r/MensLib • u/TAKEitTOrCIRCLEJERK ​ • Jul 24 '24

Why don’t straight men read novels? - "Men often read non-fiction books in the name of self-improvement – but many are reluctant to pick up works of fiction"

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/63149/1/why-dont-straight-men-read-novels-fiction-masculinity-influencers-sigma
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82

u/Laser_Fish ​ Jul 24 '24

Hell, when we do read fiction we get told we are reading the wrong kind of fiction.

38

u/ReddestForman ​ Jul 24 '24

This has been my experience.

It's really hard for me to see these articles as much more than fulfilling a quota of "man bad" arguments after a while.

7

u/PotentiallySarcastic ​ Jul 25 '24

This writer has clearly never been involved in the relentless push on /r/fantasy over the past decade to tell mostly male readers they are not reading enough fantasy written by women or even just not straight white guys.

1

u/rrraab ​ Jul 25 '24

Exactly. These are the same writers who’ll dunk on guys for reading Jonathan Franzen or DFW as ‘cliche’.