I read Science fiction all the time. I just finished this year’s Hugo winner, SPIN. No ray guns, but plenty of aliens.

I disagree with everything you say. Oh, except, good catch on the typo. Thanks!

Go read something by a real science fiction author if you want to see the vanguard of modern literature.

You mean to use the word “wont,” not “want.”

You say that chick lit deals with a broad array of situations experienced by the modern woman. Sure. There is a strong tendency, however, toward severe superficiality in the characters and messages contained, despite the changing scenery.

I’m just going off the top of my head in compiling this list… And it’s late… I’m sure I’ve missed some great ones I’ve loved…

All that said, I admit to being one of those writers who isn’t keen on the label chick lit. (not that I’d get upset if someone wanted to publish one of my books and call it that… I just don’t really like the label, much…)
I think it has been used to trivialize books by women.
But I would *never* assert that the genre has set back feminism. Au contraire. I think these books have revitalized women’s fiction and shown that there are stories to tell about strong, interesting young female protagonists beyond romances. Not that there’s anything wrong with romances… but I think the chick lit explosion showed there’s a market for books exploring non-romance aspects of young women’s lives. (and I don’t think that market has gone anywhere… it’s just flooded right now.)

If one buys into the media assertion that the genre depicts all twenty-something-women as shallow, shoe-shopping, cosmo-drinking, man-hunting twits… Well, I can see where that could lead one to say the genre had set back feminism.
But all one has to do is read a sampling of the bestselling books marketed under the chick lit label to realize that characterization of the genre just isn’t true.

All that said… I’d love to have a strongly-worded-chat with whoever came up with the label chick lit. Was it someone in the media? Someone in the publishing industry? Anyone know?
I often think that it was the label which created, or at least fueled, all the negative assumptions about the books themselves…
Love the books, but the label makes me squirm.

GCC tours aren’t recommendations, unless they ARE. they are free advertising.

Then I bumped into a copy of Undead and Unwed in an airport. And you know what? Betsy spoke to me. Here was an (un)dead woman, in possession of a stellar shoe collection, going on and living the life she wasted while she was alive, and she’s getting a helluva lot of good sex in the process!

That truly reached me for some reason. Probably because I’ve stuck with Mr. You’re So Vain (Formerly known as my spouse) for a way longer than any other woman would have!

Imagine! Me, who writes books about autism, and articles about advocacy, and neurological dysfunctions, and medicaid corruption…lurking by loading docks at bookstores to be the first to lay hands on the next installment of Besty’s story.

And it gets worse. I just finished the first draft of my own attempt at WRITING chick lit….and good lord, there’s a synopsis for a YA series sitting here on my hard drive…

I’M INFECTED!

I’m a huge Kenner fan, as well as a friend. But I honestly inhale all of her books. She’s finished up the Prada Paradigm as we speak and I CANNOT wait!

Larramie, I agree, I wish it didn’t come down to “that” but it has. When I worked in the “workplace” (as opposed to alone in my own little house) I saw it happen over and over to women in positions of authority. If they acted like their male counterparts, they were bitches, even when they were simply doing their jobs. I got called that more than once when I was teaching high school, simply because I didn’t put up with any crap. The students (male) would invariably use the word thinking I was going to break down in tears. My normal response was, “Thank you for noticing” and a referral to the dean.

I rarely had problems with the same kid twice.

But I disagree that it’s not chick lit. If we go back to what the publishers said they wanted to publish, books with a hip, contemporary, sharp-witted VOICE, then the demon-hunter books are totally chick lit. The reason I loved this one so much was because it was FUN, yet addressed some pretty painful stuff at the same time.

I love books like that.