I don't trust the people talking about "Men's reading habits" and neither should you
Quick context for those unaware: There's a niche within the wider culture wars about how men's reading habits or lack thereof serve as some indicator of their latent misogyny or anti-intellectual tendencies. These analyses are taken at face value and then used a launching pad for why men should abandon all individual inclinations and read the latest female dominated smut swarming the literary market.
It's fine to complain about misogyny or to criticize the reading choices of others, hell for an example look back at my sentence above demeaning popular books among women as nothing more than smut, which I stand by btw. My gripe is with the analyses and how they're conducted. The categories used are limited to novels, non-fiction, self help and biographies. Namely western categories of books and this flaw makes the research miss the millions of men in the west swarming to read Manga, Manhwa, webnovels, light novels and so on. All of which are not being published in the west and when they are translated and published here, are not being included in these analyses of men's reading habits. It creates a false picture of men as knuckle dragging morons who couldn't comprehend seeing a fictional character on a screen and would cower away as if they saw a ghost.
At the core of it all, what bothers me the most is that these conversations never inspire curiosity for the POV of whoever they're talking about. Nobody stops to ask what men are reading and why they found those books more enjoyabale than the hunger games volume 8. Nobody pauses to maybe try what men are reading and see for themselves what they might be missing out on. It always begins from this starting point that men must move towards the interests and tastes of those talking about them in order to be taken seriously. Read more "feminist literature", more "queer literature" as if those are the only serious stories worth exploring in this world we call home. It's this tendency among bookish people to prioritize those types of literature that I think inspire and incentivize the so called "performative male reader" trend where some guys will make a show of reading women centered stories and feminine attire to draw more attention to themselves. Peacocking, basically, to show women they're "not like other guys, they read bell hooks smh."
I like reading, I like talking to people about books they read even if they think my taste is trash or vice versa. It's a form of connection for me, sometimes full of conflict but always something where I feel I walk away with something new to think about and explore. But the conversations about men's reading habits are a waste of time for all involved, it's as brain rotted as the people claiming the fall of western civilization can be traced to the fact that little timmy saw a book about a happy gay couple one time in school.