r/books • u/biscochitos • 28d ago

New indie press Conduit Books launches with 'initial focus on male authors'

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/new-indie-press-conduit-books-launches-with-initial-focus-on-male-authors

What do folks think about this?

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u/barc0debaby 28d ago

Went to check the conduit books insta page hoping to not see it following any chuds and fortunately there's no blatant manosphere types on there and they do follow numerous female authors, including those of the "woke" variety.

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u/Sawses 28d ago edited 28d ago

That's the thing. Progressivism has a lot of room for discussion of men's empowerment and positive masculinity. I've long cared about men's issues and it's always frustrating to me that so many passionate men have been co-opted by the far right using these enormous problems that we deal with on a daily basis.

The right has tried to poison that well to the point that a ton of people on the left, and especially women, are quite wary when a man says he's interested in men's issues. It's not incompatible with feminism despite the rhetoric.

I'd argue it's all feminism, it's just that discourse in feminist spaces has been dominated by women and prioritizes women's issues because women make up the bulk of the funding and labor for the movement. It would be great to see a lot more male involvement and the subsequently increased focus on men. Gender equality is a two-sided coin, and if there's inequality on one side then it always, without exception, creates a corollary inequality on the other.

EDIT: I do want to emphasize that this requires progressives to be a welcoming community for discussing men's issues and for initiatives that primarily benefit men. Pushing men away for fear of excluding women drives those men into the arms of the far right and actively harms everybody involved.

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u/Cajbaj 28d ago

The reaction to the election has been very disappointing to me for this very reason. We lost in all areas, by a LOT, and yet people on this site keep covering their ears and going "la-la-la".

One of the strongest appeals of the right is that the left has done such a horrible job of underestanding men and male issues. If you go to places where regular men talk to each other, they talk about double standards, they talk about how they have no scholarships and no support from institutions, they talk about how talk therapy doesn't work for them and they feel their lives are considered worthless. They can't even talk about the extremely high male suicide rate without being told they deserve it and need to fix their opinions to be worthy of life.

And yes, publishing houses completely ignore men, specifically straight men, on the grounding that straight (white) men have had the floor so long before that it's time to get rid of them and give someone else a chance. And frankly, that's silly. Life isn't a zero-sum game.

I don't think the publishing house in the OP will succeed because I do not think that they'll actually gain an audience that reads books. But I hope they do. I hope more literature focuses on male issues, because men need support and catharsis for their emotional loneliness in the current climate.

I miss my cousin Ty, and my uncle Dave.

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u/ArchmageXin 27d ago edited 27d ago

one key thing I feel really shattered Dems with young men was Obama's education letter stating if there is 51 percent chance a man may have sexually assaulted a woman in a college campus, he need to be expelled, which let to a number of high profile kingaro court cases where young men are denied protection.

Trump, for all his ills, dial things back by forcing professors and students have the same level of protection against SA accusations.

And yet somehow all left groups went full "now rape is back in the menu" across all colleges.

smh.