Read Mission Local often?
Help grow our newsroom, joining the hundreds of San Franciscans who support us by giving below.
What does a “performative male” look like? Well according to the thousands of attendees crowded into Alamo Square Park on Friday evening, they are all too often roaming the streets of San Francisco.
“A man that dresses for the female gaze, projecting feminine energy to get women,” said attendees AJ and Mayliah. “They’re probably from LA, because they ran through all the women there.”
A “performative male” is not performing masculinity, but rather, performing femininity to manipulate women into thinking they aren’t like other guys. They drink matcha or are a coffee snob, they collect analog media like vinyl, CDs or cassettes and they wear thrifted cardigans!
Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter below.
You can find them at your local small coffee shop, virtue signaling with their choice of feminist literature: is that Jane Austen or Jane Eyre? They are hyper-trendy and yet don’t claim their 8+ hour screentime — and they’ve become the internet’s newest punching bag.
Propped in front of the Painted Ladies – more than the 1,600 RSVPS who responded to the call, gathered to determine, along with an AI model and a panel of women, San Francisco’s most “performative male.”
With the attendees dressed in their first-date best you’d think Clairo was putting on a private show at the park. It was too crowded to see the panel of judges or the actual contest, but you really didn’t need to. Everywhere you looked there were hundreds of canvas tote bags, CD collections on display, Labubus, Miffys and speakers blasting Charli XCX — performativity at its finest.
The look-alike contest was the brainchild of young women Alisa Wu, Kake Jin, Jia Chen, Morgan Hoong, BuiltbyBlair and twins Jenny and Chrissy S. — some San Francisco tech transplants and others summer interns.
“It’s our gift to the city before we leave,” said Wu, who will be returning to the University of Waterloo in the coming weeks.
What sets this look-alike contest apart? Its preliminary AI detection round with a custom-built model — an aspect that is as inherently San Francisco as male performativity.
The AI model was fed data of Labubus, matcha lattes, platform shoes, flared pants, headphones, feminist literature like Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and female empowerment Instagram story content.
All contestants uploaded photos of themselves to performative.lol where the model weeded out the poser from the performative — or anybody who showed up with a Labubu or book.
The contest promised free matcha, and while there was no fountain of matcha in this performative promise land — all contestants received gift cards from their partner, Kiss of Matcha.
“You’re so performative dude, you’re for sure winning,” a young guy tells his performatively-dressed friend, hyping him up for the contest to come. “I’ve seen Mitski live, this is not a performance,” said the contestant, anxiously awaiting the panel to come.
Some contestants defined male performativity as simply as “hating period cramps,” while others monologued about their outfits and subsequent style — which was not at all performative.
While the majority of contestants interpreted “performative male” as the meme archetype of a poser indie boy, another dressed up in an Anime-style maid costume with a blue wig, serving his own matcha (of course).
“If the idea of the performative male is to go against the Sigma-Alpha male, then what’s more performative than a pre-second wave image of the woman itself,” said the male wife.
A classic take on “performative males” with feminism at the forefront. Photo by Jordan Montero.
Gone fishing for women. Photo by Jordan Montero. 
A different, perhaps more camp interpretation of “male performativity.” Photo by Jordan Montero.
While waiting for their turn, some attempted backflips out of boredom while others taped “Future is Female” onto their T-shirts. Some were chatting up the girls who came as spectators while others brought a fishing line with a Labubu hooked to the end, bobbing it up and down over the crowd to fish out the strongest suitors.
After the weak links were eliminated from the performativity pool, the contest hosts acted as the judging panel, bringing contestants up one by one and rated their performativity ala the Roblox game, Dress to Impress, with a star rating system.
Look-alike contests have been popular across the country for the past year — starting with a Timothee Chalamet look-alike contest in New York and making its way to San Francisco just last year with the city’s search for its own Dev Patel. “Performative male” contests are making their way down the West Coast too, with preceding contests in Seattle and Silverlake, Los Angeles.
The winning “performative male” was none other than James Bennett — a San Francisco native and UC Berkeley graduate. Bennett was sporting his usual look: baggy jeans down to the ground, a tote bag, a thrifted cardigan, yellow Onitsuka Tigers from Japan and a matcha in hand. The costumed pieces? A Kangol hat, cropped Uniqlo button up, wired headphones draped over his ears and a Labubu he borrowed from his mom.
“It’s ecstatic and overwhelming,” said Bennett, swarmed by adoring fans pleading for photos.
“We shouldn’t villainize men enjoying feminine things,” said Bennett.
“At the end of the day if they actually read that [feminist literature], it’s overall a net positive,” continued Bennett, a former Philosophy major, which he agreed was “absofuckinglutely performative.”
Look-alike winner James Bennett (right) taking a photo with a fan(left). Photo by Jordan Montero. 
Slogans like “Future is Female” and “I hate periods” taped on shirts. Photo by Jordan Montero. 
Celebrating Bennett’s win by blasting Laufey. Photo by Jordan Montero.
Support the Mission Local team
We’re a small, independent, nonprofit newsroom that works hard to bring you news you can’t get elsewhere.
In 2025, we have a lofty goal: 5,000 donors by the end of the year — more than double the number we had last year. We are 20 percent of the way there: Donate today and help us reach our goal!
