and has an image of a graph titled "Goodreads reviewers by genre and sex (Thelwall M., 2017)"; the data seems to be from the 2017 paper "Reader and author gender and genre in Goodreads" by Mike Thelwall. The graph has a list of Goodreads genres on the Y-axis and percentage of readers on the X-axis, with bars for "Males" and "Females" (representing the gender proportion of reviewers in a sample of books within each genre), and the list of genres sorted from highest male readership to lowest male readership. The most striking thing about the graph is that females overwhelmingly dominate in nearly all genres, with only four genres having more male than female readers (and only relatively small margins even then). The genre with the highest male-to-female ratio (roughly 59% to 39%) is philosophy.

I have provided tabular editions of this data below in two versions: an abbreviated version with only the genres and percentages, as in the graph, as well as a full version with all the data from the paper plus the percentages (since the percentages were not in the original paper, only raw numbers).

The QRT from august (@regularagust) on November 8 reads,

This becomes way funnier to look at if you know what the philosophy section in the average bookstore looks like.

The reply from 滿帖子乖謬之言觀汝似有瘋症 (@remmettmaxwell) on November 8 reads,

what we imagine: "phenomenology of the being and cognition" by j. j. r. von Grosseschleichen (1889)

what they mean: "locking in: 12 lessons on the meaning of life i learned from being with the operators in the coast guard auxiliary"

Data (abbreviated, percentages only)

Genre^[The symbol > indicates that the category on the right has been classified by Goodreads as being a subcategory of the category on the left.]	Male %	Female %
philosophy	59.1%	40.9%
sequential-art>comics	57.8%	42.2%
politics	56.4%	43.6%
sequential-art>graphic-novels	54.9%	45.1%
science-fiction	49.8%	50.2%
history	46.9%	53.1%
religion	42.0%	58.0%
science	41.4%	58.6%
literature	40.9%	59.1%
horror	40.8%	59.2%
classics	36.5%	63.5%
non-fiction	35.8%	64.2%
reference	35.0%	65.0%
novels	34.6%	65.4%
biography	34.2%	65.8%
adventure	33.9%	66.1%
psychology	33.7%	66.3%
short-stories	32.7%	67.3%
thriller	32.2%	67.8%
travel	30.9%	69.1%
mystery>crime	30.4%	69.6%
poetry	29.8%	70.2%
art	29.4%	70.6%
fantasy	27.8%	72.2%
autobiography>memoir	24.9%	75.1%
christian	24.4%	75.6%
fiction	23.9%	76.1%
humor	23.1%	76.9%
thriller>mystery-thriller	22.9%	77.1%
mystery	21.8%	78.2%
sequential-art>manga	21.1%	78.9%
suspense	21.1%	78.9%
historical	17.8%	82.2%
historical-fiction	16.9%	83.1%
fantasy>magic	16.8%	83.2%
romance>m-m-romance	15.8%	84.2%
young-adult	15.0%	85.0%
childrens	13.1%	86.9%
food-and-drink>cookbooks	13.1%	86.9%
animals	12.6%	87.4%
adult	12.3%	87.7%
fantasy>paranormal	11.7%	88.3%
contemporary	10.4%	89.6%
childrens>picture-books	9.8%	90.2%
adult-fiction>erotica	6.3%	93.7%
romance	5.4%	94.6%
romance>paranormal-romance	4.0%	96.0%
womens-fiction>chick-lit	3.6%	96.4%
romance>contemporary-romance	2.7%	97.3%
romance>historical-romance	2.5%	97.5%

Data (full)

Genre*	Books	Ratings	Male reviewers	Female reviewers	Male %	Female %	Reviews for RQ5^[Review Question 5: Are there differences in the types of things that male and female reviewers write about male and female authored books in specific genres?]
philosophy	5131	95606	11234	7772	59.1%	40.9%	857
sequential-art>comics	8567	166331	13334	9749	57.8%	42.2%	1263
politics	3894	34030	12657	9790	56.4%	43.6%	490
sequential-art>graphic-novels	6961	169828	13204	10828	54.9%	45.1%	878
science-fiction	9967	261253	22221	22363	49.8%	50.2%	1614
history	16315	199503	33017	37310	46.9%	53.1%	4033
religion	5056	54552	11505	15890	42.0%	58.0%	676
science	4463	71467	9908	14006	41.4%	58.6%	938
literature	3697	77384	9679	13979	40.9%	59.1%	92
horror	5545	161636	9923	14398	40.8%	59.2%	914
classics	5187	664000	10818	18831	36.5%	63.5%	556
non-fiction	40208	507491	69899	125264	35.8%	64.2%	8215
reference	6039	27524	8862	16453	35.0%	65.0%	580
novels	4564	52933	11389	21551	34.6%	65.4%	76
biography	7925	103156	18571	35705	34.2%	65.8%	1627
adventure	4822	83352	13506	26298	33.9%	66.1%	180
psychology	3259	49520	6378	12558	33.7%	66.3%	617
short-stories	7834	96615	8555	17644	32.7%	67.3%	758
thriller	5003	86473	12521	26326	32.2%	67.8%	453
travel	2941	31811	4369	9781	30.9%	69.1%	654
mystery>crime	4786	72899	11691	26793	30.4%	69.6%	272
poetry	7011	111621	5686	13389	29.8%	70.2%	1943
art	4469	30879	4043	9718	29.4%	70.6%	876
fantasy	19909	1057426	26409	68596	27.8%	72.2%	2758
autobiography>memoir	3673	67055	8576	25807	24.9%	75.1%	480
christian	4356	45478	7915	24530	24.4%	75.6%	796
fiction	41475	1218673	69470	220826	23.9%	76.1%	5187
humor	6409	87725	10417	34633	23.1%	76.9%	516
thriller>mystery-thriller	3167	26621	7562	25407	22.9%	77.1%	30
mystery	13093	389375	20210	72440	21.8%	78.2%	3645
sequential-art>manga	6623	285353	349	1306	21.1%	78.9%	162
suspense	3829	41560	6874	25647	21.1%	78.9%	79
historical	8654	137803	12514	57776	17.8%	82.2%	260
historical-fiction	9243	309406	12213	60237	16.9%	83.1%	1909
fantasy>magic	3028	60821	3188	15762	16.8%	83.2%	70
romance>m-m-romance	5729	125520	1100	5847	15.8%	84.2%	525
young-adult	11286	621919	10739	60915	15.0%	85.0%	1943
childrens	14147	163267	11264	74404	13.1%	86.9%	1989
food-and-drink>cookbooks	3642	36381	1183	7833	13.1%	86.9%	899
animals	3280	29674	3501	24264	12.6%	87.4%	294
adult	7043	72240	7151	50876	12.3%	87.7%	101
fantasy>paranormal	9094	261909	4556	34374	11.7%	88.3%	599
contemporary	13853	204599	8471	72730	10.4%	89.6%	227
childrens>picture-books	7410	131850	4754	43752	9.8%	90.2%	2945
adult-fiction>erotica	6981	78255	906	13487	6.3%	93.7%	427
romance	29205	676026	6805	119519	5.4%	94.6%	3342
romance>paranormal-romance	4239	110105	706	17100	4.0%	96.0%	288
womens-fiction>chick-lit	4072	91559	1318	35144	3.6%	96.4%	481
romance>contemporary-romance	7403	91478	868	30965	2.7%	97.3%	212
romance>historical-romance	3767	103730	555	21370	2.5%	97.5%	872

edit: just realized the link I gave for the paper wasn't the open access link I used, so here's a direct link for that one

top 46 comments

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[–] OffSeasonPrincess@hexbear.net 56 points 4 days ago (3 children)

The average politics section in a bookstore looks like this

[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 30 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Nazi section of the bookstore

[–] OffSeasonPrincess@hexbear.net 27 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Next to the history section which here consists of the gulag archipelago and waffen SS memoirs

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 16 points 4 days ago

*takes copies of gulag archipelago and moves it to the fiction section *

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 23 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Within days Ukrainian intelligence declared that they didn't believe Navalny was murdered, but that never stopped libs from making a martyr of a fascist.

[–] VILenin@hexbear.net 18 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Libs have never cared about reality, they love their unfalsifiable conspiracy theories

[–] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 10 points 4 days ago

Navalny lol what a loser

[–] Bolshechick@hexbear.net 52 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I was just in my local Barnes and Nobles and fr the philosophy "section" is just one shelf, and 50% of it is just different editions of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. And that's not counting the other stoic shit. At least they had a copy of Capital lol

[–] novibe@lemmy.ml 16 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Dude I hate Marcus Aurelius and his stoicism. “There’s nothing one can do”, “we should just accept things as they are and not really try to change anything ever”… brother you are THE EMPEROR OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. You are the person who CAN do the most like ever. Instead you choose to whine and be a little pussy? Come the fuck on.

[–] MLRL_Commie@hexbear.net 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Lol, I do sympathize with this to an extent, but I do think that this book has some good tidbits for those struggling with the 'choose your battles' problem. Accepting that you won't influence everything, and letting that not impact you deeply in a negative way, can really help in focusing on what you can do. MA was definitely mixing these 2 things up quite often, where he could actually affect things but was stoic anyways, but I don't think dismissing it outright is useful to communists.

[–] novibe@lemmy.ml 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It just pisses me off that he thought HE would be the dude to pass on that message and live the ideology. And that makes a bunch of privileged chuds think “if not even Marcus Aurelius could actually change things, why should I try?”. When they could actually do something.

[–] MLRL_Commie@hexbear.net 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, these people are also highly ignorant of the history and culture in which Aurelius found himself. I read it like this: MA was living in a world and culture and position where taking action, being decisive, and such were all givens. Of course he had to be able to do all that, and why focus on something so obvious? So MA was wrestling with the, for him, harder aspects of powerlessness which, though limited, were his main enemy.

Chuds read things like it's an evangelical reading the bible: every word is the truth regardless of any context. (This is also a western Marxist tendency regarding Marx). So MA saying he couldn't change something is read as nothing can ever change so complain about attempts

[–] novibe@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Great comment friend. I now hate MA way less, while directing the hate exclusively to the chuds. As it should’ve been.

[–] MLRL_Commie@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Thanks! I enjoyed putting my thoughts down too, glad you liked it. I do think hating MA for his faults is still fine, for sure, including all the horrible shit he used his power for, like every other leader of of Rome. But separating that from the very useful pondering and tactics for avoiding the emotional downsides of failures is useful and allows us to utilize it despite his failures as a person and leader

Also important to note that much of his writing was just journaling, so he may have been simultaneously been a chud outwardly talking about "strength and power and decisiveness" and all that when not contemplating his own troubles alone with his journal

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Capital

😀

in the Twenty-First Century

😑

[–] roux@hexbear.net 7 points 4 days ago

It's sad. You can't even find any pop philosophy at mine, like The Book by Alan Watts. I don't have a lot of physical books but I'd like to have some Sartre or Camus in my collection at some point.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 33 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

Marketing is divided by gender. This list is entirely a marketing problem, there is almost no romance written for or targeted at men.

Also Romance is on this list like 8 times yet not other genre is split up like that.

Also women are the primary readers of almost every fucking genre listed because there's just more women actually reviewing books on Good Reads. There's literally only 4 genres there with more male reviewers.

Also it really shouldn't be any surprise that the two things that are historically the most patriarchal, Philosophy and Politics, have more men?

Comics = Marvel slop too

Graphic Novels = Marvel slop and Judge Dredd

Oh I need to point out that Erotica and Adult writing is garbage data too because much of the genre is usually posted by hobbiests online for free in kink communities or adapted into text-based games that are basically digital versions of choose your own adventure. Some of those make the breakout into VNs, are we counting those or have I muddied the line between books and videogames too hard now? It's a pretty blurry line with that content. With that said most of that online is male spaces, so they're just not being marketed to offline and find it in niche spaces online because western marketers haven't realised there's money to be made.

I bet this data looks different in some cultures where the marketing segments are treated differently, willing to be it's different in Japan for example.

[–] VILenin@hexbear.net 21 points 4 days ago (1 children)

95% of xitter dudebro “analysis” is looking at a sociological phenomenon and going “look at this evidence of biological essentialism!”

[–] OffSeasonPrincess@hexbear.net 10 points 4 days ago

Also 95% of TERF "analysis", horseshoe theory real

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 11 points 4 days ago

What about my Romance of the Three Kingdoms so-true

[–] AernaLingus@hexbear.net 3 points 4 days ago

Yeah, I don't think you can draw fine-grained conclusions about readership based on the source the data was sampled from and the study's methodology, and that's literally not even a question the original study was asking (I'll post the research questions below). I honestly just thought that the reply was funny, and it required the original QRT for context.

Research questions

• RQ1: In which genres do female reviewers give higher ratings than male reviewers and vice versa?
Although reviewers tend to be more positive towards books authored by their own gender, does this occur once genre has been factored out and, if so, does it occur universally across genres? As discussed above, gender homophily does not seem to be a big factor in the social web and so this should not obscure book preference gender homophily.
• RQ2: In which genres are reviewer ratings biased towards books authored by the same gender?
One aspect of gender in book reviewing that does not seem to have been examined before is the relationship between reviewer gender and the reception of their review by other readers. For example, do readers empathise more with reviewers if they are from the same gender as the author or the reader, or does one gender tend to be more authoritative in the role of reviewer?
• RQ3: In which genres are female reviewers more liked than male reviewers and vice versa?
• RQ4: In which genres are reviews of books authored by the same gender as the reviewer more popular?
Finally, although there are theories about why different genders might enjoy specific types of books (e.g., Radway, 1984) there is little empirical evidence about how writer gender influences the way in which readers of different genders understand or engage with books in the genres that they have chosen to read.
• RQ5: Are there differences in the types of things that male and female reviewers write about male and female authored books in specific genres?

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 36 points 4 days ago (2 children)

As a philosophy dweeb, like 20% of the total books described by that men's "philosophy" bar in the graph are literally just Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and Art of War, and another 40% are just things in that orbit but more ignominious. Maybe the Five Rings, too.

I had no idea women read so much more manga than men though. That's really interesting. How did that happen? Obviously women read a lot of manga, but I didn't think it would be more than 4x the amount of men who do.

[–] TerminalEncounter@hexbear.net 47 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Men just dont read

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 23 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Agree, but "sequential art" is the lightest reading here short of picture books, and men do read plenty of western comics, to no one's surprise, so I don't see why manga specifically is so skewed.

[–] himeneko@hexbear.net 28 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

a lot of manga men would read gets adapted, but a lot of manga remains unadapted and a lot of it is for women (ex: shoujo/josei, much of the yuri/yaoi genre)

this is also goodreads, so i expect a moderate western bias and tgirls are probably a non-insignificant amount of this readership

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 10 points 4 days ago

Both very good points

[–] Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net 9 points 4 days ago

I recently found out (precure?), a manga/anime targeted towards girls/women, rivals one piece in popularity; there's a gigantic market out there, but the fanfare is usually for media targeted towards guys

[–] alexei_1917@hexbear.net 15 points 4 days ago

I know a man who wouldn't read a book to save his life, married to a woman whose favourite room in their house is her library/home office.

I do not understand what she sees in him. But they are pretty cute together, for an "opposites attract" straight couple. And I guess he does give surprisingly good hugs for a guy.

[–] DrMartinu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 4 days ago

This graph is based on goodreads users who have bothered to post reviews. The data could entirely be a result of:

women might use goodreads more than men.
women might be more inclined to post reviews about a book they read
a dozen other variables that are unaccounted for

Basically i struggle to see this graph as anything other than graphing goodreads users interactions with goodreads. I don't see how it can be used for ANYTHING else especially not some general statement that women read more of genre x than men.

[–] TerminalEncounter@hexbear.net 29 points 4 days ago

Sci fi with perfect gender equilibrium. The perfect genre

My fav section is the "controversial knowledge" section.

[–] la_tasalana_intissari_mata@hexbear.net 12 points 4 days ago

conclusion: westerners despite gender norms goon either to novels or to nazi yappers

[–] XxFemboy_Stalin_420_69xX@hexbear.net 17 points 4 days ago (6 children)

i will never understand grown ass adults who read YA fiction

[–] VILenin@hexbear.net 11 points 4 days ago

They weren’t wearing glasses and misread it as “yassification”

[–] WokePalpatine@hexbear.net 10 points 4 days ago

People demand a breezy read.

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

It's an interesting age for emotional character development.

And there are also a lot YA where the characters are aged down for the label without changing the writing because publishers market YA better.

[–] Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net 9 points 4 days ago

One of my friends reads YA fiction but also regular fantasy; I don't personally understand what would draw someone to it. I'd watch the movie(s) like hunger games and such, but I sure as heck ain't reading it.

[–] LadyCajAsca@hexbear.net 5 points 4 days ago

as a hobbyist writer, I say it's because there's a lot of interesting development can be done of a character in YA-type storylines and plotlines because it's from a child (or teen, i guess, 12-15?) to an adult which, depending on what story can include a lot of changes throughout life as when compared to much more.. spread out subtle changes of adult life (I think anyway, maybe I'm just biased or whatever)

[–] mononoke@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 3 days ago

I recently went through Redwall again, one of my favorite book series when I was younger. I would definitely categorize it as “young reading,” but It was a nice, breezy trip and very light for when I was tired and going to bed. The Earthsea series is also classified as YA, but I think anyone of any age would be better for having read it. Le Guin is simply a master of her craft.

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 12 points 4 days ago

The only romance men are reading is mlm? Is reading books that gay?

[–] RedSturgeon@hexbear.net 12 points 4 days ago

A lot of people looked down on me for not reading books when I was younger. I was reading that manga, with pictures ew, made for small pants like myself, while the very intelligent big pants people they were all into books, the most serious books, like Harry Potter or later it was translated works by Jordan Peterson, books about the grandest, that hustle.

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 11 points 4 days ago

Synthesis: https://existentialcomics.com/

[–] RNAi@hexbear.net 5 points 4 days ago

Surprised "fantasy > magic" has such imbalance

[–] Tychoxii@hexbear.net 5 points 4 days ago

scifi stays winning

[–] CleverOleg@hexbear.net 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I cannot fathom why color e-readers are as popular as they are. Manufacturers are starting to drop b&w readers and going heavy into color e-readers, which to me defeats the purpose, as color ones do not have as bright of a white background and contrast on text isn’t as sharp (so less book-like). I guess the answer is that there’s just that many manga/comics readers.

[–] Krem@hexbear.net 3 points 4 days ago

i read in dark mode and all i want is a simple device that i can put downloaded books on, with a low-light dark grey screen with light grey text that soothes my eyes as i read a comfy book in bed or on the train. comic book e-readers should be another category of device

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

Literature books. That's what I read.