Last week the Men’s Style section of The New York Times featured a piece, “Men Have Book Clubs, Too,” about the apparently growing phenomenon of men getting together to share literary interests and opinions. The notion that men might actually share any thoughts with each other besides their opinions of the previous night’s boxing match, much less literary interests and opinions, sadly was not cause for celebration; instead it sparked Internet skepticism, ridicule, and social justice outrage.
Gatherings of women are typically viewed as empowering. Gatherings of men are typically viewed as potentially dangerous—and when they are massed in a soccer stadium or prison yard, that may be a reasonable concern. But paradoxically, when men don’t conform to the worst perceived norms of masculine behavior—say, by chatting about books around a dinner table, rather than roaring at a big-screen TV in a man cave—they are ridiculed for it.