Chick Lit vs Lad Lit

This was originally posted on Chick Lit Goddess on Monday, April 25 as part of #LadLitBlogTour

“But a man wouldn’t say that!”

This is a common rant I direct at my wife, normally heard a few seconds after I have picked up a copy of whatever chick lit book she happens to be reading at the time and have skimmed a few lines.

“And he definitely wouldn’t turn into a vampire.”

That specific rant is reserved for when she happens to be reading Twilight.

I’ll hold my hands up and admit I’ve never actually read a chick lit novel, but I’ve been forced to endure plenty of romcom films and I’ve skimmed enough pages to know that chick lit is setting the bar far too high for us men.

Let’s be honest ladies – how many of those perfect male chick lit characters who win the heart of the main female protagonist have you actually met in real life?

I’m not trying to say that men are completely clueless when it comes to the opposite sex, but there’s a reason why wine and girls nights out were invented, so you could all sit around commiserating about the fact that we are still friends with our ex’s on Facebook and don’t see why that’s a problem.

I often use the analogy that if book genres were a diet then chick lit would be the perfect ‘after’ picture and lad lit would be the rather sheepish looking ‘before’ picture.

I sometimes wonder if there is some sort of conspiracy that I don’t know about and all of these chick lit novels are actually written by men pretending to be women, just so the seed can be planted that there is an abundance of flawless men somewhere out there.

But then I realised that if a man did have that idea, he’d probably get so excited that he’d call his mates up to invite them to the pub to celebrate, drink too much, neglect to text his girlfriend to let her know he’d be late home, roll in at about 4am with a kebab and completely forget the great idea he thought of.

That’s why I believe men write lad lit, to create some balance in the world. Lad lit is about exposing the male mind to female eyes and leaving women the world over wondering: is that what men really think?

And when you think about it, lad lit is the perfect companion for chick lit fans. It’s the other side of the coin, the yin to the chick lit yang, the John Lennon to the Yoko Ono. Lad lit is completely different to chick lit, yet exactly the same – just like the perfect relationship.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is that chick lit vs lad lit is a bit like the battle of the sexes. We both strive to get the upper hand in the gender stakes, but at the same time we simply can’t live without each other.

So I’ll make all of you chick lit fans a deal right now. I’ll pick up a chick lit novel and I’ll give it a chance if you do the same for lad lit. But please, promise me one thing – don’t judge us. We try our best, and just like lad lit, all we want to do is put a smile on your face.