The chick-lit debate: who in Playboy Mansion Hell calls women chicks?

A funny thing happened to me on the way to getting published. I changed genders, or, to be more precise, I exchanged the 'Diane' of my given name for the neutral initials of 'DJ'. I had good reason for choosing a neutral pen name. I am deadly serious about writing humour and wanted my book to be judged on its merits and not according to my gender.

In the funny-peculiar world of humorous literature, a female name is like an affliction. It repels potential readers looking for the "seriously funny" (apparently women do not write funny books) and encourages reviewers and booksellers to reach for a red marker and tag the work with the toe-curling label of "chick-lit". While my writing has nothing to do with career women, romance or white weddings, I take personal offence at the way women's fiction, particularly humorous fiction written by women, is still getting shunted to the back of the queue.

I know I am not the first woman to comment on this but it is a remarkable situation considering the great leaps forward female writers have made in most other literary genres. Humour remains an old boys' club and the knee-jerk "if a woman writes a funny book it must be chick-lit" attitude is indicative of this club's male-only policy.

Why do I find the chick-lit label so offensive? Because it not only condemns a work of humour to the ghetto of the light and frivolous but it is also ridiculously outdated. Who in Playboy Mansion Hell still refers to a woman as a chick?

When you call a woman a chick you diminish her as a human being and dismiss her as something less than intelligent. It is a word for the likes of Hugh Hefner and other refugees from the pre-feminist, satin sheet and jacuzzi 60s and it is about as relevant as calling the police "the fuzz". The word does not belong in the 21st century and should be burned with a flamethrower along with the satin sheets.

"Chick" offends me but it is the tacking on of "lit" like an accessory that really causes my testosterone levels to spike. Whatever lit is, it is certainly not literature. It is much lower on the food chain, something light and unimportant. While I admit there are plenty of light novels written by women, there are just as many, if not more, "easy reads" churned out by men, and I am not just talking about the so-called lad-lit genre. Just visit the thriller and horror shelves of your local airport and look for titles such as The Sniper's Nest and Hell's Teeth. These books are no better written than romantic comedies but they are still taken more seriously.

The dirty truth is that books written by men still tend to get more attention and respect than those written by women, particularly when it comes to humorous writing. If you do not believe me, ask anyone to name three funny writers. I bet they will give you the names of three men. Ask them to name three funny female writers and they will pause, frown, scratch and then possibly pull Nancy Mitford out of the hat. Just so you know, Mitford was born in 1904. She did write extremely funny books but she has not been around for almost 40 years.

And a lot has happened in funny business in those intervening years, particularly during the last 20. Funny women have invaded the arts and entertainment, especially television. Women such as Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Catherine Tate and Jo Brand have exploded myths about the unfunny female with their remarkable talent and daring. But the same revolution has yet to occur in literature.

Which brings me back to my decision to write as DJ Connell. When it came to "packaging" my work I did not want to give it the kiss of death of a female name. I am too serious about humour to allow that to happen to my work. So I made the decision to slip into bookshops with stealth and give readers the choice of buying my book without prejudice. When the time comes, I will pop out of the closet and claim glory for myself and other funny female writers but, in the meantime, I am keeping a low profile.

DJ Connell is author of Julian Corkle is a Filthy Liar, a novel published by Blue Door, an imprint of HarperCollins

"I write chick-lit and I'm proud of it": tomorrow in part two of the chick-lit debate, author Michele Gorman responds to DJ Connell's criticisms of the genre