Happiness and Constructions of Young Masculinity

Abstract

This chapter considers young Black men as feeling subjects. The main objective is to surface and examine positive emotions, happiness specifically, in constructions of young Black masculinities. The chapter seeks to urge researchers focused on young Black men to challenge and go beyond histories and contemporary stereotypes that tend to criminalize, pathologize, infra-humanize or demonize Black men and masculinities. It discusses the studies of masculinities in South Africa, critically focusing on the ways in which many studies are characterized by a risk-and-deficit orientation that criminalizes and demonizes Black masculinity. The chapter also discusses theories of positive emotions and the potential they hold for transformative Black masculinity studies and Black men's lives. Grounded in a critical-empathetic engagement with young men around emotions as pathways to ontologically generative masculinities, the chapter highlights the significance of positive emotions in constructions of masculinities.