Kelly Dixon, ‘28

What is a performative male? The term has been circulating amongst the internet and Sarah Lawrence campus. It’s often defined as men that drink matcha, “read” feminist literature, listen to Clairo or have a tote bag, all in the hopes of getting women. There have been many such cases of performative/“sensitive” males at Sarah Lawrence College, many of them allegedly having “golden dick syndrome.” (Golden dick syndrome is often defined as a straight man at SLC, who gets an infinite amount of girls due to the lack of men to compete with him.) I interviewed two of the most famous performative males on campus to hear what they had to say of these allegations. The results may shock you—reader discretion is advised.

Henry Jennings

Many freshmen and upperclassmen alike know of the infamous Henry Jennings (class of 2029). He allegedly carries around a French poetry book to show to women, has a cat in his dorm which girls go crazy for and has been the subject of much Fizz discourse (people are now selling his student ID on the infamous app). I went into the belly of the beast (his Westlands dorm) to investigate the most popular “golden dick” of Sarah Lawrence College. And what he had to say in response to all this talk about him—well—it may surprise you (or not).

Jennings gave his two cents on the term that has been thrown around and used to describe him.“Well, um, when I have thought about [the term performative male], I don’t think about it very often. I think of the word ‘performative’ in itself, and I think that a lot of people get it the exact opposite. If I were to stop doing what I enjoyed and stop dressing the way I want to dress so people don’t think I’m performative, that in itself would be performative wouldn’t it?”

Jennings went on to say that he does not consider himself to be performative, at least in his own definition. “While I don’t think I fit into the stereotype of a performative male personally, I know that other people think I do, and at times it makes me a bit self conscious, but I think that it would be very performative of me to change for other people.”

While Jennings does not consider himself to be befitting of this title, he does find the term to have a somewhat offensive connotation. He elaborated on his opinion, “I feel like I notice an offensive connotation to it more than other people do [being called performative]. I had a conversation with my friend, and this is going to sound extremely performative in itself, she said that it was like, kind of antithetical to feminism. The idea that like um, usually effeminate men are put into a category.”

Jennings shared that he has in fact tried matcha before, and owns a tote bag. Although his opinion on matcha isn’t a positive one. “I don’t understand how anybody likes it, it tastes disgusting to me.”

On top of disliking matcha, he does not in fact read feminist literature. Despite this, he considers himself a male feminist. “I think that guys that don’t consider themselves to be male feminists are probably just a little too concerned with the connotation that comes with that title. I think if you have any maturity you probably should consider yourself a feminist.”

The real indicator of a performative male is wired headphones. Surprisingly Jennings doesn’t have any headphones at all. “No, I don’t have any headphones actually, I like to be in the moment.”

He went on to explain that men will always get poked fun at no matter the circumstance. “I don’t think they really need a reason to hate men–not hate men–make fun of them. I don’t think they need a reason, so they just kind of picked one. And when I say they I mean like, everybody. I think that everybody in general has fun poking fun at male culture.”

Performative males are known for liking Clairo, or other female artists. Jennings shared that he is in fact a Clairo fan. “I just wanna say, Clairo’s a good artist and I’m not gonna pretend like I don’t listen to Clairo because there’s a stigma.”

While he doesn’t consider himself performative, he is fully aware of the “golden dick” allegations that have circulated, and he had quite a bit to say in response to his alleged goldenness. “So, yeah I think that if you interviewed most people from the freshman class, I’d say like 9 out of 10 people would say that I have golden dick syndrome. I’d like to say that at any other school what I do would be considered normal. And honestly, I think that a lot of the freshman class, they don’t dislike me but there is some resentment there for whatever reason.”

Jennings is fully aware of the Fizz discourse surrounding himself, and was willing to address it. “I think that a lot of people that do that don’t really know me, if they did I think that we’d be friends. And you know what, I think that they’re pretty funny, I think the Fizz posts are funny. And, whenever I’ve acted like I hate it and it’s the worst thing ever, It’s because the initial shock of being talked about I’m not used to. But I am always eventually like, ‘Yeah that is pretty funny.’ But, I don’t know how to feel about it 100 percent.” He elaborated by saying, “I don’t really like when people genuinely try to make a judgement on my character to the whole school on an anonymous app.”

When asked his favorite woman Jennings sardonically stated, “Cristle,” with no further elaboration.

The most infamous/performative thing about Jennings is the well-known French poetry book he allegedly brings around with him. However, he claims this is a baseless rumor and he in fact, does not carry it around with him. He went to his stack of books on his shelf and showed me the book titled “French Symbolist Poetry.” He stated he got it from a friend one day and was carrying it in his jean shorts.“I got it from him that day and had it in my pocket in my jorts. It’s a rumor that I carry it, I’m not walking around with it, that was one day. I never pretended to read it, I never opened it, I never got a chance to open it.”

The book on top titled “French Symbolist Poetry” is the infamous book he’s been rumored to carry. Image: Kelly Dixon ‘28

Felix Henry Geffen

Felix Henry Geffen is one of the performative males of the sophomore class (class of 2028). He wears wired headphones, has the baggiest jeans he most likely bought second-hand and does in fact enjoy matcha. While he may not be as infamous or well known as Jennings, he has been labeled with so-called “golden dick syndrome,” as he is one of the few straight men on campus.

Although he isn’t known to pretend to do things for female attention in particular, Geffen is aware of the allegations, and to a certain extent he embraces them. What he had to say in response to these allegations is that he doesn’t mind embracing the term at all, and he doesn’t feel offended by it either.

He does in fact enjoy matcha, which he described matcha as being “yummy,” he also recently got a tote bag. He defines a performative male as, “Someone who you know, wants to appear intellectual. So maybe someone who will, you know, read a book out in public in a way that other people see it, carry items such as a tote bag or a matcha.” He says this is how the internet defines it, and that is the general consensus. Usually it’s someone who also listens to Clairo, Beabadoobee or Lana Del Rey. Geffen stated he is in fact a Clairo fan. He credited another man on campus, Diego Jaime Sachs, also class of 2028, as being the one that introduced him to Clairo. He is also a Lana Del Rey fan.

Geffen hasn’t however read feminist literature, but he said if he were to take a class on feminist literature he would “tap in.”

He said that being performative, or pretending to like female artists might actually deter women away from people as it has become common. “I’d say at this point if you are to come out and be like, “I like Clairo, I like Lana Del Rey,” I feel like that might actually end up making people think that you’re performative, and not be interested in you. I feel like it’s the individualism that actually attracts people.” Geffen stated this right after saying he loves Clairo and Lana Del Rey, slightly ironic, but he assured me his love for these artists was pure.

Geffen is known for his baggy jeans. When asked about the requirements for a performative male, he stated, “If the jeans don’t bag, it doesn’t matter if you’re carrying a tote bag.”

When asked his favorite woman, Geffen listed off a few potential favorites: “Of course my mom, of course Mamma Geff. Probably other than that right now, uhh this is hard” He took out his phone to consult his Spotify playlists, in search of female artists of course: “Might be Clairo, maybe Imogen Heap.”

His stance on being labeled a performative male is one of acceptance. Geffen claims that everyone is performative in some way, and there’s nothing wrong with that. “I think everyone is performing, at all times. I think, like, I don’t perform inherently more than other people on this campus, or just in general. I think everyone is constantly performing for others. But like if a performative male is someone who does the things that a performative male does, then that's what I am.” He went further by identifying with the performative male term by saying he feels at home in Bushwick. “Yeah I do [feel at home], too much so. I feel like I’m already headed down that path. Like the Bushwick path.”

Last Halloween Geffen dressed up as Jim Morrison, with no prior knowledge of who the rock star was. He was suggested the costume by a friend, Tess Reynolds (class of 28), and had to google who the singer was. This in itself could be called very performative. However, Geffen takes full accountability of it. “Oh, one hundred percent that was performative. That costume was only so I could wear a leather jacket with nothing underneath. I was pretty clear about that too, I think, you know I wanted to look like a baddie. I did have the hair.”

Geffen was in Philadelphia the day the on-campus performative male competition was being held, but he remains adamant in his belief he could’ve won had he entered. “Yeah, I was actually devastated I had to be in Philadelphia for the weekend. I had numerous people send it to me being like, ‘You should be in this,’ would’ve whooped ass, I was very bummed out that I didn’t get to go. I think I would have put in a really good showing.”

He doesn’t think the performative male discourse is “too much,” in fact he doesn’t have that much of a problem with it (despite thinking that it’s stupid).“I think that if being called a performative male really gets to you, then you need to be able to learn how to sit with yourself as a person, because I think being a performative male is okay, and if you accept it makes dealing with people calling you a performative male not hard at all. You know, you call me a performative male, it’s like yeah I am.” Very good advice for some of the straight men walking around on this campus.

Performative Males: Their Side of the Story