Broads and Chicks

I want to draw attention to the term "chick," which is seemingly comparable to the old term "broad." I haven't found very credible sources for the origins of these words. It seems that "broad" is derived from the slang for a circus ticket back in the 18th century. Thus, the woman was the ticket to the show-- not only an objectification of females, but also a reference to prostitution. Of course, you don't hear the term "broad" all that often these days, except for when you're checking out old movies on ACM or if you happen to pull out Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

"Chick," on the other hand isn't disappearing. It's not uncommon to hear the terms "chick lit" and "chick flicks." The question is whether or not women should embrace this cultural concept. We really seem to make this term our own, and yet it's a rough concept to accept. Some connect "chick" to the common British term "bird" in reference to a woman. Some say the term is taken from a Sinclair Lewis novel, Elmer Gantry from 1927:

He had determined that marriage now would cramp his advancement in the church and that, anyway, he didn't want to marry this brainless little fluffy chick, who would be of no help in impressing rich parishioners. But that caution he had utterly forgotten in emotion, and her question was authentically a surprise, abominably a shock.

But, unlike "broad," "chick" has been accepted and even recirculated to mean something else. It represents femininity in a stereotypical sense, and it may not seem as negative as it should. I wonder how much we should care. Is "chick" wrong? Should we teach our daughters to roll their eyes at the term "chick lit"? It's offensive, and yet the genre sells so well.

Just as we talked about the concept of "old wives tales," it seems that the term "chick" has come to represent a cultural force that is not necessarily negative. Can one truly deny a concept that celebrates feminine media? Won't this naturally be singled out from the rest? I suppose that I can't be upset about the terms "chick lit" and "chick flick," but I can be upset about the poor quality of both. It wouldn't be nearly as negative if the "chick" media lines produced something that had more depth. I particularly consider "chick lit" in this way. Should women hold their entertainment to a higher standard? Or perhaps women have just found their equivalent to the bad action movie or the poorly written science fiction that is geared toward men. Too bad we don't have a term for those.

I used the following:
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20000612
http://www.chickculture.com/
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/From_where_did_the_slang_use_of_the_word_chick_originate