I'm breaking up with you Carrie.

I've always been a fan of Sex and the City.  I drifted away a bit in Season 4.  It got a bit too full on for my ocassionally sensitive tastes I think.  When the first film came out I dutifully took myself off to the cinema.  I loved it.  I loved the fashion. I loved the big screen look. I loved Big. I just loved it all.  Then came SATC2.  Never has a film been so keenly anticipated and so instantly reviled.  I hated it.  I hated every single thing about it.  Carrie finally had her man and now all she could do was whinge. It was culturally offensive.  I hated it hard.  The scene I hated most was this one:

Appalling. Just appalling.

So, having watched SATC2 it got me wondering, how did they get it so damned wrong?  How could they have misread their audience so badly?  How could an ensemble of people; artists, performers, writers all of them, miss the mark so  gravely?????

There was no shortage of bad reviews:

"The film's tone-deaf cultural awareness extends to a boozy karaoke rendition of "I Am Woman" which is equal parts naïve/patronising."

"Sex and the City has turned into a bloated juggernaut of pointlessness. Its female characters are now beyond unbearable, none more so than Carrie."

"Sex and the City 2 is the female equivalent of Transformers; a big, dumb blockbuster that doesn't require you to think very hard, if at all ... I mourn the death of four memorable television characters that used to mean something to so many."

"Ignorant, culturally insensitive and unfunny."

Ouch.

Still, over the years, I've watched reruns of the television series, recognising and enjoying the familiar stories over and over again.

Then it happened.  My final assignment for "Text Culture and Society" (yes, it's as rivetting as it sounds) was an analysis of the ideology of Sex and the City.  I was required to choose one episode to analyse specifically.  I chose "The Drought", partly because I love the scene where Carrie talks to Miranda;

"It's something about him. You should see me around him. I'm not like me. I'm like "together Carrie."
I wear little outfits..."sexy Carrie," and "casual Carrie." Sometimes I catch myself actually posing. It's exhausting."

Sadly*, I could relate. 

One ideological belief frequently represented in television is the idea of 'happily ever after', whereby a woman’s ultimate path in life follows a certain pattern;  meeting a man, falling in love, getting married, having a family and living ‘happily ever after’.  The fairy tale model - a princess is rescued by a prince, they fall in love, marry and live 'happily ever after'.

Sex and the City superficially claims to represent an alternative to this ideology.  It depicts the four women as strong, single, independent, intelligent, successful women with unlimited sexual freedom and choice.  In truth, the OPPOSITE is true!  The women’s obsessions with finding a man, maintaining a relationship is the overarching theme of the entire series!

Take “The Drought” for example.  “After weeks sharing a bed, Carrie feels comfortable actually sleeping with M. Big, yet mortified when she farts in bed, but really worried when he stops to want sex every night. It really hits her when he prefers to watch a boxing match to kissing, so she paints her apartment.”  Carrie then spends the rest of the episode depressed and distressed about “the fart” and calls on her friends to advise, support and guide her on how to deal with the “fall out” so to speak….  My question is: How old are these women????? This is feminism????? These are the aspirational women we are presented with on TV????? Two words. Grow up!

The Oxford Dictionary defines patriarchy as ‘a system of society in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it’.  Feminism is ‘the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes’.  Sex and the City is a frustrating example of how a show can outwardly claim to be representative of feminist ideology (equality, freedom of choice and independence) while in fact reinforcing certain patriarchal conventions.

For example, Carrie normalises this patriarchal belief that the man holds the power in a relationship.  Carrie is overwhelmed with anxiety that perhaps her ‘fairy tale’ relationship with Big is doomed and seeks the advice of her friends.  Big holds all the power in the relationship. 

When Carrie discusses the fart with Samantha, the most sexually powerful, confident of the four women, Samantha says:

Carrie: I farted.
Samantha:  Then move your mat away.

Carrie:  Not now. I did it in front of Big.
Samantha: Huge mistake

Carrie: (Sarcastically) You think? It wasn't a choice. I'm human. It happened.

Samantha: No, honey, you're a woman, and men don't like women to be human.
We aren't supposed to fart, douche, use tampons or have hair in places we shouldn't.
I mean, hell, a guy once broke up with me because I missed a bikini wax.

As charming as the scene might be on screen, read the words on paper and you can’t help but think, really?  This is how we are encouraged to think and behave in a relationship? 

When Big returns to Carrie at the end of the episode, having waited days to hear from him, Carrie asks sullenly, ‘Why didn’t you call me?’  Big replies incredulously ‘Why didn’t you call me?’  Feminists looking to Sex and the City to authentically reflect their ideology could be excused for asking the same question.

Sex and the City promotes the patriarchal system of representation of the ideal female form.  Thin, white, well dressed and beautiful.   The four characters are all beautiful and obsessively concerned with their physical appearance.  Wearing the most fashionable clothes takes precedence over comfort, cost and affordability.   The four characters are very much defined by their physical appearances.  Their hair colour in particular signifies four distinct personality types.  Miranda has short red hair – the stereotypical temperamental redhead.  Samantha has platinum blonde hair, the stereotypical sex bomb.  Charlotte, the brunette, the stereotypical image of the homemaker and the girl next door.  Far from cutting edge and feminist in its approach, it’s actually rather backward and a tad offensive.  Think about the lack of ethnic diversity too.  The non-white characters tend to be token characters.  And no African Americans in their circle of friends really.

In a sense, I regret having to delve into SATC.  It has really spoilt it for me.  I kind of enjoyed being able to flick on Foxtel and watch an old episode – like visual chewing gum.  Now I know I would just be irritated.