From Claudia Conway to your friends who post political infographics on their Instagram stories, social media activism is an action that has been steadily incorporated into how we express ourselves on social media. Over the last nine months, many social media influencers have used sociopolitical issues to show their followers that they care about said issues. Social media activism is not always used in good faith and can be utilized to gain social capital and approval. This is known as performative activism. Urban dictionary defines performative activism as when an individual who, “uses a “woke” cause to ensure their social media following knows that they care… when actually, all they care about is their influencer status and the amount of likes they’ll get.” In recent months, the discourse around performative activism has been very critical of those who post about social and political issues in the hopes that their followers will see them as salient to global contemporary causes. A great example of this phenomenon is with one of my favorite episodes of Bojack Horseman entitled, “Bojack the Feminist.”

The episode is about a misogynistic, anti-semitic, abusive actor, Vance Waggoner who comes out of retirement to join the cast of Philbert, a show that the main character, Bojack is in. A rivalry between the two actors begins as Bojack unintentionally displays a face of disgust while Vance is receiving a Forgivie Award for the terrible mistakes he made in the past. In a interview to explain the misunderstanding, Bojack reluctantly denounces Vance’s actions which leads the press to hail Bojack as a feminist. To heal his image, Vance does the same and pretends to be a feminist as well. The rest of the episode consists of both actors going on talk shows and promoting superficial feminist ideals for the sake of their public perception.

Bojack in tacky pro-feminist appeal

Social media influencers use performative activism in the same way that Bojack broadcasted superficial feminist notions to gain acclaim in the eyes of the public. The most sinister part of performative activism is that it weaponizes social issues for likes and follows, which inadvertently perpetuates itself. These movements should not be used for personal gain, but rather to spread awareness and enact real change. You might be wondering, why is performative activism bad if it spreads awareness? When opportunities for chance arise, (like change in presidential administration) those same performative activists who spoke out, cling to status quo. They rarely understand the issues they are advocating for and therefore do not see the need to push for reform or abolition of the systems and structures that occupy our society. Towards the end of the episode, Diane tells Bojack, “When you move on to your next thing, I’m still here.” When performative activists move on to the next popular political movement or as they see it, the next trend, the individuals who have been suffering under and fighting those systems are left behind.