Mindful Masculinity: Positive Psychology, McMindfulness and Gender

Abstract

In recent years, positive psychology and mindfulness practices have increasingly been integrated in neo-liberal organisations to promote individuals’ well-being. Critics have argued that these practices actually function as management techniques, encouraging individuals’ self-governance and acceptance of the status quo despite adverse contexts. This article extends this argument by unpacking ways in which such ‘well-being’ programmes are also gendered, having been formulated around neo-liberal hegemonic masculine values of rationality, individualism and competition, and further masculinised through integration into gendered organisations. The argument is presented that this process produces a neo-liberal version of hegemonic masculinity that the author calls ‘mindful masculinity’. This theoretical argument is illustrated through examples of specific ways in which ‘well-being’ practices have been reworked in strongly masculine settings to promote neo-liberal hegemonic masculine goals under a symbolic veneer of spirituality and mental health.

Neoliberal Hegemonic Masculinity and McMindfulness: The Need for Buddhist Values and Principles in Mindful Masculinity Programs

“…Second, rather than applying mindfulness as a way to help young men let go of attachment to the self or ego in order to alleviate suffering and gain compassion for others, mindfulness educators inadvertently apply it as a technology to adjust and strengthen the neoliberal hegemonic masculine self in order to function with greater strength and succeed within a competitive and inequitable neoliberal society. Thus, instead of Buddhist non-attachment, McMindfulness replaces it with competitive striving, which fits in well with neoliberal hegemonic masculinity (Smallen 2019).…”

“…Along with Smallen (2019), I argue that hegemonic masculinity serves neoliberal values, policies, and structures, and that we can speak of a neoliberal hegemonic masculinity, which is the predominant form of patriarchy in the U.S. today.…”

“…Mindfulness becomes McMindfulness when it is applied for the purposes of improving neoliberal structures and relationships: to hold oneself personally responsible for reducing stress, rather than questioning and challenging with others the troublesome sources of stress from workplaces, schools, and society; to increase corporate productivity and efficiency; to manage anger and difficult emotions in the service of classroom compliance, often with African American and Latino students; and to improve students' focus and concentration on the standard curricula and standardized tests in order to succeed in school (Forbes 2019;Purser 2019;Smallen 2019). The overall aim is individualistic, to promote and strengthen the privatized self in order to be a successful, competitive, and productive member of neoliberal society.…”