sometimes a picture really can be worth 1000 words:
The term “performative” was a new one to me, back in the 2000s. An addition to my vocabulary. I first used the word in a general sense, defined as “expressive public behavior, especially of the sort intended to attract approval or reward from the audience.” Which could be anything, like someone learning to play an instrument or sing in order to attract girls. Basic sociobiology.
Political activism, oratory, and online rhetoric are a subset of performative activities. All about the Image: Political Action as Symbolism, Gestures, Spectacle, Theater, Advertising, Publicity. Substantive Detail, not really. A set of tactics that has some serious vulnerabilities and problems when turned to the arena of Politics. One of the most overlooked problems of performative politics is that the actual substance of the political message is subordinated.* Potentially to the extent of irrelevance, added unclarity, or counterproductive result.
In the meantime, the Performing aspect retains its pride of place as the actual top priority—aligned with the same primary goals as any other Performative activity, like playing in a rock band or a rap group, or being a stage magician, etc.: adulation, getting the girls (or the boys), fame, higher social profile, higher social status, career opportunities, ego boosting. I’ve read several interviews with more-radically Woke-than-thou political activists who have explicitly stated in the course of inquiry that they don’t care about what anyone else thinks about their activism! Really. So much for the politics of voter persuasion in a democracy; many of these people don’t even care whether they’re lowering their appeal to the wider general public with their performative acts. They’re willfully self-marginalizing.
That’s a defensible stance for Artists. But not for anyone in any movement that relies on widening popular approval, which is essential to political success in a democracy. Politics is not an Art, it’s a Craft. The irony being that Politics is an arena where no artistic talent or is required for career success in elected office. An ability to perform Oratory onstage—and to look the part—is always a plus. Although it has nothing to do with the merit of a given political ideology, or political ideal, or political agenda, or political program. Personal charisma has nothing to do with the innate worth of any political ideal or principle. Some people are innately good Influencers, but the product they sell can be poison. Charisma is undeniably a valuable asset for political success.
But for the hardcore practitioners of today’s Performative Politics, political success is typically an afterthought. The reason for attaching Politics to Performative ambitions is that The Cause provides the raison d’etre for their Performative Spectacle Events. And since Politics does not require artistic or performing talent, the Performers and their Scripted Activism have no necessity to possess any, and they have a written excuse to be up on the Stage anyway. Showboating away, and playing to their Niche Gallery. Superficial, Polarizing, Obnoxious, Cliched, Gaudy, Bathetic…the activists have already told you. They don’t care what you think.
Unless the slightest hint of negative criticism is heard from within the ranks of friendly allies.**
And that’s why the phrase “Performative Politics” is typically used as a phrase of disdain these days, c.2025. I first read it being used dismissely in a Jacobin article by Adoplh Reed a few years back. Reed wasn’t incensed about it; more like weary. He used “performative” as a synonym for “superficial.” Jejune, ineffective and proud of it. Self-pleased.
*while many have implicitly endorsed the legitimacy of Performative Activists bum-rushing the stage to grab the mic at the political events of others, when a Cause Activist is holding court onstage at a protest demonstration, any audience member refusing to react in the Approved Manner to all Applause Lines will receive informal censure. At minimum.
[*civil rights actions like lunch-counter sit-ins that dared Official Power had a performative aspect. But the “performers” were taking real risks, putting both their career futures and their bodies on the line, and had clear goals. Part of their “situationist^ genius was that they were seeking the right to perform the most ordinary human activities. The Drama, the Hyperbole, the flex of Threat and Intimidation was introduced into the event entirely from the other side.
^Situationism for net political benefit is a hard thing to pull off properly. ]
[**while many have implicitly endorsed the legitimacy of Performative Activists bum-rushing the stage to grab the mic at the political events of others, when a Cause Activist is holding court onstage at a protest demonstration, any audience member refusing to react in the Approved Manner to all Applause Lines will receive informal censure. At minimum. ]