An unread novel plucked from the feminist canon, a Labubu dangling from a tote bag, and an "oak milk matcha" – spot them all, and you may have encountered an archetypal "performative male", said Ellie Violet Bramley in The Guardian . "Likened to the poser of the 90s" keen to convey their rarefied cultural tastes to the world at large, the performative male's "posturing" has a more targeted end goal: "to woo women they hope will be attracted by their feminist theatrics".

'Gender is inherently a performance'

Portraying these men as "the embodiment of pure deceit" is a lighthearted social media trend, said The Daily Tar Heel , but it also poses a serious question: "why do people feel so uncomfortable when men embrace their femininity"?

The performative male is just the latest in "a p

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