Chick Lits - Literature for Women

What is Chick Lit? 

The chick lit genre is like a roomy woman's handbag - very accommodating. Whether it's a designer original or a great looking knock off, it's still a handbag, and every woman needs one to survive her life. Just like lipstick, tampons and pepper spray, having chick lit on hand can save your life, because no matter where you are, whether it's in Sydney, San Francisco or on a Yorkshire farm, you need to be prepared for the good, the bad and the Ugg boots.

So does this mean chick lit is only about getting the guy and the best shopping bargain? Absolutely not, though for child bearers and former nut and berry gatherers like me, these are nice perks. Yes, men folks, I have news: courtship, romance and shopping are an expression of the female reproductive and gathering instincts. And not only are these instincts good for the economy and the continuation of our species, they're fun and all natural. So let me just say right up front: if you like and respect women, please give chick lit its due. This is a literary genre, and it's here to stay.

But seriously, when we strip away all the instinctive motives and literary politics and look at chick lit's basic structure, it comes down to what Robert McKee calls the education plot, or the maturation plot, or if you want to get academic, the Bildungsroman.

Whatever we call her genre, and whatever her age, the chick lit heroine moves through a rite of passage in her life's journey, from innocence to experience, illusion to disillusion, blindness to sight. In other words, she wakes up in her own life. Whether she's twenty, thirty, forty or more, the chick lit heroine goes through an age-old rite of passage into a new phase of adult female consciousness. Story events and other characters are there to open her eyes to her as yet unrealized potential and her emerging new self. She may have started her story looking for a man, or recognition from an outside source like her job or her parents' approval, but story events will force her instead to find and love herself--just as she is, and as she's becoming.

This is chick lit in its ur-form, a female rite of passage. It's both ancient and modern, universal and particular to our times. And for these reasons it's here to stay.