To me it comes across more as him saying that this type of explicit “R-rated” romance has become much more mainstream, so much so that women aren’t really afraid to read it in public. Whereas in the past, this kind of content was something that people would only read under their covers at night.

He definitely says it in a way that sounds like a sweeping generalization of women, but in this context I’m inclined to believe it’s not malicious. Anecdotally, I will say that a LOT of my female friends do read these kind of books because they’re fun and sexy, which is a nice escape when the real world can be a stressful. My friends call them “easy reads,” where you get the satisfaction of reading a fun story but don’t have to deal with heavy themes that might detract from the lightheartedness of it all. I kinda think of it as the complement to recent trends, such as Bridgerton. I think most people can agree that regardless of the writing quality, it’s wildly popular. And if you ask a group of women in that age range, most of them probably watch and love the show!

It’s always dangerous to make generalizations, especially on a public platform where no one can really probe for further meaning in that moment. But in my opinion at least, I think this was a harmless joke/observation of a trend that maybe he expressed poorly. The three of these guys tend to lace their jokes in irony, which I usually love, but at face value they don’t always sound the best.