I may be opening a can of worms here, but I've recently read too many posts on too many blogs (yes, I have just finished writing a book so I do have a bit of spare time for a change)
that imply the genre of chicklit is the fairy floss of the literary world. Well call me Tinkerbell, because I love it and I know plenty of other women (and some uber cool men..) who do too.
The thing I love about reading and writing Chick lit is the aspect of TRANSFORMATION that the heroines experience. My preference is for stories that contain a good dose of humour as well, believing as I do that life can be funny AND tragic, sometimes both within nanoseconds of each other, a perfect example being the wonderful "Is Anybody Out There?" by Marian Keyes. I know at least one person who was actually helped through her own difficult time by this book- not a self help book or a counsellor , but by a hunk of "Fairy Floss".
As I state in my page on this site YA Chick Lit- WTH is  THAT?   it's not neccesarily a transformation from caterpillar to butterfly,that draws the reader in to these books, sometimes it's a transformation into a self confident, sassy, life loving caterpillar who makes the butterlies green with envy that makes us grin, tear up and cheer for our heroine. Sometimes it's her family, sometimes her man, sometimes fate, that sends her on her journey to transformation. Sometimes there's romance, sometimes there isn't. We don't all get a Royal Wedding, right? 
Don't get me wrong, I love a  literary novel, I love fantasy, I even love non-fiction and read them all regularly. But If these are the meat and potatoes then Chick lit isn't fairy floss, it's chocolate. And who doesn't  love and respect  some chocolate ?