Chick-Lit

Now it's time for Something that Makes Emily Mad:

The phrase “chick-lit.” You know the books. They are novels that are relatively short in length, and most of the time has the color pink on its cover. Another common trait is usually there is some part of a woman displayed on the cover, but rarely a woman’s face or eyes. The main character of these novels is usually a woman in her mid to late twenties. She most likely lives in a big city (with a roommate), works for a magazine, and is unlucky in love. Until the end of course, when she meets a great guy and ends up not loathing her job as much.

I don't like the phrase "chick-lit" because usually there isn't much to be gained from reading these books. After being read, it's rare that the reader takes anything substantial away from it, except just mere entertainment. And this is all well and good because at least people are reading. However, labeling it "chick-lit" makes the assumption that women don't read substantial novels. We like the frilly, easy to understand, Cinderella tale in new form. I have read several myself, and I have enjoyed some of the ones I've read. However I have gotten tired of the same old plot line. I only read these books in moderation, usually after a couple of books that have been acclaimed as good literature- or at least books without the color pink on them. I'm also entertained by some of these women, and don't mind reading brainlessly through a couple of them a eyar. But why the phrase "chick-lit"? What about The Bell Jar? The Bell Jar is about a woman writer is is also unlucky in love; only that novel is more about her decend into insanity, isntead of rising up at the end with an engagement ring and an apartment on the Upper East Side (every woman's ultimate goal, of course). Women read books like The Bell Jar too. Although I can just imagine Bronte and Plath spinning in their graves at the though of seeing their books next to Good in Bed, under a neon pink "CHICK-LIT" sign at the front of Barnes and Noble.

We read other books too, right ladies? Books that aren't pink or objectify women on their cover by not showing their eyes? So next time you're in Barnes and Noble and see the "chick-lit" section, throw some Bronte or Oates on that shelf, just so that people don't think we're too mindless.