The ‘Remasculation’ of Travel Literature?

Well, there’s already a real book making one of those more masculine, called Drink, Play, F%$#. I reviewed it last month in Perceptive Travel.

Have to agree that most of the ones that will stand the test of time are already pretty testosterone-driven. And if Paul Thereoux had to depend on female book clubs for readers he’d be broke in a hurry.

I see lots of men reading books on planes and public transportation. But they read a lot more non-fiction: learning and getting ideas more than escapism.

Oh yeah, the world is STARVED for male bylines.

I think we could use a reconfiguring of lit attitudes—lititudes?—across the board.

On a vaguely related note, whenever I teach a travel writing class, my classroom is filled with women, and almost no men. 

Finally, I think Tim Cahill gets the prize for hyper-masculine book titles, which indeed were intended to spoof actual book and magazine titles. My favorite: “Jaguars Ripped My Flesh.”

That’s ‘cause men know everything already, Jim. (That’s a joke, guys. Kinda.)

Ha, yeah. I suspect that attitude does come into play, Sophia. I’ve spoken to other writing instructors about this and that’s the best theory I’ve heard so far.

Same holds on the East Coast, Jim. Several years ago I took a travel writing class at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda: 15 women and one man.

Tim L. - I think it’s chauvinistic and, frankly, kind of sexist (and I don’t really consider myself a feminist either) to assume that men read more to learn and get ideas while women read more simply to “esape”.  I for one rarely pick up a novel and my book shelf is almost exclusively non-fiction.  I’m not saying that there are NO women who read as a form of escapism, but the way you said it made it seem like a general rule!  There are probably plenty of men who ALSO read as a form of escapism!  Not only that, but the novels that I do take the time to read are usually those that I think I can grow or learn from as well!

@Sophia Yeah, I think the idea behind the contest was to mock the alleged need for “remasculation” at all. And even the original Guardian article that reported the survey results had a decidedly tongue-in-cheek tone to it, at least for a news item.

@Tim L. Hmm. Well, there’s a whole branch of pretty male-oriented airport paperback fiction, and guys like Robert Ludlum seem to sell pretty well. I hope (assume?) you didn’t mean to suggest that men are generally more serious/thoughtful readers than women, because I agree with Jennifer, it kind of comes across that way. Say what you will about Oprah, but I think her book club has done an awful lot to put good books into the hands of people who might otherwise never have picked them up—all those “female book clubs” are reading The Kite Runner these days, not Confessions of a Shopaholic.

On a sort of related note, admittedly I haven’t read it yet but I’m a tad suspicious of this EPL satire. Remember all the reviewers who were aghast at Elizabeth Gilbert’s relationship with a younger man, and wailed “If a man had written this he’d have been branded a sexist pig!” Well, now, a man has written it—but instead of a consensual relationship with a younger woman, he goes on a sex tourism binge. And, as far as I know, has yet to be run out of town… Nope, no double standards here at all!

Okay. End of rant-y feminist miscellany for the morning.