While the sexes are equal, they certainly aren't identical. Is it just me, or do men and women use different approaches when describing a book?
Lately, I’ve begun noticing an odd little trend in the way people tell me about what they’re reading, and it seems to have something to do with whether it’s a man or a woman who’s doing the describing.
Now before anyone starts mentally pre-wording their angry letter to Suite, this is not going to be a sexist spiel about how one half of the species is better than the other, nor is it a rehash of that old and narrow-minded stereotype of ‘romances are for the ladies, while guys get the military non-fiction’. What I am talking about is the way in which we tend to describe a book—any book—to another, and more specifically, the elements of that book which we consider most important and worth focusing on.
To put this into context, I’ll describe the first two experiences I had which initially tipped me off to this quirk. On one evening now several evenings ago, my girlfriend and I were on a double-date with another couple. At one point, she started to talk about her latest reading material – a fashion murder-mystery; the kind with a white background and pastel-colour image of an uber-skinny woman in heels walking across the cover. At any rate, she told of how the book’s main character, an assistant for a high-powered fashion-designer—I’m going to glance over details like names, not because I don’t remember them (for I do, sweetheart, every word) but because I save the descriptive reviews for the articles—who discovers that her employer has been linked with the deaths of certain famous models. Our heroine is faced with an agonizing decision at first, because hers is the ultimate job and she never did like those conceited models anyway. In the end however, she is the heroine, and so cannot allow the crimes to go unsolved.
There, now contrast that with what my buddy, male-half of the couple we were with, said next about his current favourite, describing it as a historical-fiction about English sailors during the Napoleonic Wars, and their naval skirmishes with French galleons attempting to break through the English blockade.
Both descriptions are perfectly coherent and functional, yet one—‘the murdered models’—focuses more on a specific character and their motivations, actions, and role in the story and provides only as much information about the plot as is needed to put the character’s qualities into context. Conversely, the ‘war at sea’ story is laid out in terms of overarching plot, theme and with almost no mention whatsoever of actual characters.
Now, as many of you are likely thinking, this could have easily been a matter of two individuals differing in their approaches, and never mind gender. You’d be right in concluding such, but do trust that I wouldn’t have decided to write this if I hadn’t noticed the same tendencies in other examples since then, with men leaning toward reference to theme, plot and broad descriptions, while women appear more inclined to use the specific elements of a book, such as characters and the way they interact, to define what they’re reading.
That being said, I hardly expect you to take my experiences as evidence, so by all means, the next time you hear someone discussing a book, pay attention to whether the words “Well, it’s about . . .” are followed by either an introduction to the main character and whatever it is he or she gets up to, or a description of some defining theme or general plot.
So what does this all boil down to? Does it mean that one gender makes for a better book critic than the other? No, both approaches, focused or broad, do a fine job of describing a book. Does it mean that the minds of men and women work differently in some of the most unusual and random ways? Probably, and I doubt anyone’s really arguing the contrary. Does it mean that I need to spend less time thinking about books and book reviewing, and more time doing . . . well, some of that other stuff that people apparently get up to? Oh, indeed so. For yourselves however, take note of the next few book-related conversations you get into and see if you don’t pick up on this gender preference. To that end, you can even experiment on yourself – if you were going to describe a book briefly, in what way would you do it?
