, the choices they structure, and the values they materialize. Taken together, Bollmer and Verbeek move us away from the idea that meaning is determined by the human user. Instead, they argue that true meaning emerges from interactions between humans and media environments. The performative <\/em>concept becomes a tool that reveals how media act in the world and how they participate in shared life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPerformative Male\u201d: A Case Study<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent caricature of the \u201cPerformative Male\u201d offers a helpful cultural contrast. These memes exaggerate male behaviour by depicting specific tasks \u2013 drinking matcha, reading feminist literature, carrying Labubus \u2013 as elaborate displays of effort and identity. A \u201cperformative male\u201d performs actions or participates in cultures mostly inhabited by women in an attempt to create a relatable energy. The joke lies in the clear theatrics of this performance:  obviously none of these behaviours are exclusive to women, but a man walking around in public with a barely-touched matcha, a Labubu clipped to his thrifted Carthharts, and Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex <\/em>in a screen-printed tote bag mimics a peacock performing a mating dance. This meme reflects the Oxford Dictionary\u2019s meaning. The performative male\u2019s labour is exaggerated for the sake of appearance, and his entire identity becomes a performance piece. The humour works because the behaviour signals attention-seeking rather than genuine action. In this sense, the meme critiques performative masculinity and the inflated self-presentation that digital culture rewards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, from Bollmer\u2019s perspective, the meme itself reveals a deeper layer of performativity. It shows how platforms like TikTok and Instagram actively shape behaviour \u2013 content creators learn to exaggerate, dramatize, and stylize actions because the platform\u2019s algorithm rewards visibility, clarity, and engagement bait. The meme becomes a product of platform performativity, and displays how media systems encourage and incentivize specific forms of conduct. The meme becomes an example of performativity not because the individual man is insincere, but because social media platforms\u2019 architecture performs social expectations. Media environments materialize what counts as visible or valuable behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performative in Media Creation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding performative<\/em> through both the Oxford Dictionary and Bollmer\u2019s definitions enriches our media theory toolkit. The Oxford Dictionary\u2019s definition helps us analyze cultural performance, signalling, and authenticity, whereas Bollmer\u2019s definition helps us analyze how systems act, intervene, and materialize social relations. Together, they give us a multifaceted view of how meaning moves between people, technologies, and infrastructures. The concept also teaches us that media theory is not just about interpretation, it\u2019s about tracing consequences. When we understand media as performative, we recognize that they are active participants in shaping human experience and are capable of producing emotions, habits, and forms of life \u2013 not just images or videos. In a digital landscape dominated by AI, algorithmic feeds, and platform-driven identities, this shift in understanding becomes essential. We can no longer ask only what media say, w<\/em>e must ask what media do.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bollmer, G. (2019). Materialist media theory: An introduction<\/em>. Bloomsbury Academic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oxford English Dictionary. (n.d.). Performative<\/em>. In OED Online<\/em>. Oxford University Press. https:\/\/www.oed.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verbeek, P.-P. (2006). Materializing morality: Design ethics and technological mediation. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 31<\/em>(3), 361\u2013380. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0162243905285847<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The word performative circulates widely in our current society. It appears in online discourse, political commentary, and everyday conversations, often used to criticize shallow or insincere behaviour. In its common definition, the Oxford English Dictionary describes performative as: \u201cOf action, speech, behaviour, etc.: done or expressed for the sake of appearance, especially to impress others … Continue reading Performative Males vs. Performative Media<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103482,"featured_media":950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[157,34,155],"class_list":["post-945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-bollmer","tag-materiality","tag-verbeek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103482"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":949,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945\/revisions\/949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}