Fresno men are pretending to be feminists in this ‘meme’ event

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – A competition to find the Fresno man who can pretend to be the most feminist brought a crowd inside a Downtown Fresno bookstore over the weekend.

The competitors all wanted to be crowned the city’s most performative man. Inside “Judging by the Cover” bookstore, co-owner Ashley Guerrero says she and her partner put the competition together to promote their Downtown Fresno store and bring the community together.

“A lot of the time, it’s books that you wouldn’t find in Barnes and Noble because they don’t have the distribution, or they’re just considered too niche,” Guerrero said. “People in Fresno often see themselves on the shelves because we’re representing the diversity that exists here.”

Guerrero says they will often host events at the bookstore to promote reading and spark conversation.

“We just had our Latine Book Fair last Saturday,” Guerrero said. “We just love a fun event.”

On Saturday, Sept. 20, the bookstore hosted its performative male competition that packed the F Street Mini Mall with contestants and spectators.

“We had been seeing the performative male competitions all across the US, San Francisco, New York, Chicago,” Guerrero said. “We figured Fresno is a big city. We deserve to have one of our own.”

According to Guerrero, the performative male is a term that refers to men who want to be perceived as feminists. Attendees brought wired headphones, Labubu’s, feminist literature, matcha and thrifted clothes – all calling cards for the performative male.

Contestant Abram Hernandez suggested that performative males often use their performance to manipulate and influence women.

“This person says they’re reading this and reading that, you gotta stay away from them,” Hernandez said. “They’re toxic and they manipulate.”

But Guerrero says, despite the tropes that are associated with the performative male archetype, Saturday’s attendees and contestants were very much in on the “meme” of being a performative male.

“It’s kind of a joke. Some of these men actually do read the texts, but there are also some that don’t,” Guerrero said. “It’s a little bit tongue in cheek.”

One by one, performative men took to the bookstore’s hallway, turned the runway and performed.

“Seeing how many people came not only to see the jokes or see the event, but put this towards supporting local communities as opposed to corporate American chains, it’s really brilliant,” Finalist Cesar Uribe said.

In the end, finalists like Uribe took home grand prizes, including thrifted clothes, vinyl record store and coffee shop gift cards, and actual feminist literature.

“It’s a little bit fun because we are a bookstore with a feminist section,” Guerrero said. “It made sense to do it here.”

“Judging by the Cover” bookstore is open from noon to 6 p.m. from Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday. Event line-ups and more are available on the store’s social media.