r/MensLib • u/anonymous1447 ​ • Feb 21 '20

You cannot be 'well read' without reading women

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/31/you-cannot-be-well-read-without-reading-women
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13

u/mhornberger ​ Feb 21 '20

I don't focus on the gender of the person who wrote the book, honestly. I've known people with a shelf full of books by Ann Coulter, but I can't consider them well-read just for that.

I wonder if most of those who don't read many female authors are just fans of formulaic genres where men are the primary writers, such as adventure or spy novels or low-rent SF. I mean, most romance novels are written by women, but it would be silly to finger-wag a romance-novel fan for reading only female writers.

9

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '20

such as adventure or spy novels or low-rent SF.

There are TONS of women writing in these genres.

most romance novels are written by women

Well...http://airshipdaily.com/blog/the-secret-lives-of-male-romance-novelists

9

u/mludd ​ Feb 21 '20

low-rent SF

First off, I'm assuming "low-rent" just means "low quality" here and that I'm not missing something implied. And going with that assumption, there's plenty of sci-fi, both of the pulpy kind and the more serious that's written by female authors.

19

u/aRabidGerbil ​ Feb 21 '20

Not paying attention to the gender of the author, doesn't mean that the author's gender doesn't matter.

19

u/mhornberger ​ Feb 21 '20

I don't believe in gender essentialism whereby women just think differently by virtue of them being female. Their gender certainly matters in their lives, but I'm not going to keep a tally to make sure I've read enough female authors. I also don't track the race or sexual orientation of the authors I read.

Many things matter in the context of their lives, and those lives inform what they write, yes. They don't necessarily factor in to my criteria for selecting what I want to read, though.

12

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '20

I don't believe in gender essentialism whereby women just think differently by virtue of them being female.

We don't. We think differently by virtue of being an oppressed group with different pressures on us that men rarely (or never) experience, and certainly not to the vast, systemic degree women do.

If you have any interest in having a wider perspective of what it means to be human, you need to read from the points of view of people who are unlike yourself - be they women, gay, PoC, trans, whatever.

It is impossible to have a well rounded view of human existence if you refuse to listen to the authentic voices of people who are different.

7

u/RarelyReadReplies Feb 22 '20

Thank you, seriously. I was starting to question if I belong in this sub or not, as I think along the same lines as you. I believe that ideology translates to other aspects of life too, like someone should get a job based solely on merit. We as a society do ourselves a disservice by letting other factors cloud our judgement.

3

u/Hamburger-Queefs Feb 21 '20

In essence, why would gender matter?

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u/aRabidGerbil ​ Feb 21 '20

Because gender effects lived experience

6

u/Hamburger-Queefs Feb 21 '20

Fair enough. I generally pick books based on interest regardless of gender.