My definition of a boombastic chick style

Oh I love a definition. I assumed I knew what chick lit was until I emailed my literature studying friend and had an interchange that went something this:

ME:  'Know any good chick lit?'
HER: 'How about Bridget Jones?'
ME: 'But I like that, how can it be chick lit?'
HER: 'I think it's probably the book that kick started the genre'

Phd, schmeehdee, I thought and promptly looked it up at Wikipedia. Of course it cites Bridget Jones as a forerunner. Not only that but it makes the inevitable link back from Bridget to Jane Austen. And it bungs in the Clueless film for good measure too, again mentioning the Austen link. I love Austen and I simply adore Clueless. It was the formative film for my teenage year. Here I was naively thinking I'd never indulged in the world of chick literature and it appears I was already a keen participant in the genre. As Cher would say, 'whatever'!

'Chick lit: women's fiction which addresses issues of modern women often humorously and lightheartedly'. Okay, I can apply that to Jane, Bridget and Cher. Read on though and it gets a bit scarier: 'According to professor Suzanne Ferriss, chick lit often features female protagonists, usually in their twenties and thirties. The women featured in these novels may be obsessed with appearance or have a passion for shopping.' Although the entry goes onto refute this, that sentence just about sums up what I associate and fear with chick lit. There's none of those sly digs at society, the world in the detail that you get from Austen. I certainly don't expect to come across anything as funny as those three.

And what about the romance? I do turn a blind eye to the neat endings to Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice. Of course Bridget was going to end up with Darcy. That's the bit in those books that I think is closest to what I imagine chick lit to be. Back to Wikipedia: 'Although sometimes it includes romantic elements, women's fiction (including chick lit) is generally not considered a direct subcategory of the romance novel, because in chick lit the heroine's relationship with her family or friends may be just as important as her romantic relationships.'

Clearly I have a lot to learn. But if my explorations means I get to re-watch Clueless, get lost in my Austen and spend a couple of hilarious hours in Bridget's company, I'll be one happy girl...sorry, one happy chick.