{"id":150794,"date":"2026-02-10T22:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T22:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/150794\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T22:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T22:43:09","slug":"usfsp-students-and-community-activists-on-performative-activism-the-crows-nest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/150794\/","title":{"rendered":"USFSP students and community activists on performative activism \u2013 The Crow’s Nest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Performative activism is caused by \u201cthe allure of popularity, of love, of people adoring you, it\u2019s a siren\u2019s call,\u201d said senior English major William Thaxton.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Kaycee Carter<\/p>\n

By Secilia Ruiz and Julia Birdsall<\/p>\n

Social media and protests are some of the main ways that people get involved in activism today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, not everyone does this with selfless intention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Performative activism is when one involves themself with a social movement in a way that benefits them but not the movement they claim to support.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it\u2019s performative, it can come off a lot more like self-serving, or it can come off a lot more like you\u2019re just here for the flashiness, but there\u2019s no real work happening after,\u201d said Harrison Lundy, the public policy director for Voices of Florida and a volunteer for 5051 Florida.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like putting on a mask, Elise Prophete, junior political science and sustainability major and Governor of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg\u2019s student government, told The Crow\u2019s Nest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When engaging in performative activism \u201cwe\u2019re not allowing ourselves to be vulnerable and be at risk for the things we care about,\u201d Prophete said. \u201cWe\u2019re not allowing ourselves to truly care about them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Performative activism has the effect of boosting one\u2019s own social credit while devaluing a social movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turns [a movement] from something that actually focuses on the issues to a popularity contest, to a holier-than-thou symposium,\u201d senior English major William Thaxton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lundy used pinkwashing as an example.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pinkwashing occurs when corporations market LGBTQ+ themed merchandise during Pride Month, but don\u2019t do anything to engage with or provide resources for issues that plague the LGBTQ+ community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201c[It] takes away from the real struggles that LGBTQ people face in Florida and across the country,\u201d said Lundy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Karin Woodbury, a USF St. Petersburg alumna, stated that performative activism is like most trends, which often fizzle out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Woodbury told The Crow\u2019s Nest that this can be detrimental to certain issues because it decreases their visibility at a time when people need to pay attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOn one hand, I do understand that, because people kind of have a limited amount of bandwidth,\u201d Woodbury said. \u201cYou can only care so much about certain issues, but it\u2019s still not great to ignore these issues that are happening.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Woodbury cited the genocide in Palestine<\/a> as an example.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not being talked about as much anymore,\u201d Woodbury told The Crow\u2019s Nest. \u201cOnce Israel issued a \u2018ceasefire\u2019 \u2014 even though they\u2019re not ceasing any fire, you know \u2014 everyone was like, \u2018Oh, issue\u2019s over, on to whatever the next big hot-button topic is.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Social media plays a large role in the prevalence of performative activism, said Thaxton.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe information age, social media, especially, has made performative activism much more visible and thus, you get a lot more eyeballs on you,\u201d they said. \u201cBecause remember, at the end of the day, performative activism is all about self-interest, not about the interests of [others].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Lundy believes performative activism can sometimes be a doorway into genuine activism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He believes that one of the reasons that performative activism may occur is due to a lack of resources or access, but providing that access can allow people to make the transition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Activism occurs when one identifies an issue that they want to see change to and organizes themselves and others to enact that change, said Prophete.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it\u2019s about correcting people whenever they talk about certain issues\u2026 and trying to start that important dialogue,\u201d Woodbury said. \u201cOr not supporting certain businesses that directly affect certain issues. So, it\u2019s small gestures like that that can sort of build into bigger movements.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This does not just apply to one issue.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have different topics that they\u2019re passionate about and it\u2019s really inclusive in that way,\u201d Lundy told The Crow\u2019s Nest. \u201cSo, people are able to bring their own skills and their own knowledge to the space.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Activism can benefit individuals just as much as communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt helps you look outside of yourself,\u201d Prophete said. \u201cIt helps you build power in systems that don\u2019t always favor individuals, and usually favor like corporations or entities that just have money.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Woodbury agreed, stating that people\u2019s stress and anger in regard to issues that plague their communities can be turned into action that prevents those emotions from \u201cfestering.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m able to actually put these motivations and emotions towards bettering my own neighborhood,\u201d she said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

While getting more involved in activism, Thaxton believes personal mental health should always come first.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t save anyone if you can\u2019t save yourselves first,\u201d they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Students and community activists echoed a similar sentiment: There are ways that people can engage with activism every day and it can look different for everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important that we recognize that activism isn\u2019t just the signs and the videos and the big marches,\u201d Lundy said. \u201cIt really is kind of the work that doesn\u2019t always get noticed, but it\u2019s still incredibly important.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n


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Written by: Julia Birdsall<\/a> on February 10, 2026.
Last revised by: Alisha Durosier<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Performative activism is caused by \u201cthe allure of popularity, of love, of people adoring you, it\u2019s a siren\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-150794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}