'Chick Lit' is Psychologically Damaging

With Daphne and Dorothy

Chick Lit seems to be looked down on by  the literacy community, but also now, it turn out it's psychologically bad for you also. In a recent The Pacific Standard a new study that suggested chick lit is causes women to feel shit about themselves. The study, published in the journal Body Image, asked a group of 159 women to read one of two excerpts researchers manipulated in terms of the character’s weight, wardrobe and kinds of comments she makes to herself, and others, about her body. Afterwards, participants answered questions having to do with their own weight and sexual allure.

The results were that women felt considerably more crappy about their bodies when their protagonist was overweight and making negative comments about herself. Hence the idea that, “Chick-lit is hazardous to women’s health.” But I think a major problem with this is that the study was an except, not the ending of a chick lit book, which in said genre is invariably satisfying, and may make you feel positive about your well being, as you will still be relating to the character you having formed a connection with them. So really, I think this study was a little bit bullshitty. 

In my own life however, I find that I'm embarrassed to read such books, psychologically damaging or otherwise. I like to read 'chick lit', and enjoy balancing it out with 'heavier' books plus I find a good, relatively light book, such as those of Sophie Kinsella, Meg Cabot, Lauren Weisberger and such a to be a nice contribution to my reading life. But I get embarrassed when I read these books in public. The Chick Lit books that I read defiantly fall under 'read in the privacy of my home, or on a kindle' section, (the shame of reading a book with the word 'shopaholic' in the title I suppose). Why am I ashamed?  The genre is called a 'guilty pleasure', a term so often used by people in relation to the trashy novels and t.v shows we actually love, but shouldn't really be admitting to enjoying. It’s because we’re made to feel like we need to be consuming things that are more 'intelligent'. I don't want people presuming that because I'm reading that 'fluffy' book today that I am not intelligent, reasonable person. I promise, I'll be able to tell the difference between tortoises and  turtles and still enjoy books with satisfying endings.Not to mention sometimes you don't want to wade through eight chapters before anything really even happens (only so many times you can describe a rolling hills kind of landscape really aren't there?).

In my studies I have to write critical essays on 'heavy tomes' and I do genuinely enjoy reading such books. But sometimes Chick Lit is a refreshing antidote to my crushed brain, sometimes I don't want to slog though any more heavy thought provoking prose. You want to turn your brain off and fantasise about Prince Charming, fairy tales for grown up little princesses really. 

The book cover doesn't help. The  recurring pattern of pinks and swirly writing, all with similar covers this causes a whole range of authors to be clumped together. Or an artsy picture of an accessory, shoes, necklaces or bags.  The book jackets are decisions made by publishers. We decide what a book looks like and this is a complicated decision, influenced by what we think looks good, what we think will position the book most clearly in the marketplace, and how best to signal quickly to both retailers and readers what kind of book it is. In many ways the only thing that “these books” really have in common is that they’re written primarily by women and about relationships. 

This is from Jessica Rudd, who wrote Campaign Ruby and Ruby Blues : 'I’d much prefer my work to be devoured by many than nibbled by few. Sophie Kinsella, Candace Bushnell, Helen Fielding, Marian Keyes—they all write the lives of contemporary women and their books will be thumbed for generations to come....Herein lies the answer. I reckon if these were the stories of men—and dare I say written by men—they wouldn't be tagged as frivolous.' They (the characters  also all have excellent jobs and tend to be pretty ambitious, journalists, graphic designers, architects and just generally women that have it all. Plus many of these authors aren't 'idiots', Sophie Kinsella is an Oxford graduate for instance, on one of the most competitive course: Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE).

There are blokes who write for blokes but their work is not sneered at by the 'la-di-das'. we don’t call books by men and about men ‘dick lit’, even if they are commercial minded (we really should though!). You could argue that crime and thriller has a larger male audience, but they don't carry the same connotations that female-orientated genres do. Because we still live in a society where "women's interests" are given a lower ranking. I still hear comments from guys about girls getting "too emotional because it's that time of month" and frankly, it makes my blood boil, perhaps Chick Lit is looked down on because it's too openly emotional?

Sure, the plot can be a little formulaic and dull, but so can books of any genre. It's simply snobbish to presume that all the books of a certain genre have nothing to contribute. I like to think I have wide-ranging and eclectic tastes, although what I'm coming to discover is that genre isn't really that important to me, it's the quality of the writing and the portrayal of realistic and well rounded characters that draw my attention. This is true, if Fifty Shades of Grey had an inkling of decent penmanship, that extends beyond what I imagine would happen if you let a talking walrus write a book about S&M using only his flippers, then I imagine we wouldn't show so much disdain towards it. Yet it is being lumped in with all female oriented books and frankly it has launched a sub-genre of chick lit, where anything flies, that drags the genre down as a whole. 

I like to think I have wide-ranging and eclectic tastes, although what I'm coming to discover is that genre isn't really that important to me, it's the quality of the writing and the portrayal of realistic and well rounded characters that draw my attention.

I like to think I have wide-ranging and eclectic tastes, although what I'm coming to discover is that genre isn't really that important to me, it's the quality of the writing and the portrayal of realistic and well rounded characters that draw my attention