In our modern world, with social media influencing pop culture, one of the most recent trends is “being performative.” So much so, it has evolved into a full-blown cultural phenomenon, spanning from simply acting excessively nonchalant to carrying a Labubu or feminist literature.
At its core, being performative is doing actions or wearing accessories to display for others. Additionally, a physical archetype formed from performativeness: the performative male. This archetype emphasizes the irony in how some people try too hard to have desirable traits to gain popularity.
On Oct. 22, during Nueva’s Spirit Week, was Performative Day, where people dressed performatively in many different creative ways: carrying feminist literature, wearing bluelight glasses, baggy jeans, and holding matcha lattes.
“If people are excited about something that’s in pop culture at the moment, it’s easier to get them to dress up for Spirit week,” Sofia said. Spirit Reps Lucas R. ‘27 and Sofia Z. ‘27. The fact that it was a rising trend clearly made people excited about participating. You could see the spirit by just walking through the hallways. People wearing everything like their wired earbuds and Labubus was a humorous way to participate in Spirit week.
For those who dressed up, the Spirit reps hosted a competition where people who dressed up could display their outfit. Unique outfits were composed of baggy jeans, tote bags, a Ruth Bader Ginsberg biography, and even a Laufey vinyl.
Two winners were picked for each grade, so the winners were Catriona C. ‘29 and Evelyn H. ‘29, Lily Z. and Camilla K. ‘28, Pablo Z. and Kyle W. ‘27, and Emily M. and Senya S. ‘26. Each winner was fittingly given a matcha latte as a prize, completing the cycle of performativeness.
Sofia mentioned that as a Spirit Rep, “It’s cool to see people actually engage in the spirit. Sometimes you have a Spirit week day that people aren’t super into, so when you see people actually all dressed up, it’s fun to see everybody all dressed up like that.” Performative day was a huge success, with people dressing up in the spirit across campus and grades, and stylishly representing this important pop culture phenomenon.