Nowadays, there's lots of talk about 'performative males' and any time a phrase or word reaches critical mass like this it drives me crazy. What does this word mean anymore? It used to refer to something but the original meaning has twisted into a meaningless meme-phrase. I think it's safe to say that the reason it's reached this cultural boiling point though is because we (society) are completely infested by posers.
It used to be that the way you dressed was indicative to the types of things you were interested in. Your clothing indicated your inner feelings, interests, culture, upbringing. With the advent of social media however, we now have -cores, aesthetics, and people have learned how to perform with the way that they dress. The cart has been put before the horse. If you go on YouTube, you can watch these videos "what are people wearing in NYC" and the like. It's basically a vlog where a guy goes around and asks people about the clothes they are wearing and why. Almost every single person in these videos gives off such an in-authentic vibe that it's laughable. I don't think many of these people ask themselves the question 'why?'. Why do I like these things? Have I been programmed to like these things by a social media algorithm? You'll get a lot of 'freelance creative director' types. Or people that will just say their career is being a 'creative'. What ever happened to being specific? Everyone is a creative. A freelance creative director isn't a real job (maybe like 10 people have this job). These people are posers, they're grifters and chameleons. It's okay to not be something cool and glamorous. It's indicative of a greater cultural issue where we look down on people with 'low-value' jobs. I can't pin down why these videos irritate me so badly. I rage watch them about once a week.
This is coming from someone who loves clothing and talking clothes. I guess it just comes down to a level of self-awareness that so many people lack. It's cool to care about how you dress and be careful with selecting your outfits, and even dressing outlandishly, but be yourself. We don't have to do this dance of baggy to skinny jeans every 10 years, trying to be the first one brave enough to cross to the other side, taking on the mantle of trend-setter. You can just wear what makes you comfortable. That's why old people look the coolest. They just dress for comfort. They've owned their clothes for a long time. It's a level of honesty that we could all strive for.
In the end we're all performative males. The matcha will change for a different beverage, the baggy selvedge denim will get skinny. The feminist literature will evolve into another source of media. At least perform your own show. I don't want to see you playing dress-up as another person.
0 comments