1 post tagged “reading”

Last night I was driving around town, listening to NPR on the radio, when I heard an essay by a bookstore clerk/reporter bemoaning the state of women's reading - AKA chick lit. She started the essay (and I have to admit I didn't stick around to hear the whole thing - margaritas were calling) with an observation that many of the titles of this month's Harlequin romance-type books were along the lines of "Bought By A Greek Millionaire" and "Traded To A Sheik". She said that after years of trying to get people to realize we weren't someone's property, it was disheartening to her to see us "backslide" in our fantasies to become property.

As I said before, I didn't hear the end of the story, so I can't say what her conclusions were, but I can say what mine are!! It sounds to me like we (as women) are doing a fine job of being independent, successful people. So much so that we are now free to fantasize about some rich, hot, strapping man coming for us and taking us away from the drudgery that we've signed up for as independent, successful women. I think it's a positive thing that we are interested in that sort of fantasy. No one fantasizes about their real life - they fantasize about things that aren't part of their reality! This means we've succeeded!

You may disagree - you may feel that it's a betrayal of feminist ideals that women are willing to purchase books about being bought like cattle - but this seems to be a positive step to me. Besides, the whole point of feminisim was to get us to the point where we could decide to pick up chick-lit trash like Harlequin romances if we want - because we make our own money and we decide how we spend it!