Masculinity as cruel optimism

Lauren Berlant has argued, ‘cruel optimism exists when something you desire is actually an obstacle to your flourishing’ [2011. Cruel Optimism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, p. 1]. In this paper, I draw on Berlant’s notion of ‘cruel optimism’ and position it alongside the idea of the ‘angry white male’ [Kimmel, 2013. Angry white men: American masculinity at the end of an era. New York, NY: Nation Books]. My contention is to work through the governing opinion of masculinities studies that masculinity itself is seldom achievable; that is, if we believe the writings of masculinity theorists – popular and academic – we always seem to fail at masculinity. One can never be masculine enough. We are told to ‘man up’ and yet the very command does not explain the conditions by which one can ‘man up.’ I understand masculinity as a gendered and affective space in which we can begin to think about cruel optimism. In this paper, I draw on the work of Eve Sedgwick, Michael Kimmel, and Lauren Berlant to argue that masculinity is a kind of cruel optimism insofar as we continue to believe in its possibility, and that this cruel optimism is caught amongst ‘shame,’ ‘fear,’ and ‘dread.’