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I’ve been writing novels for over 40 years. Way back in the 80s my novels Puberty Blues, Girls’ Night Out and The Llama Parlour helped kick-start the genre now called 'chick lit'. (Although I loathe the condescending term used to describe first person, funny fiction by women. Nick Hornby, David Nicholls and Karl Ove Knausgaard write in the same vein and win the accolade of ‘Chekhovian’, while we female authors get 'Chickovian' pink covers, plastered with cupcakes.)
As I – and my generation – grew up so did my novels, and in the nineties Foetal Attraction and Mad Cows spearheaded 'mummy lit'. Now my generation are post-menopausal, but that doesn’t mean we’re ready to start knitting our own bus passes and dipping ourselves in disinfectant. Baby boomers have redefined every decade we’ve lived in and now we’re going to redefine getting old. We’ve had the kids, the marriages, the divorces, the promotions, the betrayals, the heart breaks and the breakdowns, and learnt from them all. Now it’s time for a glorious Second Act – and for publishing to embrace a new genre to reflect that.
Tesco recently announced it was banning use-by dates on their fruit and vegetables. If only society would apply the same logic to women. Unfortunately females get tossed onto the compost heap as soon as we hit 50. 85% of people on British television over 50, are male. Display one wrinkle and a woman is deemed to have passed her amuse-by date. It’s a case of facial prejudice. Middle-aged men are flattered with ‘silver fox’ status, whereas women the same age suddenly find ourselves labelled ‘hags’ and ‘old bags’. Think about it. Have you ever heard a bloke described as ‘mutton dressed as ram’?
And talking of ramming home a painful truth, Ben Broadbent, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, recently stated that the economy is in a "menopausal phase” – meaning it has passed peak productivity. I imagine this must be quite interesting news to Angela Merkel, the Queen, Ursula von de Leyen, Melinda Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Helen Mirren, Christine Lagarde, Hilary Mantel, Meryl Streep, Margaret Atwood, Tina Turner, Anna Wintour, Cate Blanchett, J.K. Rowling, Grace Jones, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Arianna Huffington, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Ellen DeGeneres, Kylie, Madonna and influential co.
Studies reveal that women in their 50s, 60s and 70s are healthier, happier, richer and sexier than any generation in history. These women in their prime are still young enough to have adventures but are also aware that the clock is ticking, making us more candid, confident and unconcerned by judgemental criticism. "Adventure Before Dementia” is our motto.
Women in their prime want to make the most of their friends, partners and experiences – and have the money to do so. Yes, it’s always delicious to be whisked off your feet by a Knight in Shining Armani (or Knightess), but we are also happy to stand on our own two sequined Birkenstocks. And we need a new genre to reflect this.
I was brainstorming this idea with my three sassy sisters and the expression we hit upon that made us laugh is “I-Don’t-Give-A-Shit-Lit”. Post-menopause, most females lose the ability to give a fig about stuff that really isn’t important in the grand scheme of things. Girls are brought up to be demure and decorative, but post-menopause women are liberated from the male gaze. Also, a drop in oestrogen and an increase in testosterone means that for the first time ever, we no longer care what other people think about us.
As Kristin Scott Thomas’ martini-swilling character deliciously declared in "Fleabag", “menopause is the most wonderful f---ing thing in the world. And yes, your entire pelvic floor crumbles and you get f---ing hot and no one cares. But then – you’re free! No longer a slave, no longer a machine with parts. You’re just a person in business.” This scene has been viewed over half a million times on YouTube. She goes on to tell an entranced Fleabag that menopause is “magnificent... something to look forward to.” Clearly ‘chick lit’ no longer cuts the literary mustard for gutsy, formidable females like this.
My girlfriends and female colleagues are the antithesis of Anita Brookner-type novels where older women wither from unfulfilled longings, wilt away with loneliness and finally get eaten by their cats. We're also fed up of crime fiction where no dog walker can kick a pile of dead leaves in a moody lit woodland without hitting the decaying foot of a female victim who had passed her amuse-by date, or was ‘slutty’, ‘naggy’ or needed her ‘comeuppance'.
If a woman is healthy in middle age, then she’ll probably live to 96, which means there’s a hell of a lot of experiences still to be had and books to be read – and the witty, gritty, fun and life-affirming I-Don’t-Give-A-Shit-Lit will encourage women of a certain age to go forth and be fabulous.
Kathy Lette has written 14 bestsellers and is published in 18 languages. Her latest novel HRT – Husband Replacement Therapy was number one in Australian fiction last year, Kobo and Apple’s book of the month and is soon to be a feature film. It is yet to find a British publisher.