University of Kentucky students organized the “Performative Male Contest,” where both men and women competed to see who was UK’s most performative male. 

The event took place at ‘the bowl’ outside of William T. Young Library, on Friday, Sept. 12, where over 30 contestants competed in three rounds, where they were asked questions by a panel of judges to determine a winner. 

The contestants wore baggy jeans, sipped matcha and held feminist literature including “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Little Women,” while protesting periods. 

According to the event creator and judge, Audrey Goss, a freshman political science major, she brought the idea of a performative male contest to her group of friends after seeing similar contests take place all over the United States, most recently at Western Kentucky University. 

“​​I was like, hey, why can’t I just make the performative male contest?” Goss said. “There became like, over I’d say 160 people in the group, and more than 220 likes on the post on Instagram and it just blew up from here.”

Goss said she defines a performative male as someone who takes “feminine ideals” to impress a woman, taking on a new persona to do so. 

According to judge Andre Lusk, a freshman aerospace engineering major, the first round of events had contestants introduce their names and give the audience a “twirl,” then the judges used their performance to narrow it down to a top ten. 

The top 10 were asked, “Who is your favorite woman?” Lusk said the crowd’s reaction to the answers determined the top three, where they had to prove why they were the most performative male. 

Winner of most performative male, Donavan Washington, a freshman exploratory major, said he wasn’t performing, it was his true, authentic self competing that day.

“People should stop calling it performative male,” Washington said. “They should call it the right male.”  

Washington said being a performative male means being a feminist, saying the fact that he won over several women “breaks his heart.” 

“I believe a woman should have won,” Washington said. “As a man, winning this contest, it shouldn’t even have happened yet. Yet, for some reason, through all the multiverses, all of the timelines, this universe, this timeline, this happened. I couldn’t have done it with any of them (women).” 

Senior biosystems engineering major, Lauren Kargas, said she stumbled upon the event after walking home from class and realized she was dressed for the event and could possibly win as “nobody loves a woman like a woman,” and said she had to “go over there and show those men who’s boss.” 

“I feel like all these performative men, they’re just like frilling themselves up just for the female gaze, so they’re not actually the way that they say they are,” Kargas said. “This is raw, this is unfiltered. This is the real me.” 

Many of the men in attendance protested periods, saying they hate that women have to endure them each month. In response, Kargas said she appreciated how men allied with her community, but believes “a lot of it probably is a little performative.”

Kargas said as a woman and as a feminist, she finds the competition “ironic” as it draws attention to the fact that in modern times, men are changing themselves to please women when historically it has been the other way around. 

“Instead of women trying to, dress themselves up and overdo it, to for the male gaze,” Kargas said. “It’s a nice turnaround to see them (men) start to dress and try to act for the female gaze, even if it is just like a ploy.”