Here’s another chick lit book that could do better to represent women. This one tells the story of a girl who starts working as a carer for a disabled young man. Since a motorbike accident, he can’t move from the chest down and has decided to kill himself. She tries to dissuade him of that idea and, in the process, he changes her life. She becomes a more cultured person who starts aiming to fly higher in life, just because of this young man. Before they met, she had a mediocre life and was happy to go on living it like that until the last day. But after the lad showed her what life could be and told her that something awful that happened in her life was not her fault, she changed. She learned how to be a better person, because of him. Did she change him? Nope. He didn’t have to be changed. He just needed to be there to show that women need men to tell them they’re worth it. Romantic, right? Sounds like the story of a modern damsel in distress. She said “Oh, gallant knight, save me from my life, please”. And he did.
So, this is my first post, yay! And I’m gonna talk about P.S. I love you. A book (and movie) that made people cry and say love is beautiful. Or… Is it? We all know the story: a woman loses her husband to cancer and gets depressed, and starts receiving letters from her dead husband (previously written, no ghost stories here). Said letters help the widow overcome her grief. So, what’s wrong with that? The book’s main character, Holly, has her life completely dedicated to her husband, Gerry, even after his death. The dead guy guides her choices, telling her to find work, travel, go to parties… Even deciding what she wears! Thus we see the story of a woman entirely dependent on her husband, who only manages to overcome the depression caused by his loss because he helps her to do so. Without Gerry, Holly would have never survived Gerry’s death. While I believe that, on a personal level, each person should live life the way he/she wants, I find this kind of narrative worrying, because it spreads the message that women depend on men and that makes this idea to be seen as normal, maybe even expected. And that is not the reality, is it? Not all womem depend on men, thankfully. And we should not be expected to do so.









