Just Throwaway Chick Lit?

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 15 June 2008 14:14:50

This week I've been reading Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell, she of Sex in the City fame. It was quite fitting that this book was a Cosmo freebie, one guesses to support the release of Sex in the City, which I haven't seen yet (seeing as I live in no-where-ville on Sea).

Anyway, reading through I was kinda inspired and facinated. I have, in my life, trudged through alot of overly serious feminist texts most of which have, like feminism itself, been dried up treaties from overly earnest young (and not so young) women. This bit of throw away chick lit could compete with the best of them in terms of seeking to explore the key themes and on top of that it made me laugh.

Now, I know it's set in the world of the super rich, but it does, to a large extent sum up the life of many 30 and 40 something women. It addresses the issues involved in building a career aswell as the complexities of combining this with relationships and a family. It talked about the role of taking risks, the importance of having a bit of luck and making the right contacts, the role of having a strong female support network, but most importantly of working hard. It explored the way that men and women with careers are judged differently and the way that despite of everything a woman will be judged on her gender whereas a man won't be.

It also highlighted the fact that "career women" have a specific set of norms and values and specific interests. These are things which might be linked to class, gender and general life experience (in various combinations), but they are things which do exist. Different groups in society, I am becoming ever more clear have different expectations and different norms and values they work by. This booked summed those things up. Now that is not to say that I really agree with all the norms and values in the book (the attitudes to sex and materialism are ones I kind of had issues with, but ones I also understood), but generally I did. This book should be considered one of the key feminist texts of our time for Western, career women.