In Defense of Being Performative

"Attacks on performativity are usually taken as a demand for authenticity. If you are doing something performatively, that means your motives for doing it are suspect. Performative protest is intended to make protesters look righteous, not bring about meaningful change; a performative male is a pickup artist who manipulates women into sex by playacting a sort of feminist gentleness instead of engaging in manosphere-style peacocking."

"But before the emergence of 'performative' as an insult, generations of US thinkers had considered performative actions as part of a democratic society's foundation. They understood that citizenship—not as a legal status but as positive, active engagement with democratic life—is inherently performative and that abandoning the performance of democratic life means courting democratic collapse."

The term 'performative' has become a popular criticism across political and social contexts, used to dismiss actions as inauthentic or motivated by self-interest rather than genuine concern. Critics use it to suggest that performative protests aim to make participants appear righteous without creating meaningful change, or that performative behavior represents manipulation rather than authenticity. However, this modern dismissal contradicts historical American political thought, which recognized performative action as fundamental to democracy. Citizenship, understood as active engagement in democratic life rather than merely legal status, is inherently performative. Abandoning the performance of democratic participation threatens democratic collapse itself.

Read at The Nation