Let's Kill the Term 'Chick Lit'

It's time do away with the demeaning (and now meaningless) label called "chick lit," writes Linda Holmes at NPR. Consider the example of Jennifer Weiner, who writes mainly about women and their relationships and is therefore dismissed as a "chick lit" lightweight. No matter that her books aren't frivolous, dealing as they do with families, loss, and the gamut of human emotions. Hers is not Bridget Jones territory.

"Once we're calling Jennifer Weiner 'chick lit,' I don't know what 'chick lit' is, and I don't think I'd like the answer if I did," writes Holmes. The phrase "makes me feel like I'm being compared to a marshmallow peep just for reading books by and about women." It's devolved into a term to cover all "books that are understood to be aimed at women, written by women, and not important. And I can't get behind that." (More chick lit stories.)