Okay I'm still watching but need to talk about this toxic mentality I see where I work too. I work in a bakery and often write on cakes. Parents are CONSTANTLY complaining about a cake that has flowers on it, any color that isn't blue, red, or green. Even yellow is too "girly". They even do this with adults. I'll take cake orders and ask "Would you like to put flowers on the cake?" And I'll get the answer, "It's for a man." And I just stare at them now. I make them explain why man = no flowers. It's ridiculous. It's a cake. You are going to eat it. This was all brilliant thank you. Made me emotional at the end. Boys getting beaten down for liking anything that's pretty breaks my heart every day. Thank you for speaking out about stuff like this. - - Rebecca

My thoughts as a male reader/booktuber and a library staff worker that interacts with children and teens of both genders: 1. Children and teens are highly influenced by their peers, especially after puberty. If their peers and friends are interested in reading or doing well in school, they will be as well. Girls are more likely to be interested in these pursuits because their friends are. Boys are more likely to be interested in two main things during these years: sports and video games. Their friends are interested in these things and thusly become interested in them. I stopped reading as a child when I got into video games. It wasn't until after I got heavily into role-playing games that I discovered that books can give me the same enjoyment I got out of video games. 2. Boys don't see their fathers reading. Boys see their fathers watching television or working. If a man does pick up a book it will usually be nonfiction. Professional men will read mostly nonfiction and that sends the message to their sons that nonfiction, improving knowledge, is more important than enjoyment. Your points on toxic masculinity are very valid and true. I think a big way for adults to support boys reading is #1 get them a fiction book about something they already like, tie-in books are perfect, and #2 let them see male role models reading.

I think gender-specific marketing plays a major role. At least here in Germany, when Harry Potter got big and adults of both sexes were tempted to read it, they didn't dare buy the gaudy trade version and risk being seen reading a children's book on public transport etc., so the publishers issued a (more expensive) adult version with a subtle cover. Problem solved! After all, people really DO judge a book (and its reader, too) by its cover!

Another thoughtful video Claudia that will leave me pondering long after its end.

Agree one hundred percent with everything you said here! I used to work in a little girl's clothing store and the number of parents who'd come in with younger male siblings and absolutely refuse to buy them anything because 'it's pink and you don't want that' was absurd, even if it was a little stuffed lamb toy or something. Even worse, the father's who were embarrassed to be in there shopping for their daughters. Like sir, none of us think you're going home to wear this child's size 8 purple glittery shirt, your masculinity is intact.

I cannot beleive it, I was going to make a video about the same topic! Oh my goodness. I really appreciate your video, I think it is really eye opening and helps us see in numbers how education and parenting is essential to creating a better world for all.

I'm loving your channel so much! I love educational discussion topics

Such an interesting discussion! One of the things I find so interesting working in publishing is how book covers differ depending on whether they're aimed at men or women. Another thing worth noting is that men make up a greater proportion of the audiobook market than of the physical and ebook market.

Your research and conclusions were really interesting as always, Claudia. I'm a mother of two boys who like shoes with zippers, perhaps because they're lazzy, and red and orange clothes, perhaps because they're vain, but they don't like pink at all. That's all right, when I was their age I would rather go naked than wear pink, because it really is associated with feminity and I didn't want any of that for myself. They love books but if they have a girl on the cover or in the title, they won't pick them up. The only exception is witches and girls doing nasty stuff. I keep telling them there's no such thing as toys/colours/books/games/haircuts for boys and girls but it's no use. They say it takes a village to raise a kid, but sometimes the whole stupid village against a mother isn't a fair fight. If you ever have kids, you'll see how hard it is.

This was fascinating. Thank you for going into the research so thoroughly, but the part that was most eye-opening was your experiences in the shoe shop. I guess I just wouldn't have thought that it would be so pronounced and it shows how this approach to gender is very widespread.

Yes! Thanks for all the research!

Love this content ! Very interesting

Really great discussion, Claudia! I also think a huge part of this (and this is sort of covered in some of the research on protagonists' genders) is how boys (and children in general, really) are raised to think books with a female main character are "girl books" and books with a male main character are just books. Since girls have so much more variety in what to read because they aren't expected to only read characters who look like them, that might also help explain why girls are more likely to be excited about reading than boys. Shannon Hale is a children's/young adult author who has written some great articles on this and her experience. I'll send you the link via Twitter so KZfaq doesn't flag this comment!

Three friends of mine gave me books recently. That helped because I had definitely not been socialised to read for leisure before hand. Adding a social element to reading is great, as long as it doesn't phrase reading as a marathon or a challenge for which there's a sense of failure. The bragging culture around the amount of books one reads per year for example, and the mischaracterisation of voracious reading as synonymous with higher intelligence can be rather alienating.

When I look back at the novels/stories/poems we have as part of our English curriculum in middle and higher grades, we didn't have any female authors or poets. It would have been nice for young boys to be exposed to female authors. I discovered Brontes, Dickenson, Austine, and Gaskell in my 30s.

Those studies always surprise me, because in my family, boys read as much if not more than girls. My little brother and I could always spend all our free time reading. But that is mostly thanks to our father raising us in a literary environment, we were always surrounded by books and stories. Which to be honest helps a lot. We never really made a difference between "girly" or "boyish" books, we pretty much read the same things as children. We were read the same stories and then borrowed each other's books. We weren't much influenced by society as we lived in a pretty isolated countryside where either people didn't read at all or they read all the time like us. The best gift for us has always been a good book and it will probably always be !

This video is phenomenal! Well Done Claudia! I have to admit, the shoe anecdote took me back...seriously? Just zippers on the side?? Wow...I once had a "conversation" with a guy who was trying to tell me that women can't really write, while he was holding a Sylvia Plath book and a Griffyndoor scarf....

I agree with you so much about why girls and boys have different attitudes for school. And I've heard so much from librarians and book sellers talking about how parents would come to them for recommendations for their young boys but won't take anything that has a female lead. Obviously, this severely decreases how many books boys have to choose from, lessening the chances they will find something they like, while girls are allowed to read stuff with male leads all the time. And I feel so much the same way about how to fix the problem!

I wonder if males being more visual and females being more emotional comes into it at all. I've heard about that in regards to intimacy between a man and a woman. With movies, for instance, it's all there on screen, a visual extravaganza, explosions, half naked bodies etc etc tapping into a visual need, low amount of effort required. Where as with books, it's pages with words, and it's within your mind where the visuals come from, walking hand-in-hand with emotions. I could be completely wrong with all that, but it just popped into my head. Most guys I've known loved movies, but hardly any read. My Dad wasn't the toxic masculinity kind of man, but very much the opposite, and I took after him in that way as I was around him so much. I was never once told by my parents that this is masculine, and that's feminine, only boys play with this and girls with that, and this colour for you, and that for your sister. I had total freedom in that respect when I look back. I once did an online quiz to find out what gender you are, and the result I got was a man wearing a dress. I love the TV show Call the Midwife, and my wife and mother-in-law loved how I cried in just about every episode, more than they did. I have noticed since I started regularly reading in early 2015 that I prefer more when it's a female protagonist in a novel, though I have read some remarkable books with male protagonists. I also just recently started watching 'Anne with an E' on netflix and I love it. My mother-in-law mentioned it and wasn't sure it would be my kind of thing, even though we love the same books, movies and TV that we both consume. I want to read the book now. I'm glad I avoided the toxic masculinity path that other men tread daily, as the world I have experienced is so much a better one. In regards to book covers, I would be a little nervous to read a book, say on a train, if it did have what some would consider a feminine cover. That's simply because I would fear toxic men in the nearby vicinity who would have a problem with that. But in a bookstore, I would grab the books I wanted, no matter what the cover was like. I love that cover of The Secret Garden, artistic covers are my favourite, and there so many interesting elements on it. From some of the boys and men I've known in my life, I'm sure I would be labelled a certain something if they saw me reading a book with that cover. Lets just say my sexuality would have been questioned, and I would have looked them in the eye and replied, "Well, I'd rather a secret garden than your toxic-ass one."

As a male, I think my attention span works differently from the average female. Consuming Fiction stories is actually my favorite pass time activity, but I find it much harder to read a great novel than to watch a crappy TV show. For me, I've chalked it up to short attention span and my inner desire to search for spectacle over desires to fill an emotional need.

Idk I just read what interests me. I don't really care if the author is a man or woman and read both fiction and non fiction. I find often people generalize when they try to determine a reason. Even if men read less they can probably get the same benefits from reading elsewhere so I'm not even sure if it matters or is something to fix. Ik plenty of men who like the colour pink, I feel gen z are raised differently and a lot of what was the norm is not so anymore.

This makes me think of my male friend when I was a kid who read a lot of the same books as me, especially mystery books like The Roman Mysteries and the Sally Lockhart series, both of which were not particularly gendered in their marketing. But when I asked if he'd read the Lady Grace Mysteries, which I just saw as the same kind of historical fiction detective books, he reacted almost offended because those books were marketed for girls. I remember being so confused at the time! Such a great video, I really hope this latest generation of parents, seeing as millennials are now starting to have kids, will be better at not teaching toxic masculinity to their children.

I think the social activity point is one that deserves a lot more exploration. Books are a form of media and a hobby, so it competes with other hobbies for your attention. As a kid, guys were definitely pushed into competitive roles, and it's super common to see the transition of competing with your friends in sports to competing with your friends in games. I don't think it's a coincidence that two really popular forms of media happen to sway opposite ways with a gender imbalance.

I really appreciated your video. It reminded me of CINDERELLA ATE MY DAUGHTER by Peggy Orenstein. Such an interesting topic.

Very interesting ! While you were showing the cover of The secret garden, I showed it to my boyfriend and asked if he would read it. He looked dubious and escaped by saying that it was for children. I started to tell him about the story, but he put his nose back into his motorcycle magazine and I gave up (OK, that probably wasn't the best moment to ask him !). Then I started talking about Harry Potter (which he adores), how it was written by a woman, how clever Hermione was, but it seemed that our opinions differed (OK, he's just back from work, maybe I came on too strong at the wrong moment). But what you said made sense, what I saw in the library (parents' attitude towards their children) made sense. How men and women react differently and borrow different books. I only have daughters so I couldn't correct that personally but I agree, there is something to be done here.

When you discussed whether reading was inherently female I found myself thinking of Northanger Abbey and the treatment of women and fiction in that book though I really hope that isn't why there's a reading gap haha. I agree that a like/dislike relationship between children and school is cultural as I've noticed, at least with the children I've met here, that in Switzerland the kids have a much more positive relationship with school than they do in England. It's so sad to hear about children trying to get shoes and having gender stereotypes forced onto them, it seems like such a silly concept in this day and age. These types of videos are fascinating and so informative, thanks for making this video!

Interesting video. In the booktube thing I've noticed predominantly women making videos, yet the people who have most to say in comments on my videos are male. The ones who like and comment consistently anyway. I'm part of 2 in-person book groups and the people who turn up to those are nearly all female, with the occasional exception of 1 man. Sad really, because I find those who have more constructive things to say about what they've read tend to be men. I also remembered when you were talking about "The Secret Garden", my grandad was the one who first summarised the said book for me and found me an audio tape of it, even though he himself didn't enjoy reading anything longer than a newspaper article.

Having grown up in an academic household where books and literature ruled, I've always regarded reading as a manly pursuit. But it's very true that when I was a little boy and teenager, I never would have read any distinctly "girly" books. In fact, I think "The Secret Garden" was my only foray in that direction (my copy had a classic cover, without butterflies). I only discovered female authors much later on, and now generally prefer them. The funny thing is, I don't recall anyone ever telling me I shouldn't read such books - I'm pretty certain nobody did tell me that - but instead felt some sort of instinct within me saying "These books aren't for you!" I've never been able to figure it out. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that boys tend to view all things feminine as toxic until well into puberty?

I think this is an interesting topic. I would like to see more studies done on online book communities. When I first looked for like minded readers online I found forums which were overwhelmingly male dominated, 4chan's /lit/ board and the subreddits r/literature and r/books. I still find that these places have more male than female participants. I also noted that this seemed to affect what was read by participants as well. Classics, 1950's-1970's science fiction, and pre-2000 fantasy were basically all that were discussed there. It's also interesting to note that the toxicity on 4chan pushed a lot of female participants away and I'm not at all surprised that the echo chamber eventually festered into the incel and alt-right movements. Thankfully the female readers seemed to flock to reddit, and while there are still some questionable communities on the site, the r/books subreddit is better balanced, although still very much in favour of the same genres.

Awesome video, Claudia. I love how unashamedly nerdy your channel can be, and I mean that as a compliment. Booktube needs a bit more braininess. I’m not sure if you’re aware of the Male Booktuber Tag, but its questions explore a lot of this same material. When I first started watching Booktube a year ago, I binged on versions of this tag. I particularly remember Paperback Junky’s, which I watched multiple times.

i (32, male)read quite a decent number of books back in my teen years. however, when i got to college, things like gaming and internet in general kind of took over. the books i used to read were almost entirely comprised of fictional titles and usually had female as well as male main characters. but u know, i stopped reading on a regular basis some time ago(with some attempts to get back into it whenever it looked like i am gonna have some time for it) and i don't think it has much to do with gender. i do feel like both me and my sister were encuraged to read in about the same way. regarding clothing and stuff: as someone who grew up with female cousins and a sister in a family that wasn't exactly well off, i had the opposite problem of being forced into clothing that was often from the girls section. so i had some self image issues over it as a teen. also, the covers of most of the books ive read didn't at all look like they are gender specific, at least not back in my days. so maybe its that little thing called marketing at play now that people realised most of the readers are female.

This one mum i know was just speaking about this. She said that she'll happily let her little boy play with his sister's dolls and teddy bears, but she wouldn't buy him his own, or any toys that could be seen as girly. She'd tell him, "no darling, that's for girls." she said in an ideal world, she wouldn't have to do that, but "Kids are cruel. I don't want him to have to be ridiculed by other kids over something i can prevent." It's sad, really. Many of my male friends happily read fiction as kids but only if it was sci fi, fantasy or comics, which were sufficiently masculine enough (Asterix and Obelisk). And it had to be masculine enough fantasy: not Cornelia Funke or CS Lewis, but Artemis Fowl, Eragon, and Lord of the Rings. When i was in the library, boys were there, but there was definitely a "restriction" on things they could read vs what girls could read. The idea of toxic masculinity also means that girls are congratulated if they do boyish things whereas being called feminine is the lowest insult for a boy.

Can’t believe it still happened in 21st century. But also I realized somehow I was the few people that actually read books among my generation. It makes me a little bit lonely when I finish a good book and I want to share with somebody, and that’s why I enter a book club.

I'm a speed-reader; my brain pieces together words and contexts rather quickly but when it comes to algebraic expressions I get annoyed rather quickly.

This is a great discussion! I've read some things as well and speaking for myself I do believe strongly that it starts as child and the 'attitude' towards learning. That like you said 'girls are more likely to see school as a positive' as well as the gender gap in teachers and instructors from a young age - most of which are female as well. Boys don't have that strong of a 'role model' foundation from the get-go and I think that just carries with them through adulthood. I have 2 sons and in the evening when we read to them before bed, my wife and I both alternate storytime. We also read them stories about girl heroines and various themes. I've noticed that when taking the kids to the library for story-time it is always led by a female librarian, as well as if we go to reading time at the library. So I am aware of my responsibility as a father and a parent to encourage them, and I try to as much as possible. I see (as my 5yr old gets older) the kids at his school, however, are not raised as 'open-minded' and they have influenced my son a bit to the point where he's sticking out his tongue and saying 'Yuck! Pink is a GIRL color!' :( and we have talked to him about why those boys are wrong. We do our best to encourage playing dress-up and just last night they both wanted their toe-nails painted like mommy - so now they both have pink toenails. Neither of us really read on our own in front of them - Which I should try to do more often. I'm similar to Paul at 'Common Touch of Fantasy' with my reading journey - I fell out of reading in my teens when video games took up most of my free time. Then I re-discovered it when I was commuting to and from work. I also tried to look for bookclubs around my town and I did find some however they were all female-occupied reading female-empowerment type books. Even at a previous job there was a bookclub group of women who were doing something similar. When I came to booktube I did find it odd that there were not a higher population of males that were as popular as the females. It's a great discussion and I'd like to see this continued in future videos as well. Great job!

I'm late to the comments here, but this is a great video and a very interesting topic. At first I thought it might be the result of assigned reading in schools. The list of books students are required to read are often written by women -- Austen, the Brontes, Harper Lee, Edith Wharton -- about women or books by men that put an emphasis on romance or female characters -- _The Scarlet Letter_ , _The Great Gatsby_ , _A Farewell To Arms_ . Assigned reading turns many people off of reading, particularly classics, and this effect may be increased in boys because the author/subject matter of books dont fit within the frame of interest of teenage boys. I'm not sure the cause of this gender reading gap, but I think its effect has been a decline in the capacity for empathy.

I am a man and I enjoy reading, just not fiction (except classics like 1984). The usual things I read: reddit conversations, web articles, online newspaper (WSJ and Reuters), business books, and wikipedia articles. I also get a lot of information from KZfaq. There is nothing wrong with boys not reading fiction so long as they keep their imaginations active and learn new things.

One thing I find strange is some books being seen as mostly for men, and some for women. Something like Little Women could be considered for women, and Don Quixote for men. I'm wondering this because I want to read Don, Moby Dick, and have read Casino Royal. Most of these books are ones my mother hasn't read, nor will. Same goes for my sister, but regardless of preference...I need to talk to someone.

I volunteer in a charity shop and the other week a and boy of about 10 or so asked me if we had a copy of the Hunger Games, the only copy we had was bright pink and I thought as I brought it out that this boy won’t want this edition because of the colour, but I was wrong he wanted it and his mum bought it for him. I think there are lots of books marketed at men, like Tom Clancy or Lee Child or Gregg Hurwitz (sp?), (although of course these books have female readers as well) and this must be because the people who design these books are trying to appeal to a target market of male readers. The cover design must be the result of research which shows that more men than women must read these books. However, this is all stereotyped marketing based on numbers and doesn’t take into account individuals. I know men who read Philippa Gregory, and teenage boys who read Naomi Novik , and a teenage girl who reads non-fiction on evolutionary biology. I think that it must be like that for everyone, reading tastes vary and it’s never going to fit into a mold. I would like to know if anyone else’s experience is the same as mine, in that when they think about it they find that the people they know read books that are not marketed with them in mind.

It doesn't really hold true for me or my family as pretty much everyone reads a lot, but then for example my granddad on my dad's side was a headmaster and my uncle is an English lecturer and so perhaps that's no surprise! My dad always used to read more than my mum when I was a kid but I suspect it's the other way around now. And I read more than any of them, but then I'm not exactly a "manly man" and so I don't think I'm really representative either. I can totally see how the average dude on the street is probably less likely to be a reader than the average woman, though!

Femininity and masculinity are not toxic. People’s gender identity and expression should be respected.

What does spinster's library mean?

I’m a straight man and I’ve never read a fiction book outside of school. I feel like now that I’m done with my engineering degree I’m now free to read.

boys naturally take up more space and are kinesthetic learners. In a "school" environment the children generally aren't encouraged to move around while the teacher is speaking, etc. I've always read to my children and when my older son didn't "like" reading I thought, what?!@#$ How could he possibly be my offspring?! LOL He didn't enjoy reading school requirements. He DID enjoy reading autobios & biographies. My younger son just said, males probably don't read as much because they're building or destroying something. LOL btw, he enjoys reading mostly nonfiction, but he said he would pick up the book you held up, to read the back summary. =) 🤣 My older son has neon pink running shoes. He loves them. LOL I think a lot of the "toxicity" comes from children themselves and the parents don't want the kids to be bullied. As a research lover I'm curious to know when did men stop reading fiction or did it become "female" reading? I'm curious too, if males aren't inclined to read fiction due to so many of them containing "romances"??? Books used to be quite plain too, and what mattered was the content of the story, not the picture on the cover. Thank you for all the research you put into this video. 👍

Ig men like more action like sports and competition, women are more passive and feminine so they prefer more relaxed slow etc things

"Booktube as a community wasn't really a thing in 2013." Umm no. I wish early booktuber Elizziebooks could see this vid, she could fill you in better than I.

I really loved your findings on this topic. I was so pissed off when my son was about 3-5 I wanted to get him a set of cleaning tools so he can help me in the house and it would be fun! the only one available was pink. in the girls toys. I would have still bought it, but i think it was a bit overpriced or whatever... Plus I HAD seen blue or gender neutral colors. I was just pissed off at the whole idea of kids cleaning toys only available marked for only girls. BUT who said once upon a time pink is for girls, blue is for boys. lol. pretty stupid. I supose I am guilty as a mom for reinforcing that idea even if I don't agree, in my own way I think i am trying make it not matter, but the message isnt clear enough I guess. those ideals have been ingrained in us for generations in ways we arent always aware of.

It does come across more of a feminine hobby tbh 🤷🏾‍♀️

Excellent! Great job! No doubt females read more than males & the difference is largely socio-cultural. Working in education in the US I've seen that boys who read a lot are called book worms or wusses (regardless of book choice); boys playing videogames or going out for sport suffer no such criticism. Taken to the extreme, black males who succeed in school are shaded for acting "white." Black girls get much less of this. I don't see the gap as caused by availability, there's an endless supply of books aimed at males (I don't really know the names, but say Tom Clancy, James Patterson, Ludlum, etc. etc.). Yes, parents perpetuate the problem, most men (& moms?) don't seem to want to see their sons curled up with a book. I'm not as optimistic as you that we can get boys to start reading books with flowers on the cover, but getting more boys to read would help, just changing the perception that reading is not for boys, & when reading is ok than reading books with flowers on the cover may become ok. Really valuable video!

Can't do sh*t in Detroit

Sometimes males just won't read. I know an intelligent adult male to whom I gave a used ereader which I loaded with science fiction and horror novels. He still hasn't read one!

Your shoe story is so sad. My nephew likes wearing dresses and luckily my sister couldn't care less and lets him be. His father is, however, worried that he could get bullied. But I mean, kids don't care until they get indoctrinated with the adult's world views of what it means to be male and female... I have worked until recently on a project to support love of literature in young children and we also talked about gender differences and why boys seem to enjoy reading less. I think some further reasons might be: a lack of male reading role models and the so-called Leseknick (don't know the English word). If you look at it, the majority of kindergarteners and primary school teachers are female. Add to that that only about 30% percent of fathers read to their children and you will end up with boys perceiving reading as something 'female'. And once they hit puberty that unfortunately makes a lot of boys 'drop out' of reading. The other thing is the Leseknick, the idea that most children around the age of 12 (or a little earlier) go through a period in which they do not read as much. Becoming teenagers other interests take precedent. But since it takes boys longer to gain high levels of literacy, they might not read fluently by the time the Leseknick hits them and thus have never developed the love for reading when they were younger (7 to 10 years roughly). Thus, they are less likely to go back to reading when they become adults.

My father was an avid reader all his life & read more fiction than non-fiction. But he flat out refused to read anything by a female author (regardless of what the cover looked like) because those were "girl books". As the father of 2 daughters, it made it hard for me to understand (and angry) that he refused to listen to the voices of half the human species.

👍💪

I don’t completely agree men are image oriented so read less

I have zero respect left for men.

Although not suprised but I was really disappointed by your conclusion that all one had to do to fix the problem is to encourage males to be more femininity-friendly. As if that would solve the problem! I am of the view that it is exactly this type of attitude which is really harmful to males. For it teaches males that to be a "man" is bad and that a man has to be more female.

Ho sweet coping

This is why men read eastern book like Manga & Light Novel. Because they are so much superior and cuter than western books in general.

Men are doers not readers. It's too boring and not enough action.