Woman Pretends to Clean up Beach Litter for Social Media — and the Internet Roasts Her

By now, most of us have brushed up on what it means to be performative in today's social climate. Sociologically speaking, to be performative is to publicly profess that you have a deeply vested interest in a particular subject or hot topic purely for the sake of internet clout. More often than not, the "performer's" actual stance on that subject matter behind closed doors is negligible at best if not outright hostile toward it.

We've seen performative wokeness in action all throughout Pride Month in 2023, where companies like Bud Light and Target tried to merchandise their apparent support for the LGBTQ+ community only to immediately renege on their respective campaigns once conservatives began voicing their outrage and enacting boycotts of their brands.

Surprising no one, being performative can also occur within any individual. And right now, the internet's judgmental eyes are firmly planted on a woman who seemingly pretended to clean up beach litter for the clout.

The video was originally posted to TikTok by @thesocialjokr, though the original footage has since been removed from the platform. However, it survives through various stitches and on a Reddit thread where folks have taken to shaming her for her performative activism.

In the 50-second video, OP shares footage of a woman pretending to pick up garbage. The whole thing is framed as an instructional video on "how to look like you care for the environment." The woman unwittingly demonstrates this behavior in great detail.

The first step is to "get your friend to film you filling up rubbish bags." To that end, the woman takes a big black trash bag and begins filling it up with sticks scattered throughout a beachfront.

The next step is to "pull off an Oscar-winning performance of you struggling in the wind" while trying to carry the bags." Cut to the woman holding her two bags and trying to drag them along with her.

After that, simply "celebrate your good deed by doing a s----- dance." The woman then does a dance that can be generously described as a crappy running man.

And you can't forget the most important step: "[leaving the] rubbish bags behind once you're done." The woman then physically leaves the bags behind as she prepares to leave with her friend. Someone even attempts to call them out toward the end of the video, though they seemingly ignore the person.

Despite the original video having been removed, the woman hasn't escaped the internet's wrath. Many have already called her a "terrible human being" for pretending to clean up the beach and actively failing to follow through.

"The real trash was removed when she finally left the beach," one person commented.

Another user wrote, "These are the worst kind of people."

All in all, the internet seems to be in agreement that this woman's performative act of pretending to clean was shameful.