"Women's Fiction" - it's ok with me!

I caught part of the weekend Woman’s Hour on Radio 4 on the first leg of my long drive from the midlands to Spain. Apparently two women had been into a branch of WHSmith and taken umbrage at finding a section labelled “women’s fiction”. As a result, someone from WHS had apologised and promised immediate relabelling. There was a bit of live discussion about all this, and the reading of a selection of listener’s comments at the end. I was frustrated at the lack of opportunity to add my own, given that I don’t have hands-free and I was on the M1. Jenny Colgan, one of my favourite chick-lit writers answered back without sounding apologetic, and I wanted to cheer her on and announce to the listeners that in my opinion, WHS were a bunch of wimps and I, a humble purveyor of popular fiction amongst other genres on markets, would NOT be changing my policy – I have a Women’s Fiction section, and it is staying! 

Now I am not fluffy brained and overly romantic, and not a huge fan of traditional hard-life-turned-out-well-when-prince charming-arrived romantic stories, and certainly not Mills and Boon formula writing but there is a place for these and I have customers who enjoy them. There is another more recent genre of “chick-lit” which appears to cover the more modern, sassy, brightly coloured covered, a tad light-hearted but dealing with relevant issues, B size paperbacks. Now if “women’s fiction” is inappropriate, what is “chick-lit”? I have complimented that with my own quite possibly unofficial (I didn’t bother to check) label of “lad-lit” – the Mike Gayle’s of this world who write similar stuff from the lad’s perspective. I read both. I don’t feel excluded from the lads writing about relationships any more than the girls, it’s either entertaining and relevant or it doesn’t appeal is all.

I would argue that it is only an indication of what sort of books are on that particular shelf, in that section. It’s DESCRIPTIVE not PRESCRIPTIVE. The women who complained thought it demeaning and insulting to their intelligence, and alleged that in some way this was designed to limit them to this section, that this is all women should read. I think it more an insult to their intelligence that they can’t interpret the labels better. Of course it would be wrong if someone directed you, as a female book-browser, to that section and denied you the shelves of crime, thriller, sci-fi and all, but they don’t. Fact is, and I’ve been selling them for at least 15 years, most “women’s fiction” is not only written by women but read by women. Read this statement carefully – most readers, and writers, of “women’s fiction ARE women. Most women are NOT necessarily readers of “women’s fiction”. It’s just semantics, and what else do you call that section? I deliberated long and hard when I created my genre headings on my stall, and it didn’t ever occur to me that women would object, I was more worried that men who enjoyed chick lit or even Catherine Cookson would feel excluded by the label. Chick-lit is one possibility for a sub-genre, but you can’t just lump accurately the rest under “romance”, and whatever literary merit you think some it possesses, it is not right to suggest unworthiness by a label suggesting it is lightweight or lacking somehow. There are good and bad writers in all genres, and there are equally thinly disguised formulae to be found in the most popular of crime thrillers. Theoretically it could be just as much an indication of a lack of discernment in reading material to be likened to someone who prefers a male thriller formula writer as to be considered a reader of women’s fiction.

Anyway, who dictates that all reading must be worthy, serious and full of literary merit? Even schools now acknowledge that it is more important that a child reads SOMETHING rather than nothing, even if it is only a comic. Aren’t we missing the point, that reading should also be for pleasure, for entertainment, for fun as well as for learning and not just a demonstration of the writer’s and the reader’s intellectual prowess? One of the phone-ins on radio 4 said that whilst she could see their point of view, it was a pity they had nothing more serious to campaign about, and I’m afraid I agree. MY “women’s fiction” section is staying – and anyone who wants to come and discuss it with me is welcome!