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6.
FaithfulReader.com: Fashion and beauty magazines --- and in fact, our entire culture --- surround women with images that often make them feel they are inferior. Do you think that Chick Lit, where women admit failure and address body issues and make mistakes, allows women to feel better about themselves? Explain.
Laura Jensen Walker: Definitely. How many of us actually look like those airbrushed, perfect-haired, perfect-clothed, size-zero images in magazines? The reason Chick Lit is so popular is because women relate to the heroine's insecurities, mishaps, and flaws. Her very realness endears readers to her and makes them feel they're not alone (or the only ones with pudgy thighs.) It's inspiring and uplifting for women to read about someone who may not always get the guy or the great job, but has girlfriends (and in Christian Chick Lit, God) to cheer her on.
Robin Jones Gunn: Reading about women who appear flawed, vulnerable and yet so very likable allows us the freedom to be honest about where we are in life. With the current trend toward reality makeovers on TV, it seems that Chick Lit has done the same sort of makeover for readers. TV makeovers are about transforming the home or body of someone in order to update their look. I think Chick Lit has done the same thing in updating the modern woman by letting readers see inside her true thoughts and exposing her foibles. It's not that there was anything horribly wrong with the psyche of female characters in our favorite novels of the past decade, but Chick Lit characters are the fresh result of this interior honesty makeover.
Penny Culliford: Magazines, culture and cinema deal only with external beauty. Very few of us, even the airbrushed celebrities themselves, can live up to that. How many magazines now show celebrities without their makeup, or with their cellulite showing? Yes, I suppose Chick Lit can help us to deal with that sort of pressure, even if it is by making fun of it. As a Christian, I know God makes us beautiful inside.
And chocolate helps!
Tracey Bateman: I think it makes us, as women, realize we aren't alone. Other women struggle as we do, and while we may still want to lose those inches, we know the average-sized woman in America really is a 14. Hopefully in a Christian Chick Lit or Mom Lit, the reader will come away with a sense of knowing she is accepted by God no matter her size or marital status --- or in a Mom Lit, whether or not she more closely (in her methods) resembles June Cleaver or Roseanne. Ultimately, it is in knowing who we are in Christ that will change negative self-images --- not a character in a book or a movie. If my books encourage the reader to take her issues to God, then I've done my job and counteracted negative cultural influences.
Neta Jackson: I think we just need to be HONEST. It helps to know other women --- even fictional ones --- don't always have perfect thoughts and perfect decisions and perfect reactions to life, much less perfect bodies. It's helpful to know someone understands this journey we're on.
Annie Jones: I think it strikes a chord with many women because the imperfect character is the heroine. She tackles her issues, not always successfully or in heroic ways, but she moves her own story forward despite them. We all want to feel we are more than the sum of our measurements and numbers on a scale or the scribbles on a job performance form. As Christians, our faith tells us we are more, but often we live in a world where that isn't reinforced.
Kristin Billerbeck: I think the sisterhood of Chick Lit, of saying we're all in this together, is what empowers young women to step outside of those molds. If you asked a model today what was wrong with her, she'd give you a list. This is a universal truth among women, we are well aware of our flaws. I think pointing out that it's in our nature is empowering. I want women to think about how God sees their beauty, not against an unattainable Hollywood image, but as His creation.
Judy Baer: I think it makes women feel normal. One of the most frequent comments I hear about THE WHITNEY CHRONICLES is "I've said that" or "That's exactly what I thought!" People are always happy to discover they aren't alone with their quirks and foibles. Chick Lit characters should have qualities with which readers can identify and offer them opportunities to laugh at themselves. It is nice for a reader to say "I love this character --- and she's so much like me!" To me, successful writing is about finding things that resonate with the reader and can help them identify deeply with the book.
Allie Pleiter: Chick Lit allows women to relax. To hold up those "shoulda"s, look at them, and decide to leave them behind or embrace them. There's empowerment in that. For me, the great byproduct of Mom Lit is to show women that everyone is hanging on by their fingernails in parenting. We're all busy looking at that other mom, the woman who looks like she has it all together --- we need someone to show us she's just as stressed out as the rest of us. Chick Lit and Mom Lit are real-life, not the sugar-coated variety. Sure, it's real life with snappy dialogue and characters who eventually live up to the potential (notice I didn't say "men," just "characters," but take that anyway you like…). But if it isn't showing us the value of real life, our readers won't care. I want my reader to have the perfect balance of "hey, I'm just like that" and "hey, maybe I could do that."
Lori Copeland: I think anything that brings home the fact that we're not all alike, that God designed each body differently and we should accept and rejoice in life itself --- regardless if the world has set an impossible goal for us to achieve --- is worthwhile reading.
Sharon Dunn: Satan wants us to think that we are the only one who has these insecurities and feelings of inferiority. Chick Lit breaks the power of that lie. Readers suddenly realize that they are not the only one who has had a bad hair day or a fashion faux pas. So the answer is "yes," knowing there is someone else out there fretting over the size of her thighs makes us feel less alone and less insecure, even if that someone else is a fictional character.
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