About

Performative Male, also known as Performative Man or Performative Guy, is an internet slang term used to describe a man whose actions, hobbies and personality traits appear inauthentic and seem to revolve around "performing" for other people's worldviews, tastes and interests, specifically catering to the female gaze.

In 2025, memes about Performative Males peaked due to a series of stereotypical Performative Male interests that were anthologized in viral posts. Many of the interests were in line with 2025 consumer crazes and fads, including Labubu Toys, matcha lattes and enjoying music from the pop singer Clairo. Other signs of a Performatve Male, according to the memes, include reading in public, wearing a tote bag and using wired earbuds. The trend led to a viral Performative Male Contest that was held in Washington Square Park in New York City, as well as a series of memes about a Performative Male Final Boss.

Origin

Viral posts about men being performative surfaced en masse in late 2024 and 2025. However, some posts from 2022, 2023 and early 2024 seemingly inspired the stereotype to later develop fully.

For instance, an early viral example of a Performative Male stereotype is a video skit shared by TikToker^[1] @theslappablejerk on September 10th, 2022, who parodied a "self-proclaimed 'male feminist'" and tagged the video "#performative" in the description. Over three years, it received over 34,800 likes (shown below).

On March 1st, 2023, the Subway Takes account on TikTok^[2] shared a video of a man giving his "take" that people reading on the subway and in public were being performative, receiving ovr 18,700 likes in two years.

On April 21st, 2024, Instagram^[3] user @finnharryy elevated the idea of performative male reading in a video of himself reading at a cafe with a description reading, "This guy has been 'reading' Emrata's book for the past 30 minutes." Over one year, the video gained over 2.9. million likes (shown below).

On December 16th, X^[4] user @highslip tweeted, "You can always tell when a man’s mustache is performative and not representative of his true spirit," gaining over 175,000 likes in seven months (shown below).

Spread

The abovementioned tweet seemed to be a catalyst for the Performative Male stereotype online, as multiple female TikTokers adopted its phrasal template to point out other physical and personality traits of men that were allegedly performative.

For instance, on December 17th, 2024, TikToker^[5] @ketobykeke posted a video of herself with a caption reading, "You can always tell when a man's cologne choice is performative and not representative of their spirit," gaining over 199,400 likes in seven months (shown below).

On December 19th, TikToker^[6] @kelseysoles posted a video using the same phrasal template, instead referencing a man's tattoos being performative and not representative of their spirit. Over seven months, her video received roughly 1.9 million likes.

On January 26th, 2025, X^[7] user @eieniffy quote-tweeted a photo of a guy wearing an "I Love My Girlfriend" T-shirt surrounded by Hello Kitty plushies, captioning it, "Too performative, as a man, why are you doing all that just for some online attention?" Over six months, the post gained roughly 11,000 likes (shown below).

Heading into mid-2025, the archetype of a Performative Male associated with matcha lattes, Labubus and Clairo began to form in memes and viral discourse.

For instance, on May 6th, TikToker^[8] @rawrted9 posted "part one" of his video series "Rating Performative Guy Things" in which he talked about getting "fitted up" to study at a cafe and drink a matcha latte. Over two months, his video gained over 44,900 likes (shown below).

On May 9th, TikToker^[9] @beny_ftw posted a video of a guy walking with a tote bag and drinking a matcha latte with Snapchat text overlay reading, "MFs be so performative 🥀." Over two months, the video received over 117,000 likes (shown below).

On June 26th, 2025, X^[10] user @atrophicbtrfly tweeted, "I see a man with a performative mustache and vintage Levi's in public and it ignites a rage in me that could destroy nations," gaining over 2,100 likes in a month (shown below).

Performatove Male Contest

On July 20th, 2025, TikToker^[11] @namyarfx posted a video of a "Performative Male Contest" held in Washington Square Park in New York City, roughly following the Celebrity Look Alike Contests trend. Over 10 days, the video received over 787,200 likes (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References