Chick Lit – what’s wrong with that?

I’ve just come across this really interesting debate about Chick Lit. Essentially, both authors are arguing for the same thing – that the word ‘Chick’ is derogatory, and unnecessary, to describe books which reflect modern life for women. But it is an interesting point that Elizabeth Day makes: David Nicholls’s One Day was chick-lit, but it wasn’t marketed as such. Why not? Because it was written by a man.

So Chick Lit is not really a genre – it is a label for female writers who write a certain type of fiction. Does this matter? Only if it means that the books ‘Chick Lit authors’ write are down-graded in some way, and considered less worthy of note than their male-written counterparts. Personally, I love some books which are loosely Chick Lit, and I can’t stand others. They are all just Commercial Women’s Fiction to me.  Maybe we should invent a new genre – Com Wom! What do you think?

Related articles

• NOT Chick-Lit (litlove.wordpress.com)
• Should we mourn the end of chick-lit? (guardian.co.uk)
• Have we fallen out of love with chick lit? (independent.co.uk)