Basically a repost pf things I said in the mega, but anecdotally I’m hearing that sales of fiction read by men are dropping precipitously, and English and literature classes in colleges are now dominated by women. It seems like young men are not being exposed to literature in the same way that they used to. Like, when I was in high school and college, you could be a “bro” kind of guy and read Chuck Palahniuk, or Hunter S. Thompson, or David Foster Wallace. For decades, authors like Hemmingway and Bukowski found receptive audiences in young men, not to mention all the crime fiction, horror, sci-fi, and fantasy that men have traditionally consumed. The “guy in your English class who loves David Foster Wallace” was a stereotype for a reason. I read in another thread that music is less culturally important to young men than it used to be. It seems like younger men just straight up see no value in reading literature or fiction, or exposing themselves or critically engaging with art and music, because the algorithms just railroad them into Alpha Gridset world.

Am I wrong about this? Am I being condescending and out of touch, or is this a real thing that’s happening, where the whole “male” culture is turning into grindset podcasts and streamers?

Edit: Okay, so the impression I’m getting is that everything is worse but also kind of the same as it ever was, which sounds right.

  • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 month ago

    I have interest in this, could you expand on it by chance?

    I don’t have a huge sample size, since I’m the only COVID conscious person I know and therefore haven’t been social IRL since 2020, but out of everyone I talk with the only one who bothers talking about the themes and framing of media in a deeper level is a femme NB friend. All the guys subscribe to the “it ain’t that deep” school of thought. That’s just my anecdotal experience though.

    • ashinadash [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      1 month ago

      I have this anecdote more broadly, I can count on one hand the amount of deep, considered discussions I’ve had with men in my life, lol. Ty for sharing.