Chick Lit: Confessions of a Shopaholic

           The genre chick lit shows the struggles of women in their lives at home and work on a daily basis. It also shows the struggles of their relationships with friends, family, and love interests.  Chick lit lies under contemporary fiction where women are the main audience as well as the authors. This genre is seen through the production of contemporary romance of cultural norms and personal desires. The cultural norms and personal desires of the contemporary romance genre lead to happy endings, but the endings of chick lit aren’t always resolved because it isn’t the typical romance genre. Chick lit started to appear in the early to mid-1990s where the genre became embraced by numerous readers within the 21st century. Women between the ages of twenty and thirty are seeking self-help, knowledge or acceptance to regain empowerment of their lifestyle through professional women who are the protagonists in these novels.  Confessions of a Shopaholic illustrates that consumption of materials is the new sexual desire for contemporary females, and the shopping addiction becomes a need for power over money and independence through modern ways of compulsion.

In Confessions of a Shopaholic, Rebecca Bloomwood is grappling for money in her daily life in order to provide for her shopping addiction. Due to mismanagement of her finances, she assumed a substantial amount of debt which she was unable to cover. This, however, does not slow down Rebecca's spending habit as she continues to increase her debt with a disapproving family doing their best to assist her with haphazard advice such as to “MMM – ‘make more money’ and CB – ‘cut-back.’”  Rebecca suffers from a materialistic mindset and believes high-priced items such as a scarf can help land her a high paying job to help decrease the gradually building debt. She comes across Luke Brandon, an editor who assisted in buying the scarf after Rebecca told a white lie. He offers her a columnist position that would have her recount her experience and knowledge of her excessive shopping. The column becomes an instant success and Rebecca becomes somewhat of an overnight celebrity. Unfortunately, this position does not help curb her spending problem and actually exacerbates her current situation. With the help of her friends, family, and Luke Brandon who eventually becomes a love interest in the novel, she is able to clear her debt and maintain a financially stable life with a new position at Brandon Communications.

While the novel is not necessarily the true Harlequin romance way of endings, the chick lit genre highlights the ending as less than a happy love story, but more about forgiveness of one self and others. Some women are finding other heterosexual relationships and using that to provide a love interest, just like Confessions of a Shopaholic. Jennifer Maher suggests that, “we are to be relieved that, unlike traditional Harlequins, contemporary chick-fic doesn’t always end in marriage, and the heroine’s wider social life plays just a large a role in her life as heterosexual coupling” (196). Happily ever after is not as common as most Harlequin stories play out, and that is what the chick lit genre is trying to suggest to young women around the world. Harzewski exclaims, “Chick-lit protagonist’s typically ambiguous stands on romance and marriage, for example, are mirrored by the simultaneous contradictory desires expressed by younger generations of women for both independence and security” (484). This is a significant idea forming here that is more of a desire for materialistic objects and products rather than having relationships that gives one stability and dependence. Sophie Kinsella wants the reader to connect with the main character through consumerism of materials, which is involved thru compulsive spending to the point where an addiction can make the protagonist lose family or friends that are close to them. The main character needs a decent job to provide for her hefty spending obsession to be as independent as she wants, just like Rebecca.

           The desire of having designer items rather than searching for the independence that men gain by pursuing their career and ignoring the manipulation of consumerism is a struggle women of today go through in order to be successful in the workforce. A Confession of a Shopaholic is appealing to contemporary women readers and is put up as chick lit. While Rebecca Bloomwood harbors an addiction problem towards spending money on material items, the problem lies with the gender binaries of earning money. Jennifer Maher asks, “[does] our role as feminist critics to lambaste the false consciousness of a ‘feminine’ obsession with such ‘lifestyle concerns’ as designer handbags and the cute guy in the next cubicle rather than the far less glamorous desire for ‘equal pay for equal work?’" (198). This question becomes prevalent during the course of the novel when Rebecca wants to make more money, but her shopping habit obsession deters her from the true lifestyle concern of equal pay.

In Confessions of a Shopaholic, Luke Brandon hires Rebecca by convincing her through a strain of romantic interludes to work with him instead of pursuing her dream job. This attempt of romancing Rebecca provides a sexual power that is significant through money, but not significant enough that men are obsessing about the consumerism that women do. The power of a job shows independence on making the right decisions to earn a living.  Although giving the idea of money, she is looked at as more of a dependent striving for monetary gains that aren’t hers originally. Rebecca has freedom of working for oneself as a young woman, and the freedom shows the need to have security of self instead of the repressing nature of reliance on others.

           Rebecca Bloomwood is more concerned about money and not about the amount of consumption she does on purchasing these items she believes she cannot live without. We live in a world where consumption of high quality merchandise becomes more and more constant, we can see this when Rebecca’s window shopping fixation, usually ends in a compulsive and unnecessary purchase. Women are known to go out on mall dates to shop away the day and Sophie Kinsella is trying to call attention to these experiences through Rebecca Bloomwood’s shopping habits. Wilson argues, “…the culture of conspicuous consumption creates an endless cycle to replicate those brief moments of shopping – induced euphoria” (94). Inadequacies are the main drive for the excessive spending for fear that she is not good enough in her life without the products she purchases. The desire for materialistic products is high on demand and not necessarily a show of independence, but rather a desperate need of consumerism.

By using product names on Rebecca’s window shopping walk, Sophie Kinsella is introducing the nature of advertisement through signs of materials. Many women today would rather window shop until something catches their eyes, and that is exactly what Sophie Kinsella is saying to the reader. The narrator wants the reader to see the product and have the urge to spend right along Rebecca. Caroline J. Smith states, “Kinsella’s deft weaving of product names into the narrative works in much the same way as cover advertising in women’s magazine” (35). Kinsella uses product names (Top Shop, Boots, Oddbins) due to the fact that Rebecca has a problem with consumption, so this novel wouldn’t feel complete without some top name stores that she would frequently visit. By building the audience, Kinsella uses this knowledge to write Confessions of a Shopaholic to help her readers as well as young females understand over consumption of materials and the consequences of purchasing over spending limits.

While the financial instability is apparent, the interpersonal deterioration becomes a bigger issue as materialistic items can become heavily desired over relationships. While budgeting money and creating boundaries is apparent in the novel, the consumption of products can be dwindled down to become less frequent. By itemizing, readers can successfully help overcome society’s constant need of consuming. The audience should increase their financial stability before using their purchasing power over materialistic goods. Rebecca Bloomwood, as well as many young women in America, needs to realize that money and shopping should be used sparingly. The novel does a great job expressing shopping abilities through increase of finances. Rebecca Bloomwood made it possible to erase her debt when she came to the revelation that money is needed first to pay it off. Rebecca’s desires became her obsessions and by selling all of her expensive clothing and accessories she was able to redeem herself from what she destroyed through her independence.

Independence has been a common theme in Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. Ill-placed values of independence have been the face of the novel due to the fact that Rebecca tried to justify her independence by not accepting money from her father. But she took money from Luke Brandon which gave her a false sense of self-reliance. Rebecca’s aspirations for independence are heavily influenced on money. Money falls short over her dependency on materialistic objects and soon become her downfall.  Rebecca’s job makes good money, but she spends more than she has earned. Having what Wilson calls, “interdisciplinary reflection of contemporary culture brings a variety of perspectives and media to bear down on the novel” (91). Knowing the culture of money and the world we live in today, the consciousness of compulsion is shown through the media by consumerism of goods. Consumerism, independence, and the social and cultural aspects of the genre chick lit are uncovered within Confessions of a Shopaholic. During this century, the social and cultural aspects have become more than a movement of chick lit, but rather the format of presenting readers with accurate self-help novels that may benefit them in the long run.  

    Women are critiquing the independence of chick lit and how it helps younger women analyze situations better by reading them in fiction instead of another format. Pamela Butler supports this sentiment by saying “chick lit is an ‘apolitical’ genre driven by the blind and uncritical consumerism and individualism” (2). Chick lit can be the new framework for popular culture by illuminating consumption, marriage, and realism in a new light. Sophie Kinsella highlights the consumption of goods in many ways the real world can view today. The audience is more likely to relate personal experience of shopaholic episode and while this novel didn’t necessarily read as a self-help or self-awareness, it exclaims that consumption of high quality materialistic products can be used in the upper class world and not in the middle to lower class because women don’t make enough money to support themselves. Most Harlequin romance novels revolve around the desire for sex or love, however, chick lit is suggesting that there is more out in the modern day world that we experience by looking at the desires of consumers within our society.

In conclusion, chick lit is a genre that is part of popular fiction. Consumption of materials is the new sexual desire.  The shopping addiction women have today have become a need for power over money and their own independence by the use of compulsion. In Confessions of a Shopaholic, Sophie Kinsella wanted the reader to interpret her own meaning of what consumerism truly means and leaving her audience to decide whether it is the right one or not. The focus is on both Rebecca’s relationship with Luke. It her desire to have independence and her independence is what brings her to the revelation that she needs to become an adult and use her money correctly. Rebecca didn’t want to use Luke’s money because it would make her feel guilty for taking something that was never hers. There is also another focus on her role as a professional woman in her work and her shopping that gives women a struggle for their independence.  But there is a dependence on having an emotional relationship with her family and friends, which also matter more than a romantic relationship in the end. We can see the turn of events, but in all reality, chick lit is being marketed to readers who like romance by including some romance within these novels. Young women are seen to be reading self-help, self-knowledge, or self-acceptance materials of writing to regain empowerment of their lifestyle through professional women in the world of chick lit. Chick lit hopes to help women gain balance of what is real and what is an actual escape by reading these novels.

           Work Cited

Botkin-Maher, Jennifer. "The Post-Feminist Mystique." College Literature 34.3 (2007): 193-201. Project MUSE [Johns Hopkins UP]. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.

Butler, Pamela, and Jigna Desai. "Manolos, Marriage, and Mantras: Chick-Lit Criticism and Transnational Feminism." Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 8.2 (2008): 1-31. Project MUSE [Johns Hopkins UP]. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.

Farkas, Zita. "Chick Lit and Postfeminism by Stephanie Harzewski." Studies in the Novel 45.2 (2013): 307-10. Project MUSE [Johns Hopkins UP]. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.

Kinsella, Sophie. Confessions of a Shopaholic. New York, NY: Delta Trade Paperbacks, 2001. Print.

Smith, Caroline J. Cosmopolitan Culture and Consumerism in Chick Lit. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.

Wilson, Cheryl A. "Chick Lit in the Undergraduate Classroom." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 33.1 (2012): 83-100. Project MUSE [Johns Hopkins UP]. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.