Women's fiction WH Smiths hmmm?

Crime
Science Fiction
History
Romance
Classics

What's wrong with that?

As well as a general A-Z, for everything, so you don't miss a title.

Because people would ask 'what makes it genre not literature'!

It's not like you can't glance at the shelf and see which is which without a label. This is not a good thing either, but while it's true, I think having genre fiction arranged in alphabetic order would at least break things up a bit.

that would be good actually, they could muddle up all the genre books so it would be a sort of lucky dip - actually why don't they just have genre fiction?

Mitchiest - I want a 'dross' section! I could head there and be like a pig in mud.

I keep forgetting Twishite is in the teen section...

Has anyone else read this thread and thought of Carol Shields?

She wrote a novel called Unless (worth reading), which has a subplot based on her experiences but I don't know how closely. A woman author writes her first novel about a female main character and her life. She wins a prize for 'light' fiction and subsequently her publisher tells her she should really re-write the story, make the man the main character, and so on. He thinks female characters don't make for serious novels. (The she wins a prestigious prize - Shields herself has won the Booker I think - and he shuts up).

Sorry, that was a bit rambly, but the thing is, I don't find 'women's fiction' descriptive at all - it's not all 'light'. There's a pretty huge difference between some of the crap you can pick up in the train station that's clearly written by committee under pseudonym (like some Sci Fi I've read, too), and things like Marian Keyes' books, or Margaret Forster.

(Btw, sorry if this has already been said, but whoever it was who used the word 'retarded' on the first page, could you not, please? It's rude.)

Well Twilight is in the teen section, although so much has this genre grown that it now has its own subsection in lots of shops. It is called something like 'dark romance' or 'supernatural romance.'

Jodi Picoult is definitely in the general fiction section in WH Smith.

Smiths has lots of bizarre sections - real life tragedy or whatever the misery memoir bit is called seemed to first appear in Smiths before other shops started setting them up.

I think I must spend too much time in bookshops to notice all this, and can't think why I did not notice this 'women's fiction' bit.

why can't they have three fiction sections: classics, contemporary literary fiction and dross

MillyR, I know that the English Lit degree at my uni is around 87% female students... And we're not reading "women's fiction" there.

How about they label it appropriately...

Twilight: Shit/Fantasy/Romance
Anything by Jodi Picoult: Romance/Misogynistic/Moral Dilemna (etc)

and so forth

i would guess that 'women's fiction' means trashy "chick-lit"? see i know what i mean by 'chick lit' even though it's a horrible term, but i don't know what 'women's fiction' is - but it implies that 'here are the books women can read' so yes, i think it's silly and a bit patronising.

i am pleased they have removed it and re-classified their books. i don't think it is going "too far".

I thought that women bought the majority of books (and quite a big majority at that), although I can't remember where I read it.

I certainly know women who read this genre; it is just that lots of other women have a greater interest in other genres.

*genres, not genders...

Well, maybe it's time these book retailers carried out a little research and realised that low sales may be due to women buying from other genders... Rather than patronising us...

Well in that sense, they are enlightened. Behaving in a way that suggests that they think women are stupid and inferior may well see them losing sales.

I have to say that WHS is the last place I would go to buy books.

Actually, it's pretty much the last place I go to buy anything, although that's a different story ...

I must be walking around in a world of my own. I didn't even know it was called women's fiction in WH Smith. I also didn't know that supermarkets had a section called women's health. What is in it? Do we have enough different health needs to fill up a whole section?

I would have thought the reason that the Sophie Kinsella type books are not called romantic fiction is because that title is usually given to the Mills and Boon type books in libraries and book shops. The Sophie Kinsella type books are all in one section in our library, but I don't know what it is called.

When I see a 'women's fiction' sign, I know to walk straight past it! I guess there are sections for women's/men's magazines. I wouldn't read any of them so I am quite grateful for the signposting help so I can steer clear.

this is another good reason why women shouldn't be taught to read

Well, planetpotty, just because you know women who aren't offended by it doesn't make it any less offensive.

Bob - I'm not really sure what you're trying to say about commercial decisions. Are you, perhaps, trying to suggest that women don't buy very many books, therefore if WHS corral all those that they deem suitable for women together it will be easier for those of us with fluffier minds?

But, stepping back a little, and looking at the bigger picture, perhaps you and the OP would like to define 'women's fiction'?

What are the criteria that should be used to define books that are aimed at women?

I think you'll find, actually, that it's a pointless and stupid task. Just as it would be to try and define 'men's fiction'.