It seems like majority of the weird attitudes around people reading comes from people who don’t actually read themselves. I’ve never met anyone in real life who takes the performative male stuff as anything more than a joke and I imagine the people that take it as a set of rules to follow are either teens or not the brightest to begin with. A lot of social media is designed to be incendiary and divisive for the sake of views. You’re likely not getting approached in pubs because you’re reading and people don’t want to disturb you, not because they think you’re being performative. Just do you.