Ask HN: Would this idea combat the negative portrayal of men in thriller novels?
2 amichail 2 7/9/2025, 11:45:46 AM
As most readers of thriller novels are women, it's not a surprise that thrillers portraying men as violent criminals tend to make more money.
Instead of trying to get men to read more thriller novels, it would probably be easier — and more effective — to simply ask them to donate large sums of money to authors and publishers who release more balanced thriller novels.
Do you think this idea would work?
Comments (2)
manfromchina1 · 2h ago
Suppose the authors get large donations to write balanced stuff where men are more ambiguous than they are violent. Then there is a possibility that women will stop reading these novels if portraying men in the negative light was the reason they were reading these books in the first place.
amichail · 2h ago
If thriller novels become less popular because women stop reading them, then that's still reducing the negative portrayal of men.