After attending the Performative Male contest at Pioneer Park last Saturday, The Alternate Universe team recorded key findings on performative Provo males–a recent cultural phenomenon.
Saturday Morning, hundreds of young adults gathered in Pioneer Park for a “Performative Male” contest. Inspired by a recent trend of lookalike competitions and performative male contests in Seattle, New York, and Toronto, this simple park gathering turned into a memorable crowd event that sparked community connection and conversation.
Performative men have recently blown up on social media, characterized by carrying tote bags and feminist literature. They show off their love for feminine things, not because they genuinely like it, but because they want to get noticed by women for it.
Men in Provo, however, demonstrate a different side of the performative male archetype. Less democratic and more religious, these men have their own ways of showing their feigned earnestness.
Here are some key identifiers of a performative Provo man:
- Pensively reading and annotating the Book of Mormon: Journal Version in public
- Carrying around literature about women in church history
- Thrifting all of his clothes at D.I.
- Drinking herbal boba milk tea and/or yerba mate
- Using his Laufey concert tickets as bookmarks
- Carrying a film camera everywhere to make content for his recently created photography account on Instagram
- Playing the same three guitar chords that he learned on his mission. Bonus points if the guitar has signatures from all his companions
The winner of this year’s Performative Male Contest, Derek Thompson, was nonchalantly reading Emma Smith’s biography, and he told everyone about how he always starts his talks in church by saying, “Good morning sisters and brothers.”
“There was no competition after watching Derek. This truly is peak male performance,” said fellow competitor, James Cannon, with a note of awe in his voice.
Baylee Hess, one of the few female witnesses to the competition, said, “It was like watching a bunch of clones fight over who had baggier pants and how many times they could plug their self-started ‘businesses’.”