Woke is not a joke: taxing effects of performative feminism

Gitanjali Navaratnam-Tomayko '28 Assistant Op Ed Editor

Recently, social media has been filled with mocking content about performative males: matcha drinking posers who pretend to care about women's rights.

Recently, social media has been filled with mocking content about performative males: matcha drinking posers who pretend to care about women’s rights. A performative male might be spotted reading feminist literature in a park, or posting a superficial feminist quote on Instagram. Regardless of how a performative male presents himself, a common thread prevails: fake “feminism” without care or actions to back it up. While mocking this lack of sincerity may be amusing, it’s just as important to consider more deeply what performative feminism reveals about us and society.

“Feminist” comments made by performative males are frequently glorified. We often fail to take a step back and question if what they say is anything of substance. Performative feminists will often make obvious statements that, in reality, are disingenuous. Further, the lack of meaning behind these statements feels-tone deaf when set against the serious feminist issues millions are actively fighting for.

Performative feminism is little more than a distraction from the very real feminist issues we all need to be concerned with: the reproductive rights currently being stripped away from countless women, period poverty preventing many girls from going to school, USAID cuts condemning thousands, if not millions, of girls and women into a lifetime of sex trafficking, and so many more.

Despite all this, society continues to eat these statements up, overshadowing serious feminist issues, such as gender-based educational disparities and violence against women. Oftentimes, men pose as feminists when it gains them attention from women, but not when it actually matters. Being a feminist, however, means correcting misogynistic jokes and comments, and standing up for women’s rights — even when no one is rewarding you for it.

People marvel at even the slightest hint of feminism in men because society glorifies nearly everything they do. The bar is significantly lower for men in countless areas, from a dad’s parental involvement being disproportionately praised, to a teenage boy’s holding the door for someone being seen as ultra polite. From women, such actions are viewed as the bare minimum; from men, they’re treated as heroic.

Further, while everyone should be a feminist, the honest reality is that most people aren’t. A study by the United Nations Development Programme found that over 90% of people — across all genders — hold some bias against women. Consequently, a man’s slightest performative feminist action is frequently blown out of proportion, and over- appreciated.

Hyping up insincere feminism is harmful because it provides a false sense of progress and perpetuates misogyny, as is often used to cover up sexist behavior. This is to say: Hyping up insincere feminism allows it to serve as a cover for sexist behavior.

Suppose a man privately acknowledges to a female coworker that it is wrong for her ideas to be spoken over and ignored, yet does not stand up for her when she is interrupted in a meeting. In that moment, even if the man isn’t the one talking over her — even if he knows it’s wrong — his silence still makes him complicit in sexism. While his actions might be confused with feminism, real feminism isn’t just saying the right words, but doing the right actions when they count. In any social hierarchy, if you are in power and not standing up for the oppressed, you become the oppressor.

We must remember that feminism isn’t reading Simone De Beauvoir while ignoring real-life misogyny, but working to shatter the barriers affecting billions of women everywhere. Being a feminist can mean a wide range of things, from calling out simple injustice to protesting for real change. In the pressing political climate of 2025, everyone should be a feminist, and everyone should work to ignite change.

At the end of the day, the solution to the performative feminist problem is simple: Everyone needs to defend injustice, without regard to who is watching.

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Woke is not a joke: taxing effects of performative feminism