“Hey, did you miss the performative male contest?” is how a friend so publicly confronted me earlier this week. A few days ago, Yalies held a contest to find the most performative male on campus. Capitalizing on a rapidly growing trend, students gathered around and atop the Women’s Table outside Sterling Memorial Library. Men arrived with their oversized pants, wired earphones, open feminist literature and lukewarm matchas. 

When my friend questioned me, she — in a very apt use of the phrase — clocked me. But, then again, I was just walking from one place to another, equipped with the tools I needed. I use wired headphones because I keep losing my AirPods. I was carrying my annotated copy of Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” because it was assigned for class. And I was sipping on my iced coffee because I didn’t get enough sleep the night before. Why the satchel? Because Indiana Jones had one. 

What was I so afraid of? Being perceived? Perhaps I wear or do certain things in order to be more perceived. Yet, in a society where the act of gender itself is a performance, where does the average person’s performance end and where does being “performative” begin? And what does it say about the state of liberal arts and higher education that it has become taboo to publicly read a book on a college campus?

Who are the performative men? We all know a guy who read a book for attention or ditched the dorky backpack for a much less pragmatic tote bag. Yeah, he sucks. But I would attest that the men who make fun of performative men are the most performative of all. As if by addressing this type of man, they hope to exempt themselves from the same judgment.

I think our original purpose to call out performative and often manipulative men has been well accomplished. But now it’s as if this trend is — maybe unknowingly — promoting men to be more “macho.” Gender itself is a performance, but masculinity specifically is caught in a cycle. Embracing less traditionally masculine traits is perceived as progressive until it reaches a threshold of inauthenticity, where it is then counteracted by overperforming masculine traits. Maybe that loafer lover just started wearing clearly unused work boots. 

But the attention that this trend brings to masculine performance creates an alternative path that allows non-traditional masculinity to be ironically overperformed. Gender has always been a performance, so are we now thoughtfully addressing it? Or exacerbating its harmfulness? 

I also think this trend may have a negative effect on our culture around reading. Young people’s decline in reading skills is a real issue — specifically, young men could benefit from reading more. It is no secret that young men are having a bit of an issue with general empathy. Perhaps it’s meme culture’s irreverence or promotion of red pill culture. I believe one of the many ways in which empathy or critical thinking can be grossly improved is through the encouragement of reading.

Reading creates an intimately empathetic experience in which you have to translate another’s feelings into your own. This experience is seldom found in short-form media; now, an experience can be shared with thousands instantaneously. So I am suspicious of a trend that seems to be discouraging reading in any capacity — specifically in public. We simply cannot afford to make reading seem like anything other than beneficial. 

I would much rather find someone reading a book in a cafe than scrolling behind a lifeless screen. People are so unwilling to read as it is, and it only seems to be getting worse. To maintain reading as a critical touchstone of our culture, we need to be encouraged to read whatever we want, wherever we want. 

When we’re all drifting towards a constantly perceived and uneducated world, we should not be focusing on trends that both encourage surveillance and punish literary curiosity. A throng of students gathered outside Sterling for the performative male competition. I am sure there are far more productive things to gather for — perhaps in the library itself. 

GRIFFIN SANTOPIETRO is a sophomore in Berkeley College studying English and Theatre. He can be reached at griffin.santopietro@yale.edu.