This is so interesting to me for so many (personal) reasons:
-I’m a young woman reader and writer who definitely notices the lack of male peers.
-My parents were incredibly literary. An English professor mom and a newspaper editor dad — who both did their own reading and writing in their free time. So I was always exposed to reading and writing as something non-gendered.
-I now work in marketing for a university — two female-dominated environments. You mentioned marketing teams, but higher ed is another landscape where women are rapidly outnumbering men. And we’re not 100% sure why (lots of theories at this point..)
Why does it seem that young men are opting out of such big spheres of intellectual life: reading, writing, higher education? What are they doing instead?
As a strong feminist, I think it’s important to consider how the evolving patriarchy (a term that’s difficult to toss around) is making men shrink away from big and fulfilling parts of life. Fantastic post — great data.
I remember the advice I got from an agent back in 2011 when I was querying for a novel about a man with a weird job struggling with his identity in a masculine world.
Hell, not just one agent. A few.
"Men don't read fiction. This is good, but there's no audience for it. Women read. Men don't."
There's some stats to back this up, but I heard this from multiple agents at the time. I was nudged towards "if you're going to write, write things that men will read." I also essentially got an earful of "women don't want to read books written by men," which... I don't know.
As much as I'd like to claim there were a litany of other reasons as to why I went into writing specfic (namely SF), a big part of it hinged on that disappointment of basically being told (almost 15 years ago), "you're a guy and this space isn't going to be entirely welcoming." It made sense, especially considering agents felt increasingly to be women, and there are plenty of statistics around about reading and buying habits that point towards women being more avid readers.
Trust me, I know. I've litigated and re-litigated this advice and guidance so many times, and a part of me wishes I hadn't let it be so disheartening to me at the time.
But it was really... not great. So of course, here I am, trying to get past all of this and back into that world.
What an interesting analysis, paired with an excellent title for the essay. 👏🏼
It feels like a catch-22 for men, doesn't it? They are clearly (still) discouraged to show vulnerability, even in their written work, and if they do, they might not get picked up and sold, and even if they manage that, mostly women readers might not choose to read them...
I have to say I'm guilty of choosing to read mostly female writers in the past few years, because I'm interested in literary fiction, memoir, inner explorations, etc. So it seems I'm contributing to this cycle which discourages men from writing more vulnerable, personal pieces. However, I'd LOVE to read such work from the male perspective. I think women have a lot to lose by not understanding men more.
This is so interesting to me for so many (personal) reasons:
-I’m a young woman reader and writer who definitely notices the lack of male peers.
-My parents were incredibly literary. An English professor mom and a newspaper editor dad — who both did their own reading and writing in their free time. So I was always exposed to reading and writing as something non-gendered.
-I now work in marketing for a university — two female-dominated environments. You mentioned marketing teams, but higher ed is another landscape where women are rapidly outnumbering men. And we’re not 100% sure why (lots of theories at this point..)
Why does it seem that young men are opting out of such big spheres of intellectual life: reading, writing, higher education? What are they doing instead?
As a strong feminist, I think it’s important to consider how the evolving patriarchy (a term that’s difficult to toss around) is making men shrink away from big and fulfilling parts of life. Fantastic post — great data.
I remember the advice I got from an agent back in 2011 when I was querying for a novel about a man with a weird job struggling with his identity in a masculine world.
Hell, not just one agent. A few.
"Men don't read fiction. This is good, but there's no audience for it. Women read. Men don't."
There's some stats to back this up, but I heard this from multiple agents at the time. I was nudged towards "if you're going to write, write things that men will read." I also essentially got an earful of "women don't want to read books written by men," which... I don't know.
As much as I'd like to claim there were a litany of other reasons as to why I went into writing specfic (namely SF), a big part of it hinged on that disappointment of basically being told (almost 15 years ago), "you're a guy and this space isn't going to be entirely welcoming." It made sense, especially considering agents felt increasingly to be women, and there are plenty of statistics around about reading and buying habits that point towards women being more avid readers.
Trust me, I know. I've litigated and re-litigated this advice and guidance so many times, and a part of me wishes I hadn't let it be so disheartening to me at the time.
But it was really... not great. So of course, here I am, trying to get past all of this and back into that world.
What an interesting analysis, paired with an excellent title for the essay. 👏🏼
It feels like a catch-22 for men, doesn't it? They are clearly (still) discouraged to show vulnerability, even in their written work, and if they do, they might not get picked up and sold, and even if they manage that, mostly women readers might not choose to read them...
I have to say I'm guilty of choosing to read mostly female writers in the past few years, because I'm interested in literary fiction, memoir, inner explorations, etc. So it seems I'm contributing to this cycle which discourages men from writing more vulnerable, personal pieces. However, I'd LOVE to read such work from the male perspective. I think women have a lot to lose by not understanding men more.