On Chick-Lit

"Ever since the resounding success of Sex and the City and Bridget Jones Diary - which happy event made their authors obscenely rich - pop culture has been invaded by a whole new genre of wannabes. Welcome to the world of Chick Lit (ugh, makes me think of a hen on fire). Anyway summer is upon us and one must have light reading to forget the heavy heat. And my recent visit to a Barnes and Noble store revealed that they now have a whole shelf, nay a whole row of shelves devoted to this cerebral form of literature.

Don't get me wrong, I as much as anyone else succumb from time to time to the call of Mills & Boons and other such escapist, retrograde romantic fantasies that you cry through and later hide under the bed so that noone else knows you read that stuff. But we all know where they stand in the pecking order of literature. What really irks me is that Chick Lit is now celebrated, revered and often called (even by the New York Times) the voice of the New Woman.
Pray what is the New Woman?? Is a Woman ever really made new? Even if she acknowledges she is gay or has a baby out of wedlock or builds a career instead of a family - she is still treated like a woman. Which is to say she is objectified by some and deified by others, but never ever treated normally as one would treat a mere man. The Carly Fiorinas of the world are few and far between. But then that is besides the point I am trying to make.
The point is there are these rows and rows of women who churn out these books with the sole aim of getting a movie deal and moolah, and have book reviewers calling their books literature. I am sure there is a "Dummies Guide to writing Chick Lit" or "Six Steps to Writing Best Selling Chick Lit" because they all seem to follow a certain template:

1)Cover must be bright pink/ red/ green/ yellow / any obnoxiously cheerful color. Must have picture of Sassy Looking Woman / High heeled shoe / Lipstick / something from a make up bag. Or make up bag itself.
2)Blurb must have the following words in it -"inspiring", "sweetly humorous", "improbably romantic ending", "perfect beach reading", "groundbreaking" and "first of its kind." It must also have glowing reviews (if you get a few good quotes from the reviewer at Cosmopolitan great! Else one from The Star Ledger will more than do).
3)Heroine must be single / newly divorced, in mediocre career doing something she knows she doesn't like, sure of what her dream job (which is necessarily be book editor / newscaster / media person) is but does not have the guts to take it up, have a penchant for abusive men yet have the perfect man hovering in the background. She must have heart of gold and slutty morals. She must border on loser, i.e. be slightly overweight (yet have plump, pleasing figure), upturned nose, mid to low IQ and freckles. She MUST be white (Black women feature in another genre of slightly more palatable books).
4)Other characters must include understanding gay male best friend, scheming vamp with perfect figure & face who has paws on perfect man, horrible boss who makes life hell because of heroine's inefficiency, preaching mother disappointed in her daughters singleness, seemingly happy married friend who is actually on brink of divorce and of course the aforementioned perfect man (who is a lawyer / doctor / business man / media moghul with amazing prospects and pots of money).
5)Novel must be set in New York City / San Francisco / New York City / London / New York City. Plot must include one loss of job, one rousing speech from perfect man about heroine's talents which leads her to give a miraculously good job interview at her dream company, failed relationships with at least two men and finally a reunion with perfect man with mother smiling happily in background.
6)It must have several homilies and messages to convey such as "You Go Girl!" "Men are such Bastards" or "Being Single Sucks."

You get my drift? So these books are basically the same old Mills & Boons with a more respectable publisher's name on the cover. I mean - you wouldn't hide a book published by Penguin under your bed would you?
What irks me though is that this so called writing about New Women always seem to be portray women as scheming, unhappy, aimless and stupid. The heroine usually has no idea about what she wants from life, lets men walk all over her, finds it a huge embarrassment to be single, cannot do anything positive without help from a man and does not have the good judgment to know who her friends really are. That is the New Woman? But I guess reading about a woman who goes to work, gets promoted, picks up kid from school, cooks dinner for husband, and plans vacations for family would not be so exciting. Well then write on about these imperfect, so called "based on true character" heroines. But pray! don't call it literature.

By the way - I am planning to write about Single Indian Girl in Bombay with gay best friend, commitment-shy boyfriend and friendly male neighbor who is Head of Star TV in India. You think it will sell?"

Picked up from this blog.