Grab your carabiners and backwards baseball caps, and make room for UF’s performative masc lesbians.
An informal “performative masc lesbian” contest was held at UF’s Plaza of the Americas Wednesday afternoon to crown the queen of butch.
About 20 people competed, each hoping to stand out against their fellow competitors as the most performative and masculine. One girl brought a tool box and a guitar, another a tote bag with records, and someone sported an outfit she said was all thrifted.
Informal competitions have popped up all over the internet, from Timothee Chalamet and Pedro Pascal look-alike contests to “performative male” competitions held in parks and public spaces. An informal performative male contest took place at Plaza of the Americas just two days before the masc lesbians, attracting a crowd of almost 60 people to watch men with jorts and tote bags strut the plaza clutching Starbucks matcha drinks.
Ava Joyce, a 19-year-old UF biology sophomore, attended the masc contest. She said she associates a “performative masc lesbian” with someone who wears baggy pants or jorts, baggy shirts and has a carabiner on their pants.
Joyce said she was unaware of the contest until her friend told her. She said she’d heard about the performative male contest, but she missed it.
“I was like, ‘I have to come to this one,’” Joyce said.
Sophia Scribani, a 21-year-old UF health science senior who runs an Instagram account devoted to increasing queer visibility, said she was inspired to host the performative masc lesbian contest after hearing about one that happened in Seattle.
Scribani is familiar with UF’s lesbian community and has attended sapphic parties since she came to Gainesville. However, the creator of those sapphic parties has since graduated, and the parties stopped, leaving a void in their wake, Scribani said.
She hopes her own contest helped lesbians make friends in their community, she added.
“I felt like that binding brick of the lesbian community had gone down a little bit, so I thought that this could help with that.” Scribani said.
The contest started as a joke before friends offered to help organize it, she added. She found seven judges for the panel, and she set up a system where people could vote for who they thought was the best performative masc lesbian using a QR code.
The contest consisted of two rounds. In the first, competitors showed off their outfits and props, including cargo pants, button down shirts and even brought a pack of cigarettes. The crowd cheered as each competitor stepped forward, flexing their muscles and swinging heavyset key chains. Eleven contestants were cut, leaving only 10 for the second and final round.
The second round consisted of several personal questions. One judge asked “What’s your favorite piece of feminist literature?” getting answers ranging from “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath to “I don’t read.” Another question asked “What is one word you would use to describe women?” One contestant answered "otherworldly" while another answered “mine.”
At the end of the second round, 258 people voted on their favorite contestant, who was granted the title “The People’s Princess.” That award went to Lindsey Gu, an 18-year-old UF industrial and systems engineering freshman.
The judges also chose the top three “performative masc lesbians” and gave the top prize to Claire Busansky, a 21-year-old UF political science and family, youth and community sciences senior.
Busansky said she learned about the contest through Instagram, and she was interested in competing because it was something new and fun. She figured she could go outside of her comfort zone, she said, and meet new people in her community.
To Busansky, a performative masculine lesbian is “someone who embodies more masculinity and aesthetic, but not necessarily in personality.”
Busansky said the contest was “extraordinary.” She said right now, there’s a lot of negativity and low amounts of collaboration, especially within the queer community.
“I think it was really liberating and really fun to be in the middle of campus and kind of show out and be queer.” Busansky said.
Contact Madeline Herring at mherring@alligator.org. Follow her on X @m_herring06.
Madeline is a first-year journalism and environmental science double major and the Fall 2025 general assignment reporter. In her free time she enjoys reading, binging new television series, and browsing the isles of target with her friends.
