This Week in Books: Men and Their Book Clubs

I’m sitting here reading an article about men being a part of male-only book clubs. I’m thinking a few things as I read on, but I’m just surprised that we even need to point this out. Women have had their own book clubs since forever, and no one is writing up articles about those. But the reasoning for the original article referenced appears to attempt to dispel this myth that reading is somehow not manly or masculine.

Wait, what?

This is stupid. But the sad thing is that I’m not even surprised by this. I know some of you are really interested in BookTube and similar Instagram accounts, but I want to ask you something. When you think of your favorite book accounts on any social platform, who’s running it? Is it a man or woman.

In my experience I’ve found that girls are far more likely to be running these types of accounts. I’ve also found that they’re far more likely to gain a following through them. Maybe men are expected to be talking about sports or politics or something more manly, but some things I just don’t understand.

I do understand when girls gain larger followings on any social platform than the typical guy does because guys are stupid online. I know because I have a girlfriend with 22k followers on Instagram and I’ve seen the comments and DMs.

But I’d just like to ask why it’s so odd for a guy to enjoy reading. Should he be reading comics instead? Or should he be in the gym working to improve his overall health? Reading is one of many forms of entertainment (and much more to many) that people enjoy. I don’t know why it needs to be for one sex over another.

My question today is about stereotypes and perceptions. Why do you think a big deal is made when guys enjoy reading?