Queer Spaces: Temple’s Performative Masc Lesbian Contest

Students organize and gather to celebrate Temple’s most performative masc lesbian.

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WRITTEN BY: Emma Booth

PHOTOS BY: Colt Gunn

If you were to pass by the Cecil B. Moore Skate Park at 5:00 pm this past Friday, Sept. 12, you would’ve seen an array of women wearing baggy shorts and backwards hats, holding indie vinyl records and carrying tote bags. 

These women represent the “performative mascs” of Temple University, a stereotype personified and molded for gay women. 

The “performative masc” (short for masculine) woman is a spin-off of the “performative male”. This term describes a man who adopts progressive and emotionally intelligent traits for the sole purpose of attracting and manipulating women. 

He is characterized by an inauthentic or exaggerated interest in activities that women would find attractive, such as drinking matcha tea, reading feminist literature, participating in social activism and listening to soft indie pop music from artists like Beabadoobee or Clairo.

The only group that the performative male cannot manipulate is lesbians, because these men lack one thing: being a woman. 

Thus began the performative masc, a masculine queer woman who is “doing it for the girls,” so to speak, while embodying lesbian stereotypes of falling in love quickly and simultaneously being emotionally unavailable. 

Sophomores, Isabella Brathwaite and Gaby Aikoo, organized Temple’s performative masc contest following the performative male contest at the same location the week prior. 

After participating in the performative male contest, Aikoo shared that she came up with the idea to create the event, “I thought to myself, ‘Wow, this would be really cool with lesbians’. I told Isabelle we had to do it.”

Brathwaite was eager to execute Aikoo’s plan; she created the Instagram page @temple.performativemascs and advertised the event through posters around campus. Although, there was doubt surrounding interest in the event.

“I was really nervous to put it on because [I thought]: ‘Are there even enough lesbians for this to happen?’“ Aikoo said. “But the page ended up getting a lot more likes than we expected and we knew we had to do this.”

The two spent late nights coming up with lesbian trivia questions and a strategy for the three rounds held throughout the hour and a half event. 

In the first round, contestants had to correctly answer lesbian history and cultural facts. Some included naming the meaning of the lesbian flag colors, knowing lesbian slang words such as ‘gold star lesbian’ and ‘u-hauling’, and more. 

By the end of the trivia, more than half of the contestants had been eliminated. 

The second round required audience participation, asking each masc to pick a girl from the crowd to use their best pick up line on. This round offered an entertaining combination of flirty, funny and somewhat awkward interactions.

After gaining crowd approval, our top 3 mascs pleaded their case as to why they should be named “Temple’s Most Performative Masc”. Riley King came out on top following a display of rose throwing, crowd hyping and even underwear mooning. 

“My masc-ness and butch-ness is something very key to my life,” King claimed. “To get to see an event celebrating it, is very affirming.”

King’s acceptance speech not only thanked the crowd for their enthusiasm, but also brought attention to the ongoing genocide in Palestine, urging everyone to donate to families in need. 

It was a powerful reminder of how marginalized groups recognize other marginalized groups and passionately plead for their liberation when they can. 

“I’m not even mad that I didn’t win because the person who did win, used their platform for good,” runner-up, Faren Howard said. “Free Palestine, free Sudan, free Congo.” 

It was safe to say the contest was a massive success, solidifying the strong sapphic culture on Temple University’s campus.

“I just love seeing people come together, especially gay people,” Brathwaite said. “I lowkey feel like it did not happen like this for the performative male contest; we are connecting, so I think that’s amazing.” 

Aikoo and Brathwaite have already posted on the Instagram page’s story asking for suggestions for a future event. 

Hopefully, this contest is just one of many student-led Temple events that brings young queer women together in spaces where gender expression can be comfortably expressed and furthermore, celebrated.