Postfeminist Men’s Movements: The Campaign Against Living Miserably and Male Suicide as ‘Crisis’

Abstract

This chapter focuses on postfeminist men’s movements, presenting a detailed examination of the male suicide prevention charity, the Campaign Against Living Miserably. The qualitative analysis of their online materials suggests that CALM constructs masculinity in different ways, sometimes advocating a ‘new’, gentler masculinity, and at other times reproducing traditional masculinity through attempts to appeal to men. CALM explicitly articulate crisis-of-masculinity narratives mostly framed in a ‘progressive’ form, but ‘conservative’ crisis ideas were also present. A postfeminist gender politics was most prominent, alongside aspects of feminism and backlash narratives. Concerns are raised about the conservative and anti-feminist messages underpinning some of the CALM website. However, the postfeminist framing is also argued to be problematic, contributing to the marginalisation of feminism/women’s inequalities.