In today’s digitally-driven world, social movements are propelled by the media, giving rise to a variety of activist forms – most notably, the performative kind. Performative activism raises questions about one’s intentions behind engagement with social movements, intentional or not.
According to Global Brigades, performative activism is one’s effort to seem supportive of a social justice issue online but solely for the intention of boosting their social capital. While this may seem harmless at first, performative activism spotlights celebrities and influencers rather than the issue.
One of the main components of performative activism is the way people want others to perceive them publicly. With a prominent influencer culture in today’s society, this concept has become more common. Many do not feel the need to take meaningful actions, but rather doing the bare minimum of spreading awareness in order to gain attention and boost their own public image.
The Slate reported that many influencers feel forced to publicly support certain ideologies to avoid backlash from the public. This pressure often results in the spread of inaccurate information online, as individuals do not educate themselves properly about the issues they are endorsing. Instead, they engage in performative acts, promoting causes solely out of the fear of being publicly criticized.
Celebrities play an influential role in the media, especially those with massive followings. It is highly crucial for influencers to be aware of the causes they support, as their actions impact the audience’s beliefs and opinion.
When the cause has had some attention on media platforms, the real meaning of it is undermined. As mentioned in the Butler Collegian, social justice issues are often viewed as a trend and not given the proper amount of attention deserved.
Social media algorithms cycle out content that is no longer deemed popular, causing audiences to forget about issues. Apps like Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter) have short forms of content that do not allow for the complexity of the cause to be articulated, giving social justice movements less importance.
Apart from social media promoting activism, corporation’s actions on social movements exert influence on consumers. True allyship, Bentley University reported, occurs when companies authentically respond to movements with a mindset of positive change. Conversely, businesses that take part in preformative allyship fail to respond with any meaningful actions.
In a controlled experiment conducted by Susan Dobscha, participants were asked about fictional companies that illustrated true or performative allyship of a specific social justice movement. The results portrayed how consumers favored brands that portrayed true allyship rather than its performative counterpart. Thus, corporations must be cautious of their public actions, as customer’s are aware of empty promises and are more willing to support businesses that align with their morals. Companies that fail to follow through with their words risk losing customer trust and, ultimately, their business.
Performative activism, however, has raised awareness for various social justice movements. The Standard reported that knowing if someone is supporting a movement out of genuine concern or to gain social capital can be difficult, but all movements need a large number of support from people and organizations in order to create a significant change.
The environmental movement is often driven through performative activism, creating a culture of sustainability while promoting engagement of all individuals. One can post pictures of environmental slogans or other remarks, which allows the message of the movement to reach a wider audience.
Performative activism, while flawed, plays a role in spreading awareness to all parts of society. Individuals should assess their own personal intentions on supporting certain movements as well as the actions of others. Real change demands pure and intentional actions that go beyond social appearance. Investing in a movement requires one to support their words with their actions, as that is where true social justice lies.