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Just not that into this genre

On the CBC Arts site, Katrina Onstad surveys the chick-lit scene, focusing on non-fiction titles like He’s Just Not That Into You as well as Canadian dating-themed books like Playing With Matches: Misadventures in Dating (Anchor Canada) and BitterGirl: Getting Over Getting Dumped (Penguin Canada). What she finds is not encouraging. “Chick lit — in its original form and the new version 2.0 — can be liberating. Its success is a response to the smothering, simple-feminist notion that all our representations of women have to be ideal, that romance is a female rocket scientist and her stay-at-home mixed-race partner doing dishes together. But it’s bleak to think that the alternative to political correctness is this false, never-ending depiction of women’s lives as frivolous. Our preoccupations are not just shopping and sex, and our problems aren’t solvable with a wink and giggle and a new pair of shoes.”

Related links:
Click here for the CBC Arts piece on recent chick-lit