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.