[Petrini] I had to ask Carter Bryant about the performative male allegations, allegations which he firmly denies. “I was the only boy living in a house with eight girls”. Says his favorite Clairo song is ‘Softly’
What does “performative male allegations” even mean?
Sometimes when a man enjoys stereotypically “feminine” things, he’ll be accused of being performative, essentially faking the enjoyment in order to attract women. I guess people were saying it about him
Why is this a must ask for a reporter? Seems weird.
It’s a joke
Performative Reporting
It’s an older meme from 2025 lol reporter is months late asking it. But in 2025 there were viral performative male contests held in major cities across the country and they did numbers on tik tok lol
Older meme? 2025?
That’s it. I’m done with the internet.
memes age extremely fast, that aint new lol
It’s an older meme sir, but it checks out.
All your base, is belong to me
Clicks
I pretended to like “Sex and the City” in college when all those box sets were coming out on DVD, way worse ways to spend an afternoon than with a buncha sorority girls in their pajamas drinking wine and half-watching those.
Spent Sundays pretending to be interested in say yes to the dress in college so I could hang out with a girl I liked.
We’ve been married for 6 years now.
I bought mutual funds because this girl I liked wanted to sell them to me, she also sold me life insurance. We are not married or friends lol.
You’re just an easy mark.
Trick ass mark
Was all performance based
I almost switched phone plans like 30 minutes ago on a trip to the grocery store because of the saleswoman’s ass. I’m married, by the way. And my mother in law was with me. I realized, “Stuff, as you enter middle-age, you’re becoming Clark Griswald.”
You closed the deal. Good job.
Great show and I stand by that. If being a man and liking sex and the city is performative I guess I’m performative.
I hope it was red wine though. Chardonnay is a bridge too far.
It was boxed garbage, Franzia sunset blush. Did the trick.
Jesus man
You said it.
Similar experience but with Grey’s Anatomy. I ended up legit liking the show.
I’m so sorry
I mean, SJP’s legs were worth the price of admission too.
Let’s not act like there isn’t guys who really do act that way though.
Oh absolutely. The stereotype exists for a reason. Mustache mullet matcha paperback guy with 10000 skeletons in their closet is someone I’ve met many times in the music scene.
But assuming someone 6’6 with a 40 inch vertical making millions in the NBA has to be performative to attract anyone is silly.
Gotta cherubic little baby face too. Dude is getting all the cougars on the river walk.
I can’t believe they brought back both the mullet AND the mustache, smh….
My biggest problem with the ugly mustache comeback is that most zoomers that want to grow a mustache… just can’t. It’s like 2 or 3 face pubes under their nose. Maybe in some years the average zoomer ‘stache will look better, but right now most I see just look like shit.
Well LeBron performatively reads lol. Not to attract women but he is a poser w it
Just.. if we’re serious about the question, then it should be a woman asking it. And if we’re not, well, isn’t that reinforcing the problem?
Jesus Christ what a weird thing for people to even invent.
But that’s the modern day we live in where if you ever support anything that’s not self-interested people accuse you of virtue signaling or being performative.
No one can ever be sincere. Everyone just assumes everyone is making it up..
“Performative male” sounds like a claim that he is pretending to be male.
I don’t know about other fan bases but there was a full on thing with Clairo’s fandom specifically. There was a meme like “boy turn that Clairo off and grab you a beer” and those girls turned that shit into a mantra lol. It was their call to arms against all men listening haha
I’ve never heard a word about this about anyone lol
Says a lot about our society lmfao. Projection
See: Caleb Williams
You remember when “metrosexual” was a big term back in the day for men who thought it was a good idea to dress nice and take showers and smell good and fully wipe their ass after they take a shit, and the undertone was that those men were gay or soft? It’s like that.
it’s pretty much like putting on a soft, progressive type of aesthetic to please other women. Like drinking matcha or listening to clairo or liking labubus back when they were popular lol
Since when was it weird for guys to like matcha the hell
Always has been, along with other woke liberal feminine activities like enjoying books or being happy when you receive a gift.
One of the gen-x/older millennial versions was it being “gay” to be genuinely into a girl beyond sex.
Fellas, is it gay to like women?
not necessarily weird to like it, just weird to pretend to like it to impress women, obviously if you genuinely like matcha ur good lol
Appease to women?
Edit: ah a stealth edit from our cultural critic
How can you know the motivation of a stranger? When it makes sense to just assume people like what they like because they like it?
If we assume every time someone says anything that their motives are sinister it’s a joke. We see the same thing if someone supports a political cause or charity. They’re accused of virtue signaling.
Anything the opposite is the bigger problem vice signaling. People refuse to ever accept that some people are not entirely motivated myself interest. Some men actually do like the color pink or actually do Read books by feminist authors and the like.
It’s not that it’s that weird. It’s that people think it’s weird
I have to wonder if they’re referring to Starbucks matcha lattes and not “real” matcha tea, if that makes sense.
Americans stereotyping a fucking TEA is so ridiculous that it makes complete sense 🥀
When I first started drinking matcha like 15 years ago I didn’t know one girl who drank it my long time asian friend put on. Maybe the stereotype came along when starbucks started selling matcha and it got trendy. It got expensive as fuck too since then 😂
Don’t you know they have the most freedom!?
It’s nothing new. They stereotyped wine. Wine. And I bet there’s plenty of people in this thread that see wine as a women’s thing.
Not other women. Women.
I drink matcha but don’t know what clairo is.
Hope somebody gives context in the comments
Gen z term to describe a guy who puts on a certain personality to appeal to women, drinks matcha, listens to clairo/beabadoobee, wears tote bags, reads books in public etc. They wrongly think having the same interests as girls will make them more attractive
reads books in public etc
this being construed as feminine is funny, but probably also means that I’m old as fuck.
Women make up the vast majority of book sales in the US. According to Pew, it could be as much as an 80⁄20 split. Shits wild.
Might correlate with some things here in the ol’ US of A
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It still goes deeper. Apart from certain socioeconomic demographics it was never uncool for girls to have good grades and yes… read… and even if the majority is “light reading”, someone who reads regularly is way more likely to also pick up something more significant once in a while.
I’m in the same boat. I don’t remember when learning became feminine
I think it’s bc showing women that you read must mean that you’re an intellectual type and that you’re not like other guys.
It’s not bc it’s a feminine hobby (although women read WAY more than men), it’s because they want to seem more refined than their peers. I can’t knock them though, if you’re reading any long-form content that’ll do more to prevent cognitive decline than having 10 hours of screen time.
People that are mad when a male reads a book are often the people who most mad at men falling behind.
Damn reading is a woman thing now? We are cooked as a society.
nah not reading generally, moreso the intent, for example reading feminist literature in public to let women know you’re not like the other guys is performative male behaviour
Do men not read now!? Wtf is wrong with that? Kids these days are weird. And dumb I guess
Can’t read when you spend all your down time playing video games and listening to deep thinkers like Joe Rogan
Why you getting downvotes?
This is largely true. Gen Z men statistically do not read.
What’s the stat for millennials? I’m sad to say I used to read books like crazy back in the day but I haven’t actually read an actual book in years… Decades? Idk
Not great for them either.
Look, reading is down across the board- why read when you got tiktok and youtube and video games. It’s down more for men than women and a lotta younger people never picked up the habit- in part due to us doing dumb shit like moving away from phonics.
I haven’t really cracked a new book since New Year so I’m guilty here too- although there’s a rainy day in my area for President’s Day so this is a good reminder to curl up with a book
It’s also dependent on area. Where I grew up, people thought it was weird to see someone reading as a late teen/early 20s guy. When I moved to a more metropolitan area, it wouldn’t feel out of place to see people reading on their commute or in the park. I even used to sit in a bar with a book.
Reading is fine. It’s more-so about performative males pretending to read or being interested in feminist literature to appeal to women.
Dude what are half of those things? I can’t be that old right? Right?
I thought they were joking with the Clairo/Beedabeedooboo
But I had Soulja Boy Tellem. There’s no telling what these names are.
Idk I think I’m officially too old to understand Gen Z stuff.
Clairo is an artist that has a mostly female fan base (like Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter) and I assume he made some comment about liking her so he was accused of being a performative male which is when a guy fakes/exaggerates a typically feminine interest to make girls like him more
And that is really stupid. It’s really stupid that people have a name for guys licking stuff that women like sometimes and then assume that the men are just making it up.
Wait so if a dude likes the color pink is that performative male whatever? If a dude likes to watch a soap opera he’s being a performative male?
This is embarrassing s***. It sounds like it’s rooted in right-wing dogmatic gender roles.
I think you’re missing the point. The phrase isn’t talking about guys who have legitimate interests in things typically more associated with women it’s used for guys who lie about it to try to and come off as more approachable or relatable to girls by showing more of a feminine side.
The inverse example would be if a girl said her favorite video game is call of duty. Doesn’t mean that can’t be true and it could just be more of a masculine interest but if you tried playing with her and she seems to have never picked up a controller in her life then she’s being performative.
Idk what the background on Bryant is I was just explaining what it means
Yes performing for the female gaze. You can see perfect examples if you search “performative male competition” on TikTok lol
It’s originally a sarcastic assessment made by women about men who try too hard to perform green flags and feminist allyship
I don’t know, but these NBA reporters are trash
Someone who pretends to like feminine media to get girls
This is just a rebranded ancient right-wing criticism that no man could ever be a feminist sincerely it’s always just a rouge to get laid.
Sure, if you think recognizing the existence of a guy pretending to like feminine things to get laid means you therefore must think no guy has ever liked a feminine thing genuinely
It’s sort of a joke on tiktok that was trending a couple months ago. Performative men wearing certain clothes and doing certain things for a woman’s validation. The joke mostly aimed at:
Drinking Matcha
Walking around holding books about feminist literature
Wearing crewnecks over a button up shirt or turtleneck kind of look
Other goofy shit that no one really took seriously.
This is famous in the same sphere as the “loves to use the term ‘virtue signaling’” crowd. Usually makes me question the user more than the person they’re accusing tbh
Men have been doing stupid shit to attract women since the beginning of time.
Reading all these replies to this, these dweebs being desperate to explain how this shit isn’t weird … well, i guess it explain a lot of posts on this sub.
Clario makes a good ass music.
Like I happily listen to Sling and Charm as albums
charm will forever have my heart, flawless album
Not to sound old but I hate how the younger generation is repeating the same mistakes we did with obnoxious gatekeeping. Clairo is badass.
My mum and dad both told me how people at their school wouldn’t listen to Elton John “because he’s gay” 😂
Amoeba GOATED
Top 2 and it’s not 2
Saw her over the summer without really knowing who she was. She put on a great set and ive definitely added her to playlists
Maybe, but the fact she started “indie” when her ceo dad funded her career has always bothered me
If the music is good I’ll enjoy it.
Yeah she does.
What the hell is going on? May I summon a paragraph guy for context?
Just means when a guy pretends to like girly stuff/do girly things to appear attractive to women. Some guys will purposely know every Taylor Swift song just to land a chick
Which happens all the time, I don’t know why everyone is acting aghast.
Aghast? Nice.
It’s preconditioning to when you have to watch a whole season of Love After Lockup with your girl.
You know those straight dudes who go to Starbucks with tote bags which contain books by exclusively female authors for them to discretely read in public, while also professing to love Sabrina Carpenter and Clairo?
“performative male” is a term used to describe this sort of person. Similar to a “pick me” but is moreso about the aesthetic. The accusation is that they’re just trying to get laid by matching the interests of women
I’m a bit shocked that this is actually a thing cuz that’s a whole lot of effort lol
Outside of a couple of men who are very loud about it on social media, it’s not. Straight men can use tote bags and be soft, men who don’t get laid need to dream up complicated backstories for why ones that do and who aren’t stereotypically masculine are somehow gaming the system.
The performative male thing is primarily from women, not men.
This is an old idea, repackaged for GenZ
How many people like this actually exist?
Is it like an epidemic in the young male community or some social media shenanigans and memes for likes?
Thought it was fake and then I saw it for real, and the dude even had this book called “Normal People” in his hand.
Us old heads are learning a lot in this thread. What we used to call metro is now called being a performative male. News to me
So as a fellow millennial who is trying to decipher the meanings, I think metrosexual had the connotation of heterosexual men who liked to take care of their appearance like get nice haircuts maybe get their nails manicured maybe got their eyebrows shaped, etc. but were still like masculine heterosexual men. Being called performative is being a masculine heterosexual man and not anything to do with appearance, but in your behavior you pretend to like girly things in order to attract women like men who paint their fingernails.
Yeah you got it pretty much exactly right. The term started to pop up because there were a lot of dudes who would claim to be “feminists” and fake being into stereotypically feminine things or music while actually being horrendous to women and incredibly manipulative. It’s gone from that and become so flanderized its getting used to insult/question men’s hobbies if they don’t align with traditional gender views
Is a paragraph guy someone who comments in paragraph length?
You don’t have a paragraph guy?
Who is your paragraph guy?
Never heard “paragraph guy” before on Reddit but I def was like “damn that’s me, fuck”. Don’t have one for you this time cuz I know nothing about the topic, but still lol.
Isn’t all gender performance?
Yeah, it’s weird that these things are being called a “performance,” whereas most of the fakest men I know are the dudes who try to act hyper-masculine.
You guys are taking this way too seriously lol it’s just referencing a super viral meme from last year
Ikr I feel like I’m going crazy reading this thread lmao, am i just too chronically online so i understand this
I understand it now that it’s been explained to me and I think it’s really stupid.
A guy like stuff that women like so therefore he must be faking it to get laid?
It’s really stupid.
Brother making fun of dudes faking their personality to get laid has been a thing since the beginning of time lol it’s really not that deep
I agree with you… it just doesn’t seem that true to life.
I’d say far more often, dudes are pretending to be super masculine in order to get laid and avoid seeming “effeminate.” So much so that they can’t admit they like certain things or try something new.
And god forbid a guy ever try to have common interests with his girlfriend so they can relate to each other better.
How are we taking it too seriously? What in my comment did you disagree with?
You don’t think memes are worth commenting on or discussing?
Is it performance if it just is the raw reflection of yourself?
No, you most certainly didn’t have to ask that.
Exactly. This guy wanted to ask the question, knew it was borderline inappropriate, so opens up with false framing to try and deflect it.
These reporters are so fucking weird and cringe
That is also my favorite Clairo song lmao. Great song!!
He even mentioned Clairo’s side project band, he knows ball
Yeah it’s one thing to say you like Clairo but him calling out her band who has only published 4 songs in total just means he genuinely like her music lol
the line between r/nba and r/nbacirclejerk is getting thinner once again.
The what allegations
Acting like you like girl stuff for whatever reason- like knowing every Taylor Swift song etc.
nobody knows wtf that even means
It’s okay. You don’t have to always understand everything.
What sort of fucking question is that. What a moron
Clairo’s got jams. Respect a real ball knower
Real talk. Don’t sleep on Clairo
Y’all are taking this shit way too serious. It’s a meme from last year where guys will walk around in public with a Ruth Bader Ginsburg shirt on while holding a matcha latte and Labubus or whatever in order to attract women. It’s just a joke man lol
This thread was genuinely a reality check on the demographic of this sub and of reddit in general. Thought this was the most mainstream online trend going around in the last year lmao.
They’re downvoting you but you’re absolutely right lol
Swear Redditors will immediately assume the worst of literally anything haha
Thanks for the context, I had no idea what was going on. I’m also super busy with a 9 month old, 43 years old and an insane corporate job so my social media time is pretty much Reddit nowadays lol. If there is anything that is based on TikTok or a recent meme then I damn sure haven’t seen it.
where were you when clavicular got frame mogged by the asu frat leader
The what?
Non of this internet stuff is real
Carter “Authentic” Bryant
Leave the kid alone ffs
My boy got taste
Did I miss something
This shit stupid
Maybe he is gay who cares.
People in these comments all live under the same rock apparently
I feel so old.trying to figure out what’s happening here
The bar for being a journalist continues to get lower and lower
A reporter should be embarrassed to ask a question like this… should be.
It’s a fine question, it’s just a lighthearted joke
If I ever have to ask myself if I live in the dumbest timeline (politics aside, even), I only have to watch this video.
watching a bunch of reddit straight bros try to explain a term like it’s brand new that the rest of us have been using for a very long time is my new fav form of entertainment.
(journalist also failed)
What happened to metrosexual? Is that offensive?
Giving a serious answer:
It’s not offensive, but it’s just fallen out of favor as a term as people are less tied to exacting rules for male behavior. It’s more common to perceive gender expression as a very complex sliding scale, so when a man has a few traditionally effeminate hobbies or grooms well, we don’t need a word to differentiate. They’re just a man with different hobbies, interests, and aesthetic preferences.
I did not know about this guy but seeing he is a Clairohead I will be following his career closely.
lol first CMB saying he bumps Faye Webster now this.
I’m already calling it: next year some random ‘26 late lottery pick gon’ confess he bumps Caroline Polachek and Oklou
Damn bunch of boomers in this thread huh
Shout out Softly that track and whole album is phenomenal
Man has a deep bag i respect it
WTF, Clario is awesome.
Just makes me like the Spurs more lol
Softly is a bop tho fr
Lol wtf is this
Man these reporters are shit 😂
Great taste in music Carter!
I’m so confused on why Bryant was accused of it.
I guess a couple months ago he was caught reading “The Inner Game of Tennis” before a Spurs Grizzlies game and somebody tweeted about it.
Inner game of tennis is actually such a great book for most athletes
Wtf man. Just let the dude be who he says he is. Seriously I understand why most nba people were staying the hell away.
Is this Clairo shade
Why are they making these kind of questions? He’s a good kid, don’t bother him.
Song choice proves he’s valid
Pops probably a Vince Carter & Kobe BRYANT fanboy
look at our journalists dog we’re not making it outta here
What kind of weird as questions are these?
Had to google that
All males are performative. In fact, all human beings are.
Professional athlete lived with 8 women. None of them are pregnant or have complained about his behavior. We took a deep dive to find out what the hell is wrong with him.
This is the kind of top tier press all all star weekends intended to celebrate the best basketball.
*eyeroll*
Journalism gets more hard hitting every year