Humor

Gendered Genre Terminology: Books for Men

We women get all these fancy terms to describe books meant for us. But what about books for men?

via GIPHY Let’s talk about men for a minute. The poor dears.

We women get all these fancy terms to set books about/by/for us apart from the rest – like “chick lit” – while books for men are just left flapping out there in the breeze of general availability.

Why should women get to be marginalized – I mean, specially acknowledged – and men left out so cruelly? It’s unjust.

I’ve drafted this list of proposed man-specific genres that I recommend we work into mainstream book parlance as soon as possible. It’s far too confusing to simply discuss books as books without specifying which gendered shelf they belong on. I feel that the the following are all as necessary and relevant as their lady-centric equivalents (for example: “Cool Girl Noir” and “Women’s Fiction”). Manly genre categories:
  • Dude lit
  • Boy toy thriller
  • History (sadly needs no qualifier)
  • Men-moirs
  • Lecherous math teacher saga
  • YMA
  • Gentlemanly satire
  • RoMANce
  • Dystopian Bar Mitzvah
  • Mister mystery
  • Dick lit
  • Broetry
  • All-boys boarding school noir
  • Beefcake Bildungsroman
  • Ars Broetica
  • Stallion science fiction
  • Virile fairy tale
  • Pee-wee philosophy
  • Rugged tragicomedy
  • He-man gothic
  • Paterfamillial paranormal fantasy
  • Mandventure
  • Urban lumberjack fantasy
  • Bro’s prose
  • Boys-will-be-boys postmodern occupational fiction
  • Ron Swanson-ology
  • Young buck novella
  • Epic fantasy (rife with breasts)
  • Jock tearjerker
  • Self-help books for lesser men
  • Bromance Suggested book titles to launch the aformentioned manly genre categories:
    • Always a Wingman
    • Mansplain Your Way into Her Heart
    • A Fantasy Football Fantasy
    • But I’m Allergic to Latex
    • Bitches in Kitchens
    • The Haunted Vibrator
    • Accountant With the Heart of a Lion
    • Returning The Favor: A Real Thing
    • Women Who Love to be Told That They’re Wrong
    • After I Left The Seat Up
    • How to Take Up More Space on Public Transportation
    • The Urinal Caper
    • All I Did was Tell Her to Smile
    • Ode to My Balls
    • It’s Not a Mid-Life Crisis; You’ve Always Wanted a Motorcycle
    • Let’s Talk More About The War
    • The $8,000 Suit
    • Vasectomies Gone Wrong: A Ghost Story Compilation
    • 101 Ways to Leer
    • Your Uncle’s Secrets
    • She Wanted to Cuddle
    • Find the Fireman Within You
    I’m glad we could sort this out. I look forward to moving together into a brighter future, fellow gendered readers. Save