Jennifer Miller talks about the all male book club in her essay Men have Book Clubs, Too. The Man Book Club is an example. Men have expressed the need to have a more grisly book club experience where they are free to talk about ‘manly’ topics they would otherwise stay away from when women are around.
In addition to going by the name the Man Book Club, for instance, Mr. McCullough’s group expresses its notion of manliness through the works it chooses to read. “We do not read so-called chick lit,” he said. “The main character cannot be a woman.”
Then there’s the International Ultra Manly Book Club and the NYC Gay Guys’ Book Club. Many of the book club members defend their right to discuss books, an idea that is seen in the US at least as more of a mom’s hobby.
In India, there seems to be a less gendered approach to reading, at least. We’ve tried experimenting with book clubs as you may have seen in our Talking Terrace Book Clubs and BYOB Parties, and we’ve seen a large number of men who want to discuss books as serious as Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre! Gendering a book club is not entirely necessary.
Source: Flickr