Practical Performativity

I’ve had this stub of a note rolling around the ol’ head for a number of months now. There’s more to say depending on the week’s mood, but it consistently boils down to dialog between Today Wil and Old Wil.^[1]

I’ll write these comical dialogs another time. They further reduce to snide and nihilistic debates investigating the value of—in this case—small, performative acts.

Old Wil leans into, one, the idea that performative acts are to the detriment of productive action. Consider: expressing rage becomes an outlet in itself, and so instead of channeling energy into outcomes, we expend energy toward a zero-sum. This encourages complacency. Performativity becomes not just a means, but an ends, accomplishing nothing while patting oneself’s back. Old Wil, two, then argued that this allows for false friends: Congressional Dems enrobing themselves in kente cloth meant jack shit when they continually failed their electorate. In my own smaller-scale but directly harmful experience, I observed on three occasions that academic language was so easily imitated as to allow abusers into otherwise safe spaces.

Old Wil made the point that performativity is inauthentic because it’s for the sake of audience as opposed to personal self-expression. This devalues self-expression for its own sake, which in itself is a poor practice. If your self expression is worthwhile to you and performs no meaningful harm, Today Wil says to have fun.

As a straight-passing queer white dude, Old Wil was regularly frustrated by hearing progressive overtures from his actually-straight white male colleagues, resented their posturing in lieu of action, and was growingly disappointed in white progressive’ vocal and loud impotence. Pod Save talks about Trumps’ evils, but what do they do?

Today Wil is still disappointed in the white progressives. Unlike moderate Democrats with their further-left factors, Today Wil empathizes with Old Wil: his younger, vitriolic, and debatably less-defeated ally.

Today Wil argues that when a part of—or allying with—disadvantaged and harassed populations, language and signs are an important means of ingroup signaling, and that signaling is inherently performative. If one doesn’t bother to visibly share their perspectives until there’s opportunity for impact, others looking for friendship, connection, and a safe outlet are left in silence. If one has the comfort and privilege—in my case, as a confrontational straight-passing white dude—use it judiciously, but use it. Don’t grow fond of your voice, but use it enough to be a known element to those who need it.^[2] Otherwise the onus is on those hurting more to actively seek safe spaces, and we fail to connect—ultimately fail to organize.

There are challenges—if one finds themselves in isolation, your role can be to create a space where wider expression is safe. Be wary of speaking for others, or worse, speaking over others. Performance creates a space where together we can do better work, but is not then work in itself, and so it behooves us to regularly self-check.

Today Wil argues that if we nickel-and-dime the ways in which we engage, and furthermore that if we criticize the ways in which others engage, we approach nihilism. Where does the critic’s idea of performativity end? A Facebook post is performative. A discussion with colleagues without resulting action is performative. Joining a protest is performative. Newcomers are left with no options, ridiculed by the knowledgable theorist for trying.

As a young teenager through my undergraduate,^[3] I volunteered at the St. Andrew’s Food Pantry regularly for six, maybe seven years. I remember a related internal debate over that time: is this action the most impactful thing I can do?

Towards the end of my time at Pantry, I joined the church’s Mission Committee. It turns out that I’m not particularly satisfied by the planning aspect, either. Even if after years of volunteer hours, clients still need help, it’s worthwhile help to give—and someone must.

We prioritize impact and measurable harm reduction, and so we must regularly asses the effectiveness of our actions. However, obsessive analysis and reprioritization leads to gatekeeping and nihilism. One’s actions don’t have to be the most impactful to be worthwhile; we offer the energy at hand.

So I’m putting my “Fuck Greg Abbott” bumper sticker back, because it lets y’all know that I’m one of the cool kids, and that’s good.