Are Blogs the New Chick Lit?

By Mary Beth Eastman
210 west Writer [send email]

Wednesday 1 February

Spent the weekend struggling to remain disdainfully buoyant after the Daniel fuckwittage debacle. Kept saying the words "Self-respect" and "Huh" over and over until I was dizzy, trying to barrage out, "But I lurrrve him." Smoking was v. bad. ...

From "Bridget Jones's Diary: A Novel," by Helen Fielding

Thursday, April 24, 2003

Yesterday I went to the dentist. They had me fill out a form that said at the beginning something like "Everything here is in the strictest confidence." Then it asks me if I've ever done any drugs in my life because it might counteract with dental procedures. Then it says to sign at the end which will authorize them to give this info to whoever asks for it. Great. So when I become famous, the whole world can know I'm not a stranger to illegal substances. Great. There goes my Girl Next Door image. ...

From girls are weird, a blog by Theresa Christine Peralta.

We all know blogs have exploded in popularity. We can see it when we surf the web, we can sense it -- even though it's hard to calculate how many blogs actually exist [numbers range from 1 million to almost 4 million]. It seems that everybody and her sister has a blog. Why is it so damned popular?

Not, as many propose, because it is a fledgling form of war journalism, though it is. Not, as it's said, because blogs are a quick way to spread news and information, though they are.

The explosion in popularity of blogs and blogging is due to the extraordinary and voyeuristic appeal of delving into someone else's life.

Almost half of all blogs, according to the Blog Census, are personal diaries, and in this category women outnumber men almost two to one.

Blogs are seen by some as a passing phenomenon, a trend on its way out. An explosion which will soon wither and die as people grow tired of them the novelty fades. [See www.fuckedweblog.com for evidence of dead and dying blogs.]

The same was said of Chick Lit during its explosion in the late 1990s.

The popularity of "light", "fluffy," "beach-reads" that center on women and their problems was inexplicable to most. Chick Lit is not high literature. It does not, seemingly, tackle the great problems of Man versus Nature, Man versus Man, Man versus Self. Chick Lit was small, trivial, mindless reading. Chick Lit was about women looking for love and finding community, connection and satisfaction.

Unimportant, reviewers said. Small. A trend.

Yet this genre is showing no signs of fading; it continues to appeal to mass numbers of people, and not just women.

Of course, the term "Chick Lit" can be as derogative and mind-numblingly derisive as "Chick Flicks." It is belittling and narrow and lumps the bad in with the good.

But we can look at it another way. Remove the label and so-called Chick Lit can contain "a myriad of subgenres"- henlit for the over-35s (Jane Green); mum-lit for the child-encumbered (Allison Pearson); lad-lit for single men (Nick Hornby) and dad-lit for fathers (Mike Gayle)."

Take, for example, the popular movie "About A Boy," starring Hugh Grant, based on a book of the same name by lad-lit author Nick Hornby. Sound familiar? Hornby is also the author of book-turned-movie "High Fidelity," a resounding favorite of men and women alike. Hornby's work focuses on a single protagonist, mired in the trivial details of his everyday life and looking for [or not looking for but rather stumbling upon] love, community, connection and satisfaction.

Huh.

And of course, not to be forgotten, the novel that likely launched it all: "Bridget Jones's Diary," by Helen Fielding. A novel written in diary form, exposing Bridget's obsessions, likes, dislikes, love interests and fiber intake.

It in fact reads much like a blog printed on paper, and is the link between Chick Lit and blogs: the fascinating subject matter known as Other People.

Of course, Chick Lit has been branded so for a reason: the topics of emotions, relationships, love and home life are identified with women.

Similarly, the new environment provided by the blogosphere is uniquely woman-friendly: a world of personal details, first-person accounts.

As writer Theresa Peralta says, "I always look for stories to tell in the smallest things. Especially the smallest things ... I manage to find stories to tell in everything I see happening. When I spent the summer at my cousin's house and didn't have anything interesting to write about, I spent the whole summer writing about poop and fart jokes that my family would tell at the dinner table."

And there is a definite community supported by bloggers, in which tips are shared, problems are solved and community is built -- the reason for comments, message boards, forums and track-backs.

Blogs are serial accounts of one person's life, the small details, the inner calamities. They are running commentary from one person's point of view. They offer singular perspectives on the world, often uncensored and uninhibited.

Blogs allow us inside the minds of strangers, opening doorways to new thoughts and ideas. Is it any wonder there's been an explosion?

Needless to say, the blogosphere is not the private domain of women. Men read blogs, too, and comment and share.

Suddenly the coffee klatch is open to men, too.

Why? because these things are not just for women. Relationships, community and interaction is not, after all, solely female. It is perhaps the human condition to be interested by the minutiae, the intimate details of another person's life.

In addition, blogs give men a "safe," un-emasculating way of enjoying typically female endeavors. With blogs, men are shielded by the technical aspect, the geek epithet. Blogging has not yet been feminized, nor has it been masculinized. The world of computers, previously male-dominated, has stumbled upon a new egalitarianism.

This is also partly thanks to the anonymity possible within the blogosphere. Readers don't have to identify themselves to the writer. They need not walk up to the bookstore counter with a big pink novel with high heels on the cover in order to read about someone else's life.

And writers don't have to identify themselves with anything more than a clever name.

Of course, many choose to do so; they put up photologs of their friends and families, include curricula vitae or favorite albums -- thereby, of course, increasing the possibility of sharing mutual interests and increasing community.

So are blogs the new Chick Lit? Possibly. Very possibly, if we broadly define Chick Lit as personal stories of heartache and triumph.

Moreover, blogs are a new foundation for self-expression and connection. They are like serial fiction where the action, protagonist, crises and problems are real -- and the reader can directly communicate with the author/heroine [or hero].

Blogs are offering a new way of connecting with the world -- and, like "Chick Lit," not likely to disappear any time soon.

Editor's note: The author is a blogger herself, thrilled to have stumbled upon a medium so perfect for personal rants. You can check hers out at supamb.blogspot.com