Why is everything called ‘performative’ on the internet now?

You board Chennai’s Central Metro, read a couple of pages of a literary fiction novel, and exit at Shenoy Nagar Metro station. You might think you used your transit time for something useful, but that loud corner of the internet thinks otherwise. Some sections of the Gen Z demographic label it “performative” reading, largely targeting similar age groups, because they judge that what you pursue in your pastime is not “authentic enough” and is somehow superficial. The assumption is that you are doing the activity because you want to be perceived a certain way: intellectual and unique.

It started, perhaps, with the archetype of men who read certain genres, wear wired headphones, and drink matcha lattes in wide-legged trousers — the so-called “performative male.” But now the word is thrown onto almost everything as a blanket accusation. “I’ve mostly noticed it in correlation with things that are considered ‘intellectually sophisticated.’ Once the label ‘performative’ is stuck to someone, everything they consume and create is invalidated,” says 24-year-old Anya Shankar, a writer and YouTuber who splits her time between Chennai and Bengaluru. Besides, reading two pages on your commute is still better than none, she adds.