>They don't???

I'm being more specific than you are assuming. I'm aware that other types of books exist, else "chick lit', as a term, would be superfluous. However, there are untapped markets, and especially so in "chick lit". The publishers you speak of, and some fairly influential authors, are completely ignoring a rather large subgroup of women, who are virtually starving for a more varied and open representation of what it means to be a woman.

These books are supposed to appeal to me on the basis of my two x chromosomes, however, they really only irritate me.

There is more to being a woman than shoes, men, and chocolate. In fact, one can be a woman without an obsession for any of those. If all books depicting men focused on a male who was obsessed with football, porn, and beer, it would be just as disgusting, and insulting to men.

If they then called it "Man-lit", and explained that it was supposed to appeal to all men, as some universal male experience, the rotten tomatoes should fly.