You might have heard of chick-lit. This is the book publishing worlds equivalent of the chick-flick. Well, now the older baby boomer women have grabbed hold of it with both hands to bring us...
Hen-lit. You see, a hen is a grown chicken. So these are stories about old chicks.
Shaw is one of a growing number of writers of romance novels that feature characters in their 40s, 50s, or even 60s. As baby boomers age and their market power grows, more books for and about them are appearing. Boomer women want to read romantic stories about older women who are finding love -- and sex -- later in life. And boomer authors seem willing to oblige by writing what they know.
This quote is kind of telling too:
"When I read a contemporary romance, I always think, 'Who's doing the laundry?'" said Connie Brockway, who describes her novel Skinny Dipping, which is published by Penguin imprint Onyx, as a coming-of-age story for a woman in her 40s. In hen lit, romance cannot be the No. 1 character, she said.
A baby boomer comes of age in their 40's? Let that one sink in for a moment. X-ers when did you come of age? When did the true reality of life really start sinking in for you?
Maybe because I'm not in my 40's yet and haven't, "come of age" I don't realize the true meaning of the word. I'll tell you what, my mid-twenties were a hell I would never repeat. It seems to me you come of age when you cross that line out of childhood and look back and say, "I would never, ever, ever what to be like that again." If that's the yardstick then my mid-teens were another cross over point.
I'm sure there will be more points like that in my life. I just don't see myself, "coming of age" any more. I hope I get more experienced and a little wiser (maybe I'll start to hate a little less). Mellow with time (or not).
Just that fact that boomer women are reading this stuff would lead us to believe they haven't come of age yet. Just the fact that a boomer women in her 50's or early 60's thinks she didn't come of age until she was in her 40's shows that this is a generation that can't grow up..
I guess since the boomers are the most likely to get divorced, make up the largest segment of online dating and get plastic surgery to make themselves younger we can only expect more romance stories that have 'older' people as the main cast.
The question is, when will Hollywood pick up on this and subject us to even more hell?
2 comments:
I just don't understand why this is a bad thing? We're quickly running into the three greatest attributes a baby boomer woman can have:
Very old.
Very rich.
Very sick.
I may have to go through three or four if what we were taught about drug shortening life spans is true.
So the question is, not do we have to put up with this stuff, but is it going to be the Ferrari, or the Aston Martin?
(ewww, I think I just threw up a little in my mouth)
I doubt many boomer women are very rich, joel. Stats are in on that already.
Coming of age? For me it was around 27-28 years old. After that point I didn't think of myself as a kid anymore. There was a clear before/after difference. Gaining humility and perspective is probably the best way I can sum up those changes. I didn't feel an urge to keep something from my youth either. Like you, I looked back on the teens and 20s and said never again.
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