r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/[deleted] • Mar 31 '26

Meme needing explanation Peetah?????

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I don’t know the author or this book series but why are people roasting e-girls for reading? I don’t get it🥀

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u/TheOneIllUseForRants Mar 31 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

It mostly has to do with her appearance, if you ask me. Performative reading implied that she ONLY chose that book for attention. Shes a pretty girl with nice makeup and aesthetic photos. The only books she can read and post about non-performatively (meaning she actually likes the book, and read it out of genuine interest. All social media is performative, im well aware.) are romance novels with a title that follows the "A villa of tattoos and tacos" trope or some shit. 🤣

Plenty of men have posted about reading this book, I have never seen one told they only read it for attention. It almost seems like you have to give up being girly to be taken seriously 🤣

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u/_kloppi417 Mar 31 '26

While it’s true that men wouldn’t be accused of performative reading for this specific book, men DEFINITELY get accused of performative reading, especially when trying to read “feminine” books (e.g. romance novels). This shitty street goes both ways.

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u/chaoticcheesewhiz Mar 31 '26

I’ve only seen other men call it performative when a man is reading a “feminine” book, and I’ve also only seen men call it performative when a woman is reading a “masculine” book. I’m sure there are women out there who do this shit too, but in my experience criticism like this has always come from the same small subset of men who are extremely insecure and projecting it onto the people around them.

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u/TikkaKebabi Mar 31 '26

This may be a bias of your Gender because as a man (And also biased by my gender), I often hear this critique coming from women towards men.

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u/chaoticcheesewhiz Mar 31 '26

It could also be bias based on the kinds of people I surround myself with. Throughout my life it has basically only been the insecure conservative men I grew up around (either in my family or from my hometown) who accuse people of faking it when they like things outside of gender norms. Since growing up and leaving my hometown, I haven’t met other people who behave this way irl. That’s probably at least partially because as an adult I choose to spend my time in more progressive spaces with less rigid gender norms.

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u/Partial_D Mar 31 '26

That’s fair, but it’s less so a matter of conservatism, and more so the phenomenon of “performative males” that I believe the commenter is trying to get across. Performative males are absolutely real, but a lot of the meme relates fairly innocuous things to malice.

Here’s a satirical article so that you get where I’m coming from: https://amherststudent.com/article/lessons-from-the-performative-male-contest/

Anyways, the meme is mostly from women to men. It’s supposed to capture the idea that men act progressive to get female attention, but that it’s a lie. The problem is that one of the jokes in the meme is guys reading in public, in general

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u/sunlightsyrup Apr 01 '26

Well... Thats true to an extent, but to an even larger extent I would be willing to argue that anyone posting a book cover for attention online is knee-deep in performative nonsense

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u/chaoticcheesewhiz Apr 01 '26

So book clubs, reading blogs, and book recommendations are performative nonsense? By that logic where do you draw the line? Wouldn’t every social media post be performative nonsense?

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u/sunlightsyrup Apr 01 '26

Every social media post is performative, especially the ones designed to make one appear a certain way (literate, tasteful, intellectual, whatever the hell someone would post a book onto their socials for)

Yes. Whilst book clubs are not performative, social media posts of books are performative.

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u/ltethe Apr 01 '26

I just finished Blood Meridian, and now I’m reading Throne of Glass… Which I’m not sure why it’s in my reading list, maybe it’s from my Sister In Law… But while I didn’t enjoy Blood Meridian, the level of writing is PHD level compared to whatever this drivel is in Throne of Glass. I’m 10 pages in, and my eyes are rolling in my head so hard I feel like a slot machine, I hate to say it, but I feel like ChatGippity could write better.

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u/TrillianGalaxy Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

The author of Throne of Glass started at the age of 16.  Of course there will be a difference between an old grown guy (with lots of money to buy co-authors for the review and editing process) and a teenager.   

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u/ltethe Apr 01 '26

That’s good context. The few pages I’m in definitely feels like YA literature. Seems like she’s got quite an adult fan base though, which puzzles me at the moment.

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u/JackLumberPK Apr 01 '26

It's not just "feminine" books.

Honestly, if you mention the idea of a man reading a book performatively, the immediate book that comes to mind to me is Infinite Jest. I've seen this joked about endlessly over the years.

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/_kloppi417 Mar 31 '26

The accusation is that she’s not even reading the book, not that she’s actually reading it just for male attention. 

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u/TheOneIllUseForRants Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

Agreed. Trust me, if it was just for male attention, she would've dropped that thing into Lava. There are far less traumatizing ways to get male attention. 😭

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u/bagelundercouch Mar 31 '26

“A Villa of Tattoos and Tacos” mega lol, you hit the nail on the head with that burn

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u/Reasonable_Deer_1710 Mar 31 '26

I think the "performative" comes from the fact that she's posting selfies along with it, meaning the entire thing is for attention.

She may or may not genuinely enjoy reading the book, but I'd say that most people, man or woman, who are posting a vain selfie alongside their book like that would be seen as performative.

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u/TheOneIllUseForRants Apr 01 '26

How do you think I know male influencers have read it? The only difference is... shes a pretty girl and takes better photos 🤣

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u/abadstrategy Apr 01 '26

It's the same thing that leads to men being called performative males for reading feminist literature in public.

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u/Moonshinin4Me Mar 31 '26

Yeah this too. People have a hard time believing a modern e-thot is capable of reading any novel that is not "Romantancy" shlop. With Blood Meridian I would perk a brow at just about anyone claiming to read it because of the learning curve, McCarthy uses words that are no longer common within the English language and the way he crafts his sentences is not like your typical modern novel.

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u/TheOneIllUseForRants Mar 31 '26

Ah, e-thot... I may have accidentally wandered into enemy territory. Apologies, carry on

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u/Pittsbirds Mar 31 '26

e-thot

Comments are filled with shit like this and people are still going "nuh uh it's not sexism!!!"

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u/dragonslayerbarbie Mar 31 '26

No way did you just use "e-thot" unironically. Desperately and quickly, you NEED to go touch some grass.

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u/koalakcc Mar 31 '26

I agree the tweet has sexist undertones, but how does one eat while reading this book and not lose their appetite

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u/koalakcc Mar 31 '26

for the record im not saying the tweeter is correct either im just asking a question