Branded as "chick-lit"

[leebase]

Chick-lit, I thought, was a way to say "guys, don't even bother to read" and I find it a useful label.

I may go to a Chick Flick with my wife, but would almost never otherwise. So, I just don't think the label is meant to say "women only read/watch this material" but rather, "this material primarily sells to women".

Lee

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Whether they are men or women, traditional publishers are simply doing what they are convinced will sell the most books. If that means calling them "chick-lit" and putting pink and green covers on them, so be it... unfortunately, it's working, and they're laughing all the way to the bank.

The best thing to be done is to publish books independently of the traditional publishers, and show them that the old labels and marketing methods aren't the only way to sell books anymore.

[OtterBooks]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Guy lit: most thrillers - Tom Clancy, Ian Fleming, Robert Ludlum, early Ken Follett, even early John LeCarre.

I think that stuff is more along the lines of themes that men are typically entertained by, rather than directly dealing with issues of masculinity. For that I would hand it to Norman Mailer, Philip Roth.. Chick-lit plays on gender-oriented stuff: idiosyncratic femininity, relationships, etc in a way that doesn't just represent these things but panders. There's literature about women, and women's literature. Representation vs. exploitation. For instance, the difference between The Color Purple, and "blaxploitation" films like Shaft.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

if i was a woman i'd be insulted by the "chick lit" label period. the "chicks" i know read horror and science fiction, not every woman wants soft&fuzzy literature. a pandering label like that is a disgrace.

whats "guy lit", books about football dipped in motor oil and old spice?

I thought that "chick" referred to a character in the book and not the reader.

[replica145]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

if i was a woman i'd be insulted by the "chick lit" label period. the "chicks" i know read horror and science fiction, not every woman wants soft&fuzzy literature. a pandering label like that is a disgrace.

whats "guy lit", books about football dipped in motor oil and old spice?

Damn, that horse guy ruined Old Spice for everyone

[HarryT]

Women's fiction is the single biggest-selling genre. Clearly the publishers are onto a winner with the formula they're using.

[xg4bx]

Originally Posted by replica145

Damn, that horse guy ruined Old Spice for everyone

i'm 33 and i was into old spice before it was trendy lol. classic old spice and brut are my 2 primary scents.

[xg4bx]

Originally Posted by jhempel24

guy lit = Don Pendleton's The Executioner.....They were the inspiration behind The Punisher comic books...the early books are freaking awesome!!

i still read those to the point that i joined the book club not too long ago lol.

Deathlands is pretty cool too, its like a western set in a post-apocalyptic nuclear landscape filled with mutants and cannibals. lots of gunplay, one of the characters is a feisty, curvaceous red head, monsters, it fills several of my fetishes at once lol.

[DMB]

As a woman I perhaps ought to be in the market for women's fiction but I do find if I'm having a short browse in a bookshop that those pink covers often stop me even from picking up a book. They're a sort of shorthand for a giggly-girls-together sort of thing that doesn't appeal to me. If I were a writer of serious fiction aimed at women, I think I would be rather annoyed to find my work wrapped in such covers.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

if i was a woman i'd be insulted by the "chick lit" label period. the "chicks" i know read horror and science fiction, not every woman wants soft&fuzzy literature. a pandering label like that is a disgrace.

whats "guy lit", books about football dipped in motor oil and old spice?

Actually, I'd not even pick up a book that is classified as "chick lit". That's a term that means (in my head): simple books, overly dramatic and boring after the first page.

And pink covers I don't want in my bookcase, both physical and virtual.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

if i was a woman i'd be insulted by the "chick lit" label period. the "chicks" i know read horror and science fiction, not every woman wants soft&fuzzy literature. a pandering label like that is a disgrace.

whats "guy lit", books about football dipped in motor oil and old spice?

There's certainly what I see as a category or "macho" literature....but it's not labeled as such....

Sorry, I see it's been thoroughly discussed above.

I think of it as Chick-Lit = Romance

[J. Strnad]

I think of "male" stories as featuring a strong protagonist who bucks convention and authority to take charge and solve a situation, while "female" stories feature an insecure, uncertain protagonist who learns to be strong and independent.

This is a gross oversimplification, of course, with lots of exceptions I'm sure, but that's the first thing that comes to my mind.

[ProfCrash]

hmmm the discussion here had me thinking about the Nick Carter Killmaster Books that I enjoyed as a teenager.

I am not your normal girl. I own all the James Bond books. No as e-books because they are silly expensive for books that have been out so long.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

hmmm the discussion here had me thinking about the Nick Carter Killmaster Books that I enjoyed as a teenager.

I am not your normal girl. I own all the James Bond books. No as e-books because they are silly expensive for books that have been out so long.

I'm a little curious why you feel that it makes you abnormal to like the James Bond books?

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm a little curious why you feel that it makes you abnormal to like the James Bond books?

Because women aren't supposed to like that stuff. We're supposed to like romance, shopping and baby stuff... *shudders*