Female Sleuths in Chick Lit: Girl Power in Maya Calica’s Undercover TaiTai and Gemma Halliday’s Killer in High Heels
Abstract
The representation of women in the waves of feminism swifts into more empowered women in the era of post feminism. Chick lit as subgenre of postfeminist fiction depicts female protagonists who enjoy freedom and feminity. It is a genre that highlighted girl power. This paper analysed the represented identity of female sleuths and the aspect of girl power portrayed in the chick lit novels of Maya Calica’s Undercover TaiTai
and Gemma Halliday’s Killer in High Heels. It was found out that female protagonists represent women who are tough, wear social masquerade, amateur sleuths, and celebrate feminity to influence others. They used their individual power, beauty and sexual attractiveness power to achieve their goals in life personally and professionally. The representations of girl power in these chick lit novels give space for women to celebrate their femininity and gain their power at the same time.
Keywords: Chick lit genre, Female sleuth, Girl power, Postfeminist.
References
[1] Aapola, S., & Gonick, M. &. (2004). Young Femininity: Girlhood, Power and Social Change. Basingstoke & New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
[2] Adriaens, Fien. 2009. Post-Feminism in Popular Culture: A Potential for Critical Resistance?” Politics and Culture 4 (November): online. http://politicsandculture.org/2009/11/09/ post-feminism-in-popular-culture-a-potential-for-critical-resistance/
[3] Arnoddsdóttir, G. E. (2012). The Girl Instinct. A Post Feminist Look at the Relationship Between Foil and Hero in the Plum Novels by Janet Evanovich. http://hdl.handle. net/1946/11462, 5.
[4] Bentock, S. (2006). Afterword: The New Woman’s Fiction. In S. F. Young, Chick Lit (The New Woman’s Fiction) (pp. 253-254). Madison, New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
[5] Beulaygue, I.-C. (2012). flirting With Erotic Capital:Erotic Capital and Labor Market Earnings Among Women. http://scholarly repository.miami.edu/oa_theses, 9.
[6] Bieniek, Adrienne Trier (2015). Feminist Theory and Pop Culture Sense Publishers, 3001 AW Rotterdam, The Netherlands retrieved from https://www. sensepublishers.com/
[7] Brooks, A. (1997). Post feminisms: Feminism, Cultural Theory and Cultural Forms. London and New York: Routledge.
[8] Brown, Jeffrey.A. (2011). Dangerous Curves: Action heroines, Gender, Fetishism, and Popular Culture. University Press of Mississippi.
[9] Calica, M. (2010). Undercover Tai Tai. Pasig City, Philippines: Anvil Publishing Inc.
[10] Chen, E. Y. 2010. Neoliberal Self-Governance and Popular Postfeminism in
[11] Contemporary Anglo-American Chick Lit. Retrieved on April 4, 2017. Available: http: //www.concentric-literature.ur.tw/issues.
[12] Chowaniec, U. &. (2008). Masquerade and Femininity. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2-3.
[13] Editorial Reviews (2006). Barnes & Noble. retrieved from barnesandnoble.com: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/killer-in-high-heels-gemma-halliday/ 1100125226
[14] Ferriss, S. & Young, A. (2006). Chick Lit (The New Women Fiction. New York & London : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
[15] Gates, P. (2011). Detecting Women (Gender and Hollywood Detective Film. Albany, NY, United States: State University of New York Press.
[16] Gavin, A. E. (2010). Feminist Crime Fiction and Female Sleuths. In C. J. HORSLEY, A Companion for Crime Fiction (p. 256). United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
[17] Genz, S., and B. A. Brabon. 2009. Postfeminism Cultural Texts and Theories. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
[18] Gill, Rosalind (2007) Postfeminist media culture: elements of a sensibility. European journal of cultural studies, 10 (2). pp. 147-166. DOI: 10.1177/1367549407075898
[19] Griffin, C. (2004). Good Girls, Bad Girls:Anglocentrism and Diversity in the Constitution of Contemporary Girlhood. In A. HARRIS, All about the Girl (Culture, Power, and Identity) (pp. 29-35). NEW YORK AND LONDON: Routledge.
[20] Goodread (April 5, 2017). Undercover Tai Tai. retrieved from https://www. goodreads.com/ book/show/7709094-undercover-tai-tai
[21] Hains, R. (2009). Power Femitiism, Mediated: Girl Power and the Commercial Politics of Change. Wotnen’s Studies in Cotntnunicalion Volume 32, Number 1, 89-95.
[22] Hains, R. (September 10, 2014). ShowStudio. retrieved from http://showstudio. com/project/ girly/essay_girl_power
[23] Hakim, C. (March 4, 2010). Have you got erotic capital? Prospect Magazine retrieved from: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/ have-you-got-erotic-capital#
[24] Hakim, C. (2013). Beauty, intelligence and height: the black holes of sociology. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1027.6586&rep= rep1&type=pdf, 5.
[25] Hains, R. 2005. “The Problematics of Reclaiming the Girlish: The Powerpuff Girls and Girl Power”. Journal Femspec Perkins Library, Vol. 5, Issue 2, May 2005, pp. 1- 39. Ohio: Cleveland State University Press.
[26] Halliday, G. (2007). Killer in High Heels. New York: Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
[27] Harzewski, Stephanie, (2006). ”The new novel of manners: Chick lit and postfeminist sexual politics” Dissertations available from ProQuest. AAI3225468. http: //repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3225468
[28] Heilbrun, Carolyn G. (2002) ”The New Female Detective,” Yale Journal of Law & Feminism: Vol. 14: Iss. 2, Article 18. Available at: http://digitalcommons.law. yale.edu/yjlf/vol14/iss2/18
[29] Inness, S.A. (2004). Introduction: “Boxing Gloves and Bustiers”: New Images of Tough Women. In S.A. Inness (Ed.), Action Chicks (pp. 1-17). New York: PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
[30] Isbister, G. C. (October 18, 2013). Working Paper on the Web.retrieved from http: //www.academia.edu/4794460/Chick_lit_A_postfeminist_fairy_tale
[31] Lazar, M.M. 2009. Postfeminist Femininity and Culture of Post-Critique Retrieved on May 3rd, 2013. Available: http://www.sagepub.com/upmdata/40463_11a.pdf.
[32] Martinescu, A. (2016). Postfeminist Fiction In Chick Lit Novels. degruyter DOI: 10.1515/genst -2016-0008, 119-122.
[33] Mazza, C. (2006). Who’s Laughing Now? A Short History of Chick Lit and the Perversion of a Genre. In S. F. Young, Chick Lit (The New Women Fiction (pp. 17-19). Madison,New York: Routledge Taylor & Franci s Group.
[34] McRobbie, Angela. 2009. The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change. London: Sage.
[35] Morgan, R. (april 4, 2017). Female Detective - Personality Traits of Female. retrieved from WritersReign.co.uk: http://writersreign.co.uk/ FemaleDetective.pdf
[36] Naugle, B. N. (2008). Nobody Does It Better:How Cecily Von Ziegesar’s Controversial Novel Series ”Gossip Girl”. https://etd.ohiolink.edu/rws_etd/document/get/ bgsu1205333187/inline, 13.
[37] Prafitra, A. R. (2013). An Analysis On Andrea Sachs’ Girl Power Aspects And Women’s Dis/Empowerment In Weisberger’s Chick Lit The Devil Wears Prada. http: //journal.student.uny.ac.id/jurnal/terbaru/23/10/2013/10, 4-8.
[38] Rende, N. (2008). Bridget Jones, Prince Charming, and Happily Ever Afters:Chick Lit as an Extension of the Fairy Tale in a Postfeminist. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/5439, 7.
[39] Rico, A. C. (2014). The Female Detective through Popular Culture: Kate Beckett in Castle. https://repositori.udl.cat/bitstream/handle/10459.1/48048/ aca%C3%B1adasr.pdf, 4-10.
[40] Sibielski, R. (2010). What Are Little (Empowered) Girls Made Of? The Discourse Of Girl Power In Contemporary U.S. Popular Culture. https://etd.ohiolink.edu/rws_etd/ document/get/bgsu1277091634/inline, 171-173.
[41] Taft. J. (2004). Girl Power Politics: Pop-Culture Barriers and Organizational Resistance. In A. HARRIS, All About the Girl (Culture, Power and Identity) (pp. 69-73). New York & London: Routledge.Author Name (s). (Year). Title of the Paper/Article, Journal Name, Volume & Number, ISSN No. (if any), pp. (Printed Pages i.e. pp. 45-51)