In a sea of coffee and tea, the only drink you’ll find him holding is a bright green matcha.

With his other hand occupied holding bell hooks’ “All About Love”, he resorts to using a modest tote bag to store his belongings. He’s sporting baggy sweatpants and a classic pair of Birkenstock clogs, but you’ll never find him unaccessorized — not without his Labubu. If you ask him what he’s listening to through his wired headphones, there’s a 99% chance he’ll bring up Clairo, Lana Del Ray or Laufey.

If this description sounds familiar, you might have just spotted one of TikTok’s most popular current hashtags — the Performative Male.

These men are known to change their physical appearance and behavior to appear more cultured and appealing to women, rather than being genuine to their personality.

This recent phenomenon of feigning being “woke” or “aesthetic” has taken the world by storm, with many cities in the United States even going so far as to host their own performative male contests. The popularity of these contests even reached the grounds of Bellaire High School’s Tea Society club, where the event was met with great enthusiasm.

But what, exactly, makes this persona so popular among today’s generation? It’s hard to imagine that guys are naturally drawn to feminist literature and anti-menstruation protests.

The performative male’s desire to put on this excessive act comes from trying to attract women. They are under the assumption that advocating for female rights, acting submissive and adopting a curated personality is attractive. Suddenly, masses of men begin to change their wardrobe, adopt new music tastes and go out of their way to purchase ridiculously expensive accessories.

But the craze over this persona is much deeper than an attempt to attract the female gaze.

One of the biggest pull factors of this “performatism” is its dramatic contrast against previous narratives of hypertoxic masculinity. It is a clear rebellion against the conventions of the “alpha male” archetype, which emphasizes seeming assertive and dominant, in an attempt to appear “progressive.” The performative male gives new meaning to soft masculinity by creating new standards of what women find attractive—adopting a “soft” aesthetic—and playing into that narrative.

However, on a deeper level, the craze to conform to this act stems from the innate human desire for social validation. Whether it’s to fit in with the crowd or to try to seem cool, this style appeals to the part of a person that desperately wishes to be liked and accepted, even at the expense of authenticity.

No one who adopts this curated persona is truly representative of themselves anymore; rather, it is a fake identity in a mirror that reflects the interests of an increasingly warped modern society.

But that mirror shows our reflection too. When you think about it, these males are a great example of how we are all performative. People have long used insincere interests, clothing, aesthetics and beliefs to identify with a specific community or come off a particular way. With the repetition of this history once again, the goal of performative males will no longer be to obtain females. Instead, they will be chasing originality.

As the standards for males become more specific, the room for men to be themselves becomes smaller, therefore limiting male creative freedom as a whole.

The reasons for these facades are masked by the attention that these actors have received online and in public. Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram have been swarmed by videos and posts, both glorifying and mocking this trend. Men have often been stopped in public and interviewed, and those who are extremely dressed up generate substantial crowds.

However, no one stops to think about the root of this epidemic — people are so distracted by the aesthetic aspect that the true incentive for this performance is hidden.

Can you even call it a performance? This one-man show is not confined to the stage.

For many, it has become their reality.