Are men not interested in new masculinities?

BarcelonaThe other day, a friend told me she'd attended the presentation of an essay on new masculinities, and that, despite the fact that what was said was interesting and well-spoken, despite the fact that the book seemed like a good one, despite the fact that everything was entertaining, despite the author's obvious intelligence, at a certain point she had a sudden and irrepressible reaction. Why? Because she realized that, as always, the vast majority of those present were women, which is sad and ridiculous; after all, the topic of new masculinities affects women indirectly (although, I won't deny it, it affects us a lot, or even too much), but it affects men the most. Shouldn't they be the ones interested? Why are we, once again, putting up with their nonsense?

Forgive me for being binary, but we're imagining a book about menopause. We can understand that men will generally be of little interest, although they too will be affected to some extent if they have a partner, female friends, or mothers. Would it seem normal to you if the vast majority of readers of a book about menopause were men? Can you imagine the presentation being packed with a male audience? Well, I'd say this is exactly what happens with the topic of new masculinities. It's exhausting. And it doesn't end there.

I recently read the book with great interest. Females, by Lucy Cooke. The British zoologist exposes, through numerous concrete cases and figures, that the evolutionary and biological history we've been told is full of biases and omissions regarding female animals and, by extension, humans. The section dedicated to refuting Bateman's influential and false gradient is shockingly revealing. This book, unlike the possible book on menopause, should be of interest to everyone: after all, no one should like to live deceived. However, I know it will be mainly women who read it. Men aren't interested: Females?, it doesn't apply to them. We've had to swallow their flawed and distorting theories for centuries, but now they're not willing to listen to alternative versions. Are women interested in everyone's affairs, and men, in men's affairs, as long as they don't challenge their morality or question them?

This isn't unique to this book. Just take a look at bookstores to imagine (deplore) that all books about history's forgotten women (of philosophy, science, art, literature, etc.) or about female sexuality will have a primarily female audience. The issue of books on sexuality is especially bloody considering that, according to statistics, around 30% or more of women still don't have orgasms during sexual intercourse. If the situation were the other way around, we'd have a national problem. Why don't men run to bookstores to read about what they haven't been told?

Be that as it may, and returning to the beginning, we have the topic of new masculinities on the table, and on the new releases lists in bookstores. And since I can't help being interested, I've read, for example, Game theory, ofArià Paco, which is said to be a book about new masculinitiesBut to me it seemed like a book about masculinities in transition, or even about the collapse of new masculinities. I have also read The man of the house, by Enric Pardo, and I have found an intimate and moving chronicle about the construction of masculinity (putting the words here intimate, touching and masculinity Will I be discouraging male readers from approaching them?) I have read Fatal men, by Elisenda Julibert, and I liked how it turns the reading of femme fatales on its head to aim at the heart of the male complex. I have read The erased pleasure, by Catherine Malabou, and I have discovered the history of the clitoris, the great unknown. I have read about The chilling abuses of Neige Sinno to Sad tigerAnd perhaps you'll say: what the hell do femme fatales, clitorises, and abuse have to do with the new masculinities? Well, a lot, I'd say: because something I believe will have to characterize the new men is a genuine interest (that is, not strategic, nor abstract, theoretical, instrumental) in women: in their bodies, in their pleasure, in their experiences, in their emotions. Until this happens, we can sit back and wait: a commuter train will arrive before the new masculinities.