On Thursday, the Twitter account for the Waterstones bookshop in Uxbridge, West London, decided to talk about men who refuse to read books by women authors.
I've worked here for... well... a very long time. In all that time, never has a woman said to me, "I don't read books written by men." However, at least once or twice a month, a man will say that he'll not read a book by a female author. Men are ridiculous creatures.
And said those men are of "a certain age".
Of course, these men are of 'a certain age'...
Naturally, we booksellers see this as our chance to suggest as many fantastic female authors as we can think they'd actually enjoy. Most times, they do consider it. Which is nice.
And while some loved the tweet, obviously some men got pretty mad.
@WaterstonesUxbr Fuck. Off.
@WaterstonesUxbr Do @Waterstones have anyone officially monitoring social media or do they just allow individuals to churn out this garbage as and when they see fit?
@WaterstonesUxbr @Waterstones do you sanction these tweets? All men are ridiculous? Well I now feel all Waterstones stores are ridiculous and I’ll take my business elsewhere. Oh and by the way I’m a man and I do read books by female authors. #sexist #boycott
After the backlash, the bookshop added a tweet to the thread to say this doesn't apply to *all* men.
Of course, I apologise - not ALL men are 'ridiculous creatures'. Hope that helps clear things up.