Drawing upon qualitative interview data examining friendships between men across sexual orientation, this article contributes to the emergent literature surrounding the performance and articulation of “inclusive masculinities” (Anderson, 2009). Research participants demonstrated a substantial departure from many of the anxieties or conflicts historically associated with relationships between gay and straight men, such as attitudes toward “coming out,” bodily touch, and the gay interviewees' partners. This article offers a more critical approach to empirical accounts of “inclusive masculinities.” In particular, it examines how participants reproduced historically denigrating understandings of working-class life in their performances of tolerance. This abjection of an imagined working-class “intolerant other” played a substantial role in the production of middle-class interviewee selves, and facilitated the accumulation of particular forms of cultural capital.
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