Yes, men are turned off by modern literature. Here's why:
Biological and developmental differences. Girls and boys learn differently. Anyone who has spent any amount of time in a classroom could tell you this. Girls typically develop their ability to read and write sooner than boys do. Girls are likely to have a larger vocabulary than boys. Girls are able to concentrate for longer than boys on average. All this is to say, reading and writing typically comes easier to girls which creates a feedback loop: because it's easier, they do it more; they do it more because it's easier
Teaching gender gap and reading preferences: 75% of all teachers are women. This gender gap can be as high as 80% in elementary schools. I would imagine, and this is speculation, that since reading and writing tends to come easier to women, that the gap between male and female English teachers is also wildly off. Women and men have different reading preferences as one survey claimed:
"...one survey asked readers to nominate the novels they felt to be most significant: men mostly nominated "books of alienation and indifference", like Albert Camus' The Outsider and J.D Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, while most women chose "books of passion and connection": novels by the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen. Women liked books about domestic realities and families, while men preferred books about social dislocation and solitude.
If I am a boy interested in reading and I ask my (most likely) female teacher for book recommendations, she will probably recommend things she has enjoyed reading which will most likely be things boys are not interested in which might turn them off to reading.
Market Pressures: It's more efficient from a market perspective to write the easiest thing possible that yields the most profit for publishers. Romance, for example, is much easier to write than a literary story about man's isolation. Who is going to buy romance? Overwhelmingly women. Fiction is aimed at women, so women buy more fiction; women buy more fiction, so more fiction is aimed at women. Writing literature for men is a bigger risk without a bigger reward.
Boys and men are correct in turning away from literature because it's not being written for them. If men were to turn to more classical sources of literature, they would be told they are supporting a patriarchal, misogynistic antiquated system where authors were too often (sort of) straight white men. So, many boys and men give up -- and I don't blame them.
You've said so much here. First, I agree with you in general that boys behave different than girls. I've been in enough classrooms to say that confidently. What I'm not sure about is how that impacts their reading habits. Because if boys did find books that interested them at a young age, if they were encouraged to read books that matched their interests, would they be any less apt as readers? Basically, is it our fault that boys are, as you say, giving up?
The female dominated profession of teaching is shaping classroom curriculum. This curriculum is not only shaped by females it's shaped for females and female learning styles. This isn't intentional, it's just a product of a gender imbalance in the profession.
To answer your question: boys are not being encouraged to read books that interest them. The classics are not being taught and if they are it's through a female lense. Women are choosing the books that students read. The skill of reading comes slower to boys and that is not being compensated for in the classroom, if our available metrics for how well boys are preforming in schools is any indication.
I also do not think that it is a coincidence that as the percentage of female teachers has risen over the past 50-60 years, so has the prescription of drugs for boys such as Adderall. Drugging boys at a young age so they sit still in a classroom isn't helping them in any subject, let alone one they typically are slower to pick up.
If I'm a boy and I'm being required to read books that don't interest me by a curriculum designed by and for females which is then enforced by markets, then I'm simply going to be turned off altogether by reading. It's not like there's a lack of anything else to do. I'll simply gravitate to a male dominated interest where markets create stories I am interested in like video games.
Interesting, Kern. Thanks for bringing up this conversation.
As women strive for equality, I think it's becoming more clear how our culture's idea of "masculine" hurts all of us. Not just women, but all those little boys who don't naturally fit the mold. And all those boys who stifle their interests to avoid ridicule. Or who adopt behaviors they wouldn't otherwise adopt because that's what they see and hear a "man is supposed to be."
I talk with my girls a lot about how the culture tries to define what is acceptable for a woman and what is not. But I don't spend enough time talking to my boys about the many ways the culture wants to dictate their behavior, personality, and lifestyle. Or how I'm just as much a part of the problem as I am part of the solution.
It's not easy to recognize that the air you breathe is suffocating you, when suffocation is all you've ever known.
Sometimes I wish we could submit our writing to publishers and literary magazines without any information indicating our gender and race, so it would be about the writing and story only. Again, the research and thoughts you raise are all very informative and telling. I am obviously a big fan of literary fiction and enjoy reading a wide range of writers. Less interested in romance. But it is true that I think it mostly comes down to interest. When I was travelling in the early 2000´s I remember seeing most male readers on the beach reading The DaVinci Code and most female readers reading Bridget Jones’ Diary. It was a little depressing to be honest. Nowadays the men I know mostly read about history, wars, and adventures. My brother doesn’t read at all. So, I think you raise very valid points of why it might be the case. Thank you, again! :)
That beach example is a big one. How do we expand interests, though? And yeah, I also wish we didn't need to present gender when pitching. RF Kuang is RF Kuang and not Rebecca Kuang (her real name) for a reason.
It’s the stories that matter more than the identity of the author. Just finished a compelling debut novel, “The North Line” by Matt Riordan about Adam who needs to earn fast money to pay his last year of college tuition back east and goes to work in the rough and tumble, the very uncollegiate, Alaskan fishing industry.
I would like to think so, Geoff, but some of these stats say otherwise. But generally, I do agree with you. My question is how do we get everyone else to believe that?
As you put it, modern literature is overwhelmingly female. Those avenues of expression have been flung far open to women and it shows in their readership and volume. It is something that women both enjoy to write and enjoy to read, but there is a skew towards certain subjects. Male authors tend to focus more on subjects of either action or information, but chiefly it is more about self-in-action, as opposed to self-in-being. There are authors who cross this barrier and write about both and they do it from the perspective of either gender, however the themes and genres chosen by the authors do tend to point to these differences.
I would not say that writing lost its prestige as a male pursuit, but given the prominence of female authors today, things men write about are not promoted as much and as a result men don't see what is available to them.
There's no inherent negative attached to it, but I would welcome greater readership across the board, so perhaps topics that men find interesting could be given more prominence, without prejudice about whether anything about masculinity is automatically toxic and therefore must be treated with suspicion.
I love the novels of Kazuo Ishiguro and Colm Toibin and other men I can't instantly think of. And I'd like to read novels by American men too. But looking through my Goodreads, I have to go a year or more back before I find an American male novelist, alive today, that I've read. I get books from the library that interest me, and every so often a post like yours makes me take stock. I loved Neil Stephenson's Seveneaves and his Baroque trilogy. I'm rambling, I'll stop now! Thanks for a thoughtful post
We love rambling in here, Fran. And it's interesting you have to go back a year to find an American male author that you've read, and even more interesting is the effort it takes to mine male readers now. Thanks for sharing your experience :) come back and comment some more.
Where do we even start ...
Yes, men are turned off by modern literature. Here's why:
Biological and developmental differences. Girls and boys learn differently. Anyone who has spent any amount of time in a classroom could tell you this. Girls typically develop their ability to read and write sooner than boys do. Girls are likely to have a larger vocabulary than boys. Girls are able to concentrate for longer than boys on average. All this is to say, reading and writing typically comes easier to girls which creates a feedback loop: because it's easier, they do it more; they do it more because it's easier
Teaching gender gap and reading preferences: 75% of all teachers are women. This gender gap can be as high as 80% in elementary schools. I would imagine, and this is speculation, that since reading and writing tends to come easier to women, that the gap between male and female English teachers is also wildly off. Women and men have different reading preferences as one survey claimed:
"...one survey asked readers to nominate the novels they felt to be most significant: men mostly nominated "books of alienation and indifference", like Albert Camus' The Outsider and J.D Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, while most women chose "books of passion and connection": novels by the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen. Women liked books about domestic realities and families, while men preferred books about social dislocation and solitude.
If I am a boy interested in reading and I ask my (most likely) female teacher for book recommendations, she will probably recommend things she has enjoyed reading which will most likely be things boys are not interested in which might turn them off to reading.
Market Pressures: It's more efficient from a market perspective to write the easiest thing possible that yields the most profit for publishers. Romance, for example, is much easier to write than a literary story about man's isolation. Who is going to buy romance? Overwhelmingly women. Fiction is aimed at women, so women buy more fiction; women buy more fiction, so more fiction is aimed at women. Writing literature for men is a bigger risk without a bigger reward.
Boys and men are correct in turning away from literature because it's not being written for them. If men were to turn to more classical sources of literature, they would be told they are supporting a patriarchal, misogynistic antiquated system where authors were too often (sort of) straight white men. So, many boys and men give up -- and I don't blame them.
You've said so much here. First, I agree with you in general that boys behave different than girls. I've been in enough classrooms to say that confidently. What I'm not sure about is how that impacts their reading habits. Because if boys did find books that interested them at a young age, if they were encouraged to read books that matched their interests, would they be any less apt as readers? Basically, is it our fault that boys are, as you say, giving up?
The female dominated profession of teaching is shaping classroom curriculum. This curriculum is not only shaped by females it's shaped for females and female learning styles. This isn't intentional, it's just a product of a gender imbalance in the profession.
To answer your question: boys are not being encouraged to read books that interest them. The classics are not being taught and if they are it's through a female lense. Women are choosing the books that students read. The skill of reading comes slower to boys and that is not being compensated for in the classroom, if our available metrics for how well boys are preforming in schools is any indication.
I also do not think that it is a coincidence that as the percentage of female teachers has risen over the past 50-60 years, so has the prescription of drugs for boys such as Adderall. Drugging boys at a young age so they sit still in a classroom isn't helping them in any subject, let alone one they typically are slower to pick up.
If I'm a boy and I'm being required to read books that don't interest me by a curriculum designed by and for females which is then enforced by markets, then I'm simply going to be turned off altogether by reading. It's not like there's a lack of anything else to do. I'll simply gravitate to a male dominated interest where markets create stories I am interested in like video games.
In my case: no.
Ha! Short and sweet, David 🙃 I respect it
Interesting, Kern. Thanks for bringing up this conversation.
As women strive for equality, I think it's becoming more clear how our culture's idea of "masculine" hurts all of us. Not just women, but all those little boys who don't naturally fit the mold. And all those boys who stifle their interests to avoid ridicule. Or who adopt behaviors they wouldn't otherwise adopt because that's what they see and hear a "man is supposed to be."
I talk with my girls a lot about how the culture tries to define what is acceptable for a woman and what is not. But I don't spend enough time talking to my boys about the many ways the culture wants to dictate their behavior, personality, and lifestyle. Or how I'm just as much a part of the problem as I am part of the solution.
It's not easy to recognize that the air you breathe is suffocating you, when suffocation is all you've ever known.
Wow Meg, you just stole the show with that last line. Now I need to think about all the ways I'm suffocating others while also being suffocated.
So true…
Sometimes I wish we could submit our writing to publishers and literary magazines without any information indicating our gender and race, so it would be about the writing and story only. Again, the research and thoughts you raise are all very informative and telling. I am obviously a big fan of literary fiction and enjoy reading a wide range of writers. Less interested in romance. But it is true that I think it mostly comes down to interest. When I was travelling in the early 2000´s I remember seeing most male readers on the beach reading The DaVinci Code and most female readers reading Bridget Jones’ Diary. It was a little depressing to be honest. Nowadays the men I know mostly read about history, wars, and adventures. My brother doesn’t read at all. So, I think you raise very valid points of why it might be the case. Thank you, again! :)
That beach example is a big one. How do we expand interests, though? And yeah, I also wish we didn't need to present gender when pitching. RF Kuang is RF Kuang and not Rebecca Kuang (her real name) for a reason.
It’s the stories that matter more than the identity of the author. Just finished a compelling debut novel, “The North Line” by Matt Riordan about Adam who needs to earn fast money to pay his last year of college tuition back east and goes to work in the rough and tumble, the very uncollegiate, Alaskan fishing industry.
I would like to think so, Geoff, but some of these stats say otherwise. But generally, I do agree with you. My question is how do we get everyone else to believe that?
I have no idea, other than to keep talking about good books and supporting one another. Thanks for highlighting this.
As you put it, modern literature is overwhelmingly female. Those avenues of expression have been flung far open to women and it shows in their readership and volume. It is something that women both enjoy to write and enjoy to read, but there is a skew towards certain subjects. Male authors tend to focus more on subjects of either action or information, but chiefly it is more about self-in-action, as opposed to self-in-being. There are authors who cross this barrier and write about both and they do it from the perspective of either gender, however the themes and genres chosen by the authors do tend to point to these differences.
I would not say that writing lost its prestige as a male pursuit, but given the prominence of female authors today, things men write about are not promoted as much and as a result men don't see what is available to them.
There's no inherent negative attached to it, but I would welcome greater readership across the board, so perhaps topics that men find interesting could be given more prominence, without prejudice about whether anything about masculinity is automatically toxic and therefore must be treated with suspicion.
Very well articulated, Tom. I particularly like your distinction about self in action versus self in being. I've never thought of stories in that way.
I love the novels of Kazuo Ishiguro and Colm Toibin and other men I can't instantly think of. And I'd like to read novels by American men too. But looking through my Goodreads, I have to go a year or more back before I find an American male novelist, alive today, that I've read. I get books from the library that interest me, and every so often a post like yours makes me take stock. I loved Neil Stephenson's Seveneaves and his Baroque trilogy. I'm rambling, I'll stop now! Thanks for a thoughtful post
We love rambling in here, Fran. And it's interesting you have to go back a year to find an American male author that you've read, and even more interesting is the effort it takes to mine male readers now. Thanks for sharing your experience :) come back and comment some more.
Such an interesting essay. Thank our, Kern! Following you…
Thank YOU for following. Glad you found it interesting.
What a thoughtful analysis of this subject, thank you!
You're welcome!