US San Francisco / San Fransicko Megathread

Paranoia Machine · Apr 21, 2025

In short, what a fucking shame San Francisco turned out to be.

Kiska · Apr 21, 2025

TheRedChair said:
Man Ron.... The whitewashing of several of these postings on how SF is fucking Good is making my left side of my face twitch.

This is to counter that faggots 1 hour video.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=SccYkNx5Gns

It's only been a few years since I've seen that part of town and man has that shit gone a lot worse -an aside I'm pretty sure despite all the increasing vacancies in SF their rental and ownership costs are still hyperinflated. I know someone that outright owns a house in SF and they pay more in property taxes than it costs to rent in almost every big city in the US, and their house isn't even big or in a super urban part of town with its only qualifier being a desirable vista.

Sneed's Feed And Seed · Apr 21, 2025

Paranoia Machine said:
Oh, San Francisco.
Let me tell you a story.

Hide your powerlevel. Avoid revealing unnecessary or embarrassing details about yourself. This is not your blog and we are not an asylum.

The Mass Shooter Ron Soye · Apr 21, 2025

Sneed's Feed And Seed said:
Hide your powerlevel. Avoid revealing unnecessary or embarrassing details about yourself. This is not your blog and we are not an asylum.

On the other hand...

Super-Chevy454 · Apr 21, 2025

Slightly off-topic but on the other side of the Bay, Oakland re-elected that woke mayor.

Paranoia Machine · Apr 21, 2025

Sneed's Feed And Seed said:
Hide your powerlevel. Avoid revealing unnecessary or embarrassing details about yourself. This is not your blog and we are not an asylum.

Any addition, including sharing on-topic discussion of experience with the topic, regardless of how powerlevely; is still adding conversation to a literal 2-page thread that someone took the time to make.

I am sorry that you have nothing to add to the discussion.

The Mass Shooter Ron Soye said:
On the other hand...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rt8-bPSvhkk

Thanks, boss.

Super-Chevy454 said:
Slightly off-topic but on the other side of the Bay, Oakland re-elected that woke mayor.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=nN9WKIatOwk

Dude that's so great. You know his leadership is going super well when Oakland residents have been moving in mass exodus to inner-valley areas like Sacramento, Elk Grove, Roseville, Rancho Cordova, and Stockton using literally every low-income housing program to infinitely spawn ghettos everywhere.

You know, like how Texas and Michigan had happen with Dallas and Detroit respectively.

The Mass Shooter Ron Soye · Aug 24, 2025

Culture Thread 'Gen Z created a new type of man to avoid'

Aug 24, 2025

https://www.vox.com/culture/459062/performative-male-gen-z-soft-boy-tiktok-harry-styles-jacob-elordi

https://archive.ph/zoK7g

Should you beware of “performative males”?

by Kyndall Cunningham
Aug 24, 2025, 12:00 PM UTC

Jacob Elordi at Milan Fashion Week on September 21, 2024.

Kyndall Cunningham is a culture writer who explains the figures and social trends that influence how we think about gender, image, relationships, wellness, and consumption. Previously, she wrote for the Daily Beast and contributed to several publications...

Mission Local: A.I. is detecting San Francisco’s ‘performative males’ (archive)

by Jordan Montero
August 23, 2025

Pondering women's rights in preparation for the look-alike contest.

What does a “performative male” look like? That’s what hundreds of attendees crowded into Alamo Square Park on Friday evening sought to answer.

And according to the gathered masses, performative males are all too often roaming the streets of San Francisco.

A performative male is “a man that dresses for the female gaze, projecting feminine energy to get women,” said attendees AJ and Mayliah. “They’re probably from L.A., because they ran through all the women there.”

A “performative male” is not performing masculinity but, rather, performing femininity to manipulate women into thinking they aren’t like other guys. They drink matcha or are a coffee snob, they collect analog media like vinyl, CDs or cassettes and they wear thrifted cardigans.

You can find them at your local small coffee shop, virtue signaling with their choice of feminist literature: Is that Jane Austen or Jane Eyre? They are hyper-trendy and yet don’t claim their eight-plus hour screentime — and they’ve become the internet’s newest punching bag.

Propped in front of the Painted Ladies, a crowd exceeding the 1,600 RSVPs who responded to the call gathered to determine — along with an AI model and a panel of women — San Francisco’s most “performative male.”

With the attendees dressed in their first-date best you’d think Clairo was putting on a private show at the park. It was too crowded to see the panel of judges or the actual contest, but you really didn’t need to. Everywhere you looked there were hundreds of canvas tote bags, CD collections on display, Labubus, Miffys and speakers blasting Charli XCX — performativity at its finest.

The contest was the brainchild of young women Alisa Wu, Kake Jin, Jia Chen, Morgan Hoong, BuiltbyBlair and twins Jenny and Chrissy S. — some San Francisco tech transplants and others summer interns.

“It’s our gift to the city before we leave,” said Wu, who will be returning to the University of Waterloo in Canada in the coming weeks.

What sets this contest apart? Its preliminary AI detection round with a custom-built model — an aspect that is as inherently San Francisco as male performativity.

The AI model was fed data of Labubus, matcha lattes, platform shoes, flared pants, headphones, feminist literature like Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” and female empowerment Instagram story content.

All contestants uploaded photos of themselves to performative.lol where the model weeded out the poser from the performative — or anybody who showed up with a Labubu or book.

The contest promised free matcha, and while there was no fountain of green tea in this performative promised land — all contestants received gift cards from their partner, Kiss of Matcha.

“You’re so performative dude, you’re for sure winning,” a young guy told his performatively dressed friend, hyping him up for the contest to come. “I’ve seen Mitski live, this is not a performance,” said the contestant, anxiously awaiting the panel to come.

Some contestants defined male performativity as simply “hating period cramps,” while others monologued about their outfits and subsequent style — which was not at all performative.

While the majority of contestants interpreted “performative male” as the meme archetype of a poser indie boy, another dressed up in an Anime-style maid costume with a blue wig, serving his own matcha (of course).

“If the idea of the performative male is to go against the Sigma-Alpha male, then what’s more performative than a pre-second wave image of the woman itself,” said the male wife.

Left: A classic take on “performative males” with feminism at the forefront.
Middle: Gone fishing for women.
Right: A different, perhaps more camp interpretation of “male performativity.”

While waiting for their turn, some contestants attempted backflips out of boredom while others taped “Future is Female” onto their T-shirts. Some were chatting up the girls who came as spectators while others brought a fishing line with a Labubu hooked to the end, bobbing it up and down over the crowd to fish out the strongest suitors.

After the weak links were eliminated from the performativity pool, the contest hosts acted as the judging panel, bringing contestants up one by one and rating their performativity, a la the Roblox game, Dress to Impress, with a star rating system.

Look-alike contests have been popular across the country for the past year — starting with a Timothee Chalamet look-alike contest in New York and making its way to San Francisco just last year with the city’s search for its own Dev Patel. “Performative male” contests are making their way down the West Coast too, with preceding contests in Seattle and Silverlake, Los Angeles.

The winning “performative male” was none other than James Bennett — a San Francisco native and UC Berkeley graduate. Bennett was sporting his usual look: baggy jeans down to the ground, a tote bag, a thrifted cardigan, yellow Onitsuka Tigers shoes from Japan and a matcha in hand. The costumed pieces? A Kangol hat, cropped Uniqlo button-up, wired headphones draped over his ears and a Labubu he borrowed from his mom.

“It’s ecstatic and overwhelming,” said Bennett, swarmed by adoring fans pleading for photos.

“We shouldn’t villainize men enjoying feminine things,” said Bennett.

“At the end of the day, if they actually read that [feminist literature], it’s overall a net positive,” continued Bennett, a former philosophy major, which he agreed — like Big from Sex and the City — was “absofuckinglutely” performative.

Left: Look-alike winner James Bennett (right) taking a photo with a fan(left).
Middle: Slogans like “Future is Female” and “I hate periods” taped on shirts.
Right: Celebrating Bennett’s win by blasting Laufey.

San Francisco Chronicle: ‘Maybe I’m part of the problem’: Performative male contest takes over S.F. park (archive)

By Zara Irshad, Staff Writer
Aug 23, 2025

Justin Arthur Bennett V gives a speech after winning a performative male contest at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco.

Hundreds of self-proclaimed “performative men” descended on Alamo Square Park, traveling from across the Bay Area to flaunt their best tote bags, Labubus and unread books while vying for the winning title.

James Arthur Bennett V of Redwood City secured the bragging rights, rising above the dozens of other contestants that braved the blanket of evening fog on Friday, Aug. 22, to compete.

Justin Arthur Bennett V receives a trophy after winning a performative male contest at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco.

Jackie Chen passes out complimentary matcha while dressed as a “matcha maid” during a performative male contest at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco.

Justin Quan reveals a book cutout for his phone while holding Louie during a performative male contest at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco.

Steven Zhang plays a guitar during a performative male contest at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco.

Justin Arthur Bennett V raises a trophy in celebration after winning a performative male contest at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco.

Justin Quan reveals a cutout for his phones in a book after receiving a tot bag for placing top five during a performative male contest at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco.

“I didn’t think I would make it this far, but I’m very happy to be here,” he told the Chronicle, noting that his victory is “a little ecstatic and overwhelming.”

The 24-year-old defines a performative man as someone who is “trying to get feminist-encoded stuff to not seem so macho.” He dressed the part by wearing a pearl necklace, wired headphones and a pin-adorned tote bag on his shoulder. To seal the deal, he carried an iced matcha latte and a copy of feminist author Bell Hooks’ 1999 classic “All About Love.”

Justin Arthur Bennett V holds his trophy after winning a performative male contest at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco.

He received a small gold trophy for his efforts, and exchanged phone numbers with the main organizer, 20-year-old Kake Jin, to select his actual prize away from the throngs of spectators.

Jin came up with the idea for Friday’s sprawling event just over a week ago, inspired by a different performative male contest she saw in her home country of Canada. She quickly enlisted a handful of friends to help bring the idea to fruition, with some, like Alisa Wu, 19, and 20-something twins Jenny and Chrissy S., marketing the event via flyers and viral social media posts (one of which was liked by R&B megastar SZA on Instagram), while others, like 24 year-old Blaire Pang, focused on developing an AI model that was used to judge contestants in the first round.

“I don’t dress like this, but I’m doing it, I’m talking to some girls. … That’s exactly what I got out here for,” Sunset District resident Theo Kwan, 29, said.

Committing to the bit, he said he purchased former first lady Michelle Obama’s 2018 autobiography, “Becoming,” for the occasion.

Theo Kwan pretends to read Michelle Obama’s memoir while wearing sunglasses during a performative male contest at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco.

“That’s how performative I am,” he said. “This is not my tote, that was not my dog. It’s all to start conversation.”

Jin and her friends launched a Partiful invitation for the event last weekend, and received more than 1,000 RSVPs as of Friday morning. Operating on a $2,000 budget, they secured sponsorships from tech startups Dex by Thirdlayer, AI Valley and Ditto AI, as well as a $500 donation from the Richmond District’s Kiss of Matcha. Gift cards for the establishment were distributed to the first wave of contestants that showed up.

The event was buzzing with chaotic energy early on, with some confusion over the multi-step process to enter via QR code and an earlier-than-planned start time, prompted by the overwhelming turnout. Nonetheless, it was a hit both among prospective performative men and amused onlookers, many of whom lounged on picnic blankets in the grass watching the spectacle unfold.

“I had so many of my friends tell me I would be a good fit for this. A lot of this came from my own wardrobe anyways,” 27-year-old Matt Jereza said, gesturing to his flashy ensemble: a neon green “Brat” T-shirt, in reference to Charli XCX’s hit 2024 album; over-the-ear headphones; and a handful of books.

Matt Jereza dons a Charli XCX Brat shirt while being judged by an all-women panel during a performative male contest at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco.

“I don’t consider myself a performative male, but maybe I’m part of the problem,” the San Francisco native said. “Women have to carry a lot in society and so I felt like the least I could do was represent.”

After receiving an AI-generated rating, a pool of 26 contestants were selected to progress to the next round, during which they spun around showing off their looks to the growing crowd while Jin and her friends asked them questions like, “What’s your favorite matcha spot?” and “Who is your favorite feminist literature author?” From there, the group was narrowed down to a final 10, each of whom received custom tote bags from New Wave Graphix, before a winner was selected.

Contestants line up to be judged during a performative male contest at Alamo Square in San Francisco on Friday, Aug. 22.

While he doesn’t know what his main prize is yet, Bennett said that he already knows that he’d want to donate any cash he receives to women’s shelters and Gaza.

“Since I have the platform, free Palestine, free Congo, free Sudan,” he told the crowd of hundreds immediately after securing the win. “We’re progressive now.”

Jin, an Ottawa native who is in San Francisco for a summer internship at a pharmatech company, planned the event as a last hurrah.

“I think it’s just like a fun thing, because I want to spend time with my friends before I leave the city,” she said. “That’s the biggest thing, just to have an event of the summer at the very end.”

Bobby Chen dons a shirt saying “The Future Is Female” during a performative male contest at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco.

Friday’s pageant is only the latest in a string of social competitions to hit the Bay Area over the past year. Others include the viral Dev Patel look-alike contest at Dolores Park and the Zendaya look-alike contest at Wilma Chan Park, both held last November.

The Bay Area seems to be abundant in showy men, as a different group of friends have organized another performative male contest at Dolores Park at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23. Their Partiful invitation has more than 900 RSVPs as of Saturday morning.

“Ideally, we do want this. We do want men to read feminist literature,” Bennett said of the phenomenon. “But there are manipulators, there are men who try to get in this lane. It is an archetype.”

After the experience, he had one piece of advice for Chronicle readers: “Don’t date performative men.”

Vermilion A · Aug 24, 2025

>Alamo Square Park
lmao, I've driven past this too many times to count. My great grandmother owned a house here. The fact Rem cosplayers and male feminists are now traipsing upon its premises is both hilarious and sad.

US San Francisco / San Fransicko Megathread

Paranoia Machine

Where am I?

Kiska

Fucking claggots

Sneed's Feed And Seed

Antifa Delenda Est

The Mass Shooter Ron Soye

Shit nobody cares about Expert ✅

Super-Chevy454

Paranoia Machine

Where am I?

The Mass Shooter Ron Soye

Shit nobody cares about Expert ✅

Culture Thread 'Gen Z created a new type of man to avoid'

Vermilion A