92 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: R/Askmen discusses getting swarmed by women
the difference is that traditionally male occupied hobbies and occupations are a result of women being excluded for so long, while reading has always been open to anyone. in fact, reading used to be exclusive to men as well
Comment by Sea_Lingonberry_4720 at 27/01/2025 at 22:18 UTC*
-29 upvotes, 4 direct replies
I don’t disagree, it’s just… well it’d be stupid to claim that there wasn’t and isn’t hostility to women in gaming. But apart from that one of the main reasons given for the lack of women in gaming was gaming was very male focused. They had boobs and blood and swearing and edgyness for the sake of edgyness. The 2000s were the peak of the “dudebro” era of gaming. Since then there’s been a push for less violence, less sex, more diversity in characters.
None of which is bad. I myself was tired of the “late 20s early 30s stoic white guy with a buzz cut” of the 2010s. But I can kinda see the reverse in modern literature. Walk into a Barnes and noble and most of what they’re showing off are spicy romance novels (literal porn), celebrity memoirs, dark romance novels, cozy fantasy stories, supernatural romance novels. Like, there’s no hostility towards men but feel I can kinda relate to how female gamers felt seeing hypersexualized videogame covers, and ads about how if you don’t play duke nukem you like men. Every man I know who reads only reads books by authors that are long dead. Dune, LOTR, Conan. And just like how many men don’t miss dudebro gaming, maybe women too would also like literature that isn’t so girl booktok focused?