From ChickLit to ChickFlciks

Many little girls believe that they would be happy if only they could own that adorable pair of pink shoes. Those same little girls grow up to be young women who believe they would be happy if only they could land that perfect career- or designer handbag. But fretting over material things only seems to lead to lead to women’s undoing. After getting what they want, then what? Go out and get more? It’s a perpetual feeling of hunger that can’t be fulfilled.
Desire of this kind sometimes turns into overwhelming loneliness and indefinable anxiety, even while that unsatiated desire finds an outlet in shopping, career advancement or a cute guy. And though women can’t always get they want, they can at least root for the brand of book that features young female heroines trying to “make it” – which loosely translates as having the latest designer clothes, shoes and bags, an amazing job and a wealthy boyfriend who will support their couture habit. But exactly who are the women in these chick lit novels?
The heroines of the stories hardly resemble the feminist heroines in the literature of yesterday. When Carrie Bradshaw, the main character of Candace Bushnell’s book and television series Sex and the City, gets mugged, she begs her mugger to take whatever he wants but to please leave her Manolo Blahnik shoes. Becky Bloomwood, the brainchild of chick lit author Sophie Kinsella, can’t resist the appeal of her out-of-control shopping addiction even when faced with the repeated horror of her credit card bills in the Shopaholic book series. Andrea, the heroine of Lauren Weisberger’s novel The Devil Wears Prada(now a film) bravely sets out to become a journalist by winning favor from her demonic but influential boss at a fashion magazine.
Mainly aimed at women in their 20s and 30s, these novels give an unobstructed view of the lives, loves and worldly desired of fellow young female protagonists. In the genre, consumption prevails as the prime source of pleasure. The old, negative ideas associated with consumption- extravagance, decadence and vanity- have changed to become positive terms. According to these novels, conspicuous consumption is not only legitimate these days, but even stylish; it’s the hip hedonism of young urban women.