@eugbrandstrat
TikTok · Split screen
@eugbrandstrat Where does our obsession over performative men come from? Today: A look at the perfect irony of the performance in ‘performative man’ content, and how it reflects the broader problem with social media: there is no ‘outside’ to performativity; all self-awareness does is add layers to it. #marketing #brandstrategy #marketingstrategy #brandmarketing #performative
Performance
Video #39012 · Split screen
[01]
The creator delivers a video essay analyzing the 'performative male' aesthetic on social media. He defines its common tropes, uses a quote from philosopher Slavoj Žižek to argue that ironic distance doesn't negate the performance, and posits that self-awareness simply adds another layer to it in an 'infinite regress'. He connects this phenomenon to the broader 'authenticity illusion' online, concluding that the only 'winning move' is to accept that our tastes are algorithmically shaped and to stop performing the act of being above performance.
[02]
[03]
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[05]
What stops the scroll in the first 3 seconds
Title hook · 50%
how YOU can be a more performative male
Verbal hook · 45%
Being performative has become a performance.
Visual hook · 5%
The video opens with a split-screen format, showing the speaker on one side and a man in a tank top in his closet on the other, immediately establishing the subject and creating visual interest.
[06]
Steal this for your own video
how YOU can be a more
[07]
The promise the opener makes, and how the video pays it back
Hook
A concise, paradoxical statement that encapsulates the video's entire argument, immediately challenging the viewer's perception and creating intellectual curiosity.
Payoff
Propose a 'radical' solution or mindset shift that involves acceptance rather than resistance, and then immediately demonstrate this new mindset with a self-aware, often humorous, final action or statement that embodies the video's core lesson.
[08]
The structural pattern this video runs on
Framework
The Philosophical Unpacking
Deconstructing a common cultural phenomenon by applying a high-level academic or philosophical concept to reveal a hidden, paradoxical truth about the system itself.
The Thesis & Trend Deconstruction
Clearly state the topic and define a specific, relatable cultural trend by breaking it down into its recognizable components or tropes, establishing a shared context with the audience.
The Intellectual Anchor
Introduce an external, authoritative concept (e.g., a philosophical quote, a scientific principle) that reframes the trend and serves as the analytical lens for the rest of the argument.
The Self-Awareness Fallacy
Apply the intellectual concept to the trend to reveal a central irony: that attempts to be 'above' the trend through self-awareness are just another, more complex layer of participation.
The Systemic Zoom-Out
Broaden the argument from the specific trend to the larger system it operates within (e.g., social media, algorithms, culture), arguing that the paradox is an inescapable feature of the system itself, implicating the viewer.
Where does our obsession over performative men come from? Today: A look at the perfect irony of the performance in ‘performative man’ content, and how it reflects the broader problem with social media: there is no ‘outside’ to performativity; all self-awareness does is add layers to it. #marketing #brandstrategy #marketingstrategy #brandmarketing #performative
title · beginning
how YOU can be a more performative male
title · beginning
PERFORMATIVE MEN & THE SELF-AWARE AESTHETIC
contextual · beginning
day in the life of a performative man in nyc
contextual · beginning
Performative final boss
contextual · middle
first date with a performative man
title · end
THE AUTHENTICITY ILLUSION
informational · end
FILTERWORLD HOW ALGORITHMS FLATTENED CULTURE -> KYLE CHAYKA
Being performative has become a performance. Today, I wanna talk about performative men and the self aware aesthetic. In between Indonesian boat kid aura farming content, my feed has been flooded the past few months with performative man content, in which a particular genre of man is skewed for a now familiar set of tropes. Coat bag wearing, performative reading, matcha drinking, Claro listening. Now there's something about all this content that really makes me chuckle. It recalls one of my favorite quotes by the philosopher Slavoj Zizek. Even if we don't take things seriously, even if we maintain an ironical distance, we are still doing them. Because the men making these content do have these haircuts. They do listen to Claro. They do rock the small top, big pant tote bag combo. And in an effort to get ahead of their own reputational issues, they have to prove that they're above it. That being conscious of the performance is somehow the same as transcending it. What's important here is not to judge, but to recognize that self awareness doesn't free us from performance. It just adds another layer to it. Infinite regress. Once being aware of your performativity becomes the new performance, you have to become self aware of that performance, and so on and so on. The irony, of course, being that in an effort to transcend the aesthetic, they just end up creating a new self aware aesthetic. This goes back to some of the ideas I talked about in my video on the authenticity illusion. There is no outside to performance on social media. Critiques themselves are reincorporated as soon as they become content. The algorithm does not clock your meta commentary. It all feeds the same content system. We're all products of algorithmic taste making better we admit it or not. The guy with the tote bad, the guy making fun of the guy with the tote bag, the guy making fun of the guy making fun of the guy with the tote bag. The only winning move is to stop pretending that you are the only exception. To admit you're not original, your taste is algorithmic, and hey, you are okay with it. That's the radical act, dropping the performance of being above the performance. So bring me my strawberry matcha. Oat milk, please. I think I'm lactose intolerant.