Is Chick Lit harmful?

Chick lit 'harms body image', study finds Virginia Tech study finds fictional representations can affect female readers' self-esteem

"New research from Virginia Tech, published in the journal Body Image, analysed "the effect of protagonist body weight and body esteem on female readers' body esteem", and concluded that "scholars and health officials should be concerned about the effect chick lit novels might have on women's body image". Co-author Melissa Kaminski, a chick lit fan, said she was prompted to launch the study after noticing that "body image research frequently looked at how visual images of thin women negatively affected women's body esteem, [but] no research had examined how textual representations of body esteem and body weight affected female readers' body esteem."

Novels and books can carry the same harmful assumptions that movies, magazines and music can carry; however, what draws readers to this genre in the first place? What defines "Chick Lit" as a genre?  In my opinion, any novel whose female character perpetuates stereotypical female gender norms, such as a character's obsession with unrealistic body image, a character's romantic quest of "finding a man" as a replacement for true self-actualization; and then of course, there's always the Bechdel Test, which can measure fiction too.

"The negative effects produced from the current study underscore the concern of previous scholars for the potential effect of chick lit protagonists' obsession with weight and appearance," write Kaminski and co-author Robert Magee in the study, "Does this book make me look fat?". "Scholars and health officials should be concerned about the effect novels have on women's body image, especially since these issues could lead to disordered eating and other health issues."

So, what can be done? How can writers, and readers, reclaim the genre?

"The academics suggest that a future study could look at using chick-lit narratives as an "intervention tool" to fight poor body esteem in teenage females, with the creation of stories in which characters with low body esteem seek support from family and friends."

I think readers are in charge of the content they consume, and if readers choose to read content saturated with these harmful assumptions, they should read critically and consider reading for not only what's there, but what's left out.  Authors are subject to the cultural influences of the times they live in and they are products of history, bias, and assumption; they are human after all. I believe it's up to the reader to examine and reflect on the material she chooses to consume. 

Theme seeds

Possible Universal Human Concepts in Literature

Remember that it is not enough to simply say that X is the theme…you MUST indicate what the author is saying about X.

 A theme is a full thought/sentence, at least! 

1.  Adolescence – discovery, pain, loneliness

2.  Alienation – destruction of soul

3.  Ambition – persistence or corruption

4.  Appearances – deception and reality

5.  Beauty of diversity

6.  Beauty of simplicity

7.  Capitalism – effect on the individual

8.  Change of power – necessity

9.  Change versus tradition

10.  Chaos and order

11.  Character – destruction, building up

12.  Circle of life

13.  Coming of age

14.  Communication – verbal and nonverbal

15.  Companionship as salvation

16.  Convention and rebellion

17.  Dangers of ignorance

18.  Darkness and light

19.  Death – inevitable or tragedy

20.  Desire to escape

21.  Destruction of beauty

22.  Disillusionment and dreams 23.  Displacement

24.  Empowerment

25.  Emptiness of attaining false dream

26.  Everlasting love

27.  Evils of racism

28.  Facing darkness

29.  Facing reality

30.  Fading beauty

31.  Faith versus doubt

32.  Family – blessing or curse

33.  Fate and free will  

34.  Fear of failure

35.  Female roles

36.  Fulfillment

37.  Good versus bad

38.  Greed as downfall

39.  Growing up – pain or pleasure

40.  Hazards of passing judgment

41.  Heartbreak of betrayal

42.  Heroism – real and perceived 43.  Hierarchy in nature

44.  Identity crisis

45.  Illusion of power

46.  Immortality

47.  Individual versus society

48.  Inner versus outer strength

49.  Injustice

50.  Isolation

51.  Isolationism – hazards

52.  Knowledge versus ignorance

53.  Loneliness as destructive force

54.  Losing hope

55.  Loss of innocence

56.  Lost honor

57.  Lost love

58.  Love and sacrifice

59.  Man against nature

60.  Manipulation

61.  Materialism as downfall

62.  Motherhood

63.  Names – power and significance

64.  Nationalism – complications

65.  Nature as beauty

66.  Necessity of work

67.  Oppression of women

68.  Optimism – power or folly

69.  Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice

70.  Patriotism – positive side or complications

71.  Power and corruption

72.  Power of silence

73.  Power of tradition

74.  Power of wealth

75.  Power of words

76.  Pride and downfall

77.  Progress – real or illusion

78.  Quest for discovery

79.  Quest for power

80.  Rebirth

81.  Reunion

82.  Role of men

83.  Role of Religion – virtue or hypocrisy

84.  Role of women

85.  Self – inner and outer

86.  Self-awareness

87.  Self-preservation

88.  Self-reliance

89.  Social mobility

90.  Technology in society – good or bad

91.  Temporary nature of physical beauty

92.  Temptation and destruction

93.  Totalitarianism

94.  Vanity as downfall

95.  Vulnerability of the meek

96.  Vulnerability of the strong

97.  War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy

98.  Will to survive

99.  Wisdom of experience

100.  Working class struggles

101.  Youth and beauty

Review of DFW's novel Infinite Jest (37%)

Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace’s most acclaimed novel, can most easily be described as a comedy.  This work of fiction focuses on the coming of age of a junior national tennis champion, Hal Incandenza, but his story is frequently interrupted by monologues from random and unnamed addicts struggling with all kinds of dependencies: on drugs, alcohol, Olympic fame, television and film, wheel-chair racing, algebra, or even the rules of English grammar.  While readers may normally think of addictions as referring only to substance abuse, this novel points out how unrealistic expectations for success can in fact ingrain unhealthy, imbalanced and out-of-control behaviors in almost any person. Thus, this novel succeeds as a comedy provoking readers to not only laugh and roll their eyes at its ridiculousness, but also to recognize how the rat race for material success may imprison many of us already.

Review of David Mitchell's novel Black Swan Green

Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor narrates David Mitchell’s coming of age novel Black Swan Green, a novel that would lose Jason’s humorous voice if it were told through third person omniscient narration. Throughout the novel Jason describes how he is bullied mercilessly on a daily basis, but what Jason’s peers don’t know is that Jason is secretly a very talented poet. If the novel were not told from Jason’s point of view, it would lose Jason’s unique sarcasm and wit. Here, Jason describes why he uses a pseudonym (Eliot Bolivar) to secretly publish his poetry: “If you show someone something you've written, you give them a sharpened stake, lie down in your coffin, and say, ‘When you’re ready” (123). If this novel were told from third person omniscient point of view, the reader might not be able to relate to Jason as much, particularly with his self-consciousness.  In addition to poetry, Jason finds respite alone outdoors, which he again describes with his characteristic humor: “Trees’re a relief, after people” (204). If this novel were told through third person omniscient narration, and if readers spent equal time in the heads of Jason’s bullies and Jason himself, readers might not get to know Jason as well or be able to understand the deep effect bullying has had on his maturing character. While Jason has developed a sense of humor, he is also beginning to see the world as a harsh, untrustworthy place: “Human beings need to watch out for reasonless niceness too. It's never reasonless and its reason's not usually nice” (277).  Here, Jason second-guesses a suspicious stranger who comes to his door asking to sharpen his family’s knives for a low price.  Unfortunately, because Jason has been bullied so much by his peers, he has lost trust in humanity; however, Jason finds encouragement, friendship, and even young love in unexpected places and it’s evident that Jason has a bright future.