Yellow is the color of happiness. We can all use a good dose of cheer right about now, and these stories, poems, essays, and reviews will bring a little "happy" to your day.
Why is the world so afraid of the word chick? I'm a proud chick, and it makes me sad that gendered genres are falling by the wayside. Is it an embarrassment thing, where women don't want their book in their own chick-centric genre? Or is it because the literary world doesn't want to segregate women? Maybe a bit of both.
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For those of us proud of our chick flag, it's unfortunate that these genres keep getting shunted aside. Especially my favourite, a lesser-known short-lived genre called Chick Noir.
To truly understand this genre, let's take a look at Noir itself. There's Horror, there's Thriller, and there's Crime, but Noir doesn't quite fit into any of these. The base theme of a Noir (French for black) novel is instability and pessimism. Here you'll find morally ambiguous characters that don't learn a lesson or come out on top. Life is difficult and the protagonist's choices usually lead to more hardship, not less. Chuck Palahniuk is a well-known example of a modern Noir author, with characters like Tyler Durden just ruining everything and everyone he comes into contact with.
So what's Chick Noir? That same theme, but centered around women protagonists and women's issues, of course! A woman trapped in a loveless marriage who spirals into infidelity and accidental murder. A nurse that moonlights as a vigilante while battling her own childhood trauma. A suburban housewife who files a missing persons report for her three children, only to find out that she's delusional and never had kids or a husband to begin with.
These used to be classified as many things, mostly psychological thrillers, but many authors found that genre didn't seem to fit. Back in 2012 author Julia Crouch coined Domestic Noir*, specifically focusing on women in relationships dealing with mental illness or infidelity. Many of said authors brushed aside Chick Noir, claiming that chick is a surefire way not to be taken seriously.
Some may argue that a female version of Noir doesn't need to be classified, that segregating it is offensive to women. That these stories don't need to be aimed at only women. Newsflash! Just because it has the word chick in it, doesn't mean that men aren't allowed to read it! It's just classifying that the book is written about woman-centric themes. Nobody is going to tell me I can't read a Tom Clancy novel just because it's marketed towards men. (I mean, maybe they would, but I'm not going to listen to them.)
But people keep asking: why can't these stories just be under the Women's Fiction or regular Noir umbrella?
Well, I'm a chick. And I want to be able to easily find the type of book I'm looking for. When I'm in the mood for a hot mess chick dealing with hot mess chick problems, I don't want to have to wade through the rest of the types of books that are all lumped under Women's Fiction. And as much as I love Noir, sometimes I want specifically Chick Noir. And you can bet that those wouldn't be classified as Noir anyway. They'd be shoved off into the vast sea of Women's Fiction, because they're about women's issues.
Why can't we celebrate these stories? Why can't we have our own genre? What is it about the word chick that scares people off?
Many argue that men don't need Dude Noir or Men's Fiction, so why should we? This is a whole other issue entirely, given that genres like Noir are historically very male-dominated. (Not to mention Horror and Sci-Fi, but that's a whole other article...) Why not celebrate female-centric Noir?
With the popularity of books like Gone Girl, there's certainly a hungry market for stories like these. And having easy branding so that said market can easily find what they want seems like a smart business decision to me. Had they called it Women's Noir, maybe it would have stuck around longer. Chick rattled too many feathers, it seems.
Personally, I spread my chick wings proudly, and I'm not going to stop writing the stories I want to write. And if I want to label a book as Chick Noir, I'm going to. And I'm not going with Domestic Noir either, because my characters are anything but domesticated. They are hot messes in destructive situations, and rarely learn a lesson, but they're entertaining. At the end of the day, my readers are happy, no matter the genre label. But wouldn't it be cool to just hold up our devil horns and embrace our inner chick?
That's what I'll be doing. See you on the dark side.
Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk (yes, some men are good at this genre too!)
Recommended Wattpad Reads:
Never Tell Lies by @AJ_Rella
Goblin Queen by @Dark_Writes
Of Timestorms and Tourniquets by @Jyvur_Entropy (This one is kinda sci-fi/fantasy and dual POV, but if you separate Veronika's storyline as a character study it definitely fits into a Chick Noir vibe)
*****
Emily Hurricane, a.k.a. ESHurricane is a freelance ghostwriter and editor, hailing from rural Nova Scotia, Canada. She's a self-published author across multiple platforms and genres, ranging from steamy romance to paranormal and dystopian to gritty literary reads. Her own Chick Noir venture is Joy on Wattpad, with multiple accolades from the 2020 Open Novella Contest. You can find her across social media with the handle or her web site www.emilyshurricane.com for links to all of her works and shenanigans.
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