Imagine with me for a moment.
Someone pulls out Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca – arguably one of Gothic literature’s most celebrated novels– on the TTC. Two cars down on Line 1, I spy someone sketching in a notebook, headphones on, listening to Radiohead. I get off at Bathurst Station and walk into Rustle & Still. I pull out whatever book or literary essay I have been assigned that week and begin reading. I turn to my right and see two university students reading over their drinks: one with a matcha latte, the other with a chai.
I breathe in hope while watching these people do one simple thing: read.
Whether it’s for school or personal entertainment, someone has picked up a book (and maybe a pen) and is exercising their brain, getting used to the world’s tournament– training for an endless competition of information and experience. Every page, every drawing, every new idea is another way of strengthening the mind, preparing for a world that constantly asks us to know more, understand more, and experience more.
The four of us strangers are united by something that feels increasingly rare: participating in literacy and creativity simply because we want to. No audience. No stage. No camera pointed at us. Just people reading, drawing, and existing with their interests in public.
Yet online, these ordinary moments are often dismissed as “performative”– as if opening a novel, sketching on the subway or reading in a coffee shop is an attempt to appear smarter, more interesting or somehow better than everyone else.
And…scene! Imaginary extras, take five – you can return to your habitual doomscrolling.
The most common meaning of the word “performative” is an action, public display, or statement done purely for show– to impress others, gain social approval, or signal virtue without genuine commitment. However, my understanding of the word originally came from the very different perspective of literature and academia. I think that distinction is important to make.
I first encountered the word “performative” through J. L. Austin, a British philosopher and linguist whose lectures were published posthumously in the book How to Do Things with Words. Austin was significant to my understanding of the term because his work explored how language itself can perform actions.
Austin introduced the concept of the “performative utterance,” which refers to expressions that do not merely describe or report a state of affairs, but instead actively perform, like making a promise or naming something. In other words, saying something can itself be a form of doing something.
This was my original understanding of “performative,” one rooted in language, philosophy, and the idea that words can actively induce an action. Today the way “performative” is applied on social media carries a different meaning. There, the word is often used to describe actions or statements that are perceived as being done primarily for an audience– to appear a certain way, gain approval, or signal a particular set of values.
This creates a societal problem. When we discourage or shame people for reading or doing something creative in public, we are actively taking away the space for those around us to be creative– and, even more disquietingly, to stop reading. People read in public for simple reasons, and it blows my mind that people believe they’re doing it to perform and prove their intelligence. In full honesty, I think those with this perception may be projecting their own insecurities onto others.
People read in public for many reasons, but I can only speak for myself. I commute an hour and a half to school and back, and on that commute, I read. It could be something I’m reading for class (which I tend to enjoy most of the time), a book I wanted to catch up on, papers from my friends that I volunteered to edit, or articles for Excalibur that I thought would be interesting to talk about. From what I’ve seen online from avid readers and university students, this seems to be a commonality.
Regardless of why you read, it’s essential that you know how. Canada is facing a literacy crisis that affects students and adults alike. In 2018-19, 26 per cent of Ontario Grade 3 students and 19 per cent of Grade 6 students did not meet the provincial reading standard. For students with special education needs, those numbers increased to 53 per cent and 47 per cent. Nationally, 18 per cent of Canadian 15-year-olds scored below the reading benchmark in 2023. These numbers show that many students are struggling with more than just reading words on a page. Literacy tests do not simply test one’s ability to read; they measure comprehension, critical thinking, analysis, and basic literacy skills.
This should scare you. This should terrify you. This should concern parents and educators. This has to make us question what we are doing to encourage people to read, write, and think. Because if we continue to shame people for doing these things in public, we are only making it easier for people to stop doing them altogether.
To close, I have one more offering for you.
If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning.” – Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own.
Sit with this.
And maybe pick yourself up a copy of A Room of One’s Own, take a seat on the TTC on your way to school and read. Because if reading is “performative,” then I’ll perform.
