I always go back in forward one the debate on wherever or not Sex and the City is feminist show . On one hand the television show is essentially about a group of female friends trying to find Mister Right, basically performing the notion that women need to find a husband to be happy. On the other hand Sex and the City is aboutclose successful female friends who will do anything to protect one another. Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte never choose a man over their friendship The female companionship of this HBO television program is pretty feminist. I have decided to make a pro and con list.Please tell me in the comments if you believe Sex and the City is a feminist show or not:
Pro
- The whole story is told through the eyes of the female main character, Carrie Bradshaw, whose a columnist writer for The New York Star. She writes about being a single woman in New York City. Throughout the series, Bradshaw goes on to become a best selling author and a writer for Vogue magazine.
- Carrie Bradshaw’s success as an writer and fashionista leads her to be a icon.
- Charlotte York Goldenbatt is a conservative wasp New York art dealer who bends her ideals for a perfect husband to marry the love of her life a Jewish divorce lawyer, Harry Goldenbatt, who does not fit into the traditionally handsome or dashing man category that Charlotte prescribes to.
- The public relations guru Samantha Jones is a sort of modern day May West. Samantha sleeps with all sorts of men of her chose with no strings attached. Jones is extremely sexually liberated and protective of her best friends.
- The corporate lawyer Miranda Hobbes is a work alcoholic who is highly cynical toward men. She learns to balance work and life once she has her son Brady Hobbes with low key bar keep boyfriend/husband Steve Brady.
Con
- Carrie Bradshaw seems to dedicate much of her time to finding the right man leading her to try to act a certain to please whoever she is dating. Like when Carrie quits smoking for Aidan Snow. The show’s “happy ending” is all about Bradshaw ending up with Mr. Big instead of feeling content with being single.
- The column that lead to Bradshaw’s fame is essentially about trying to find a husband or at least a boyfriend. At least half of her life seems to be about men.
- I will be first to admit that the Sex and the City films sort of fix this problem, but this post is about the television run. The proud happy sexually liberated Samantha Jones end up in a heteronormative relationship with twenty eight year old actor/model Smith Jerrod.
- Miranda Hobbes who is the most successful and masculine one of all the friends is portrayed as hating men and being single because she won’t change who she is. Hobbes only softens when she becomes a mother and theres loads of tension over the fact that she makes more money than Steve. Since “men are supposed to make more money than their wives”. Miranda needs to comprise and live in Brooklyn because Steve Brady can’t help pay the mortgage if the house is in Manhattan.
- Charlotte gives up being an art dealer when she marries both Harry Goldenblatt and Trey MacDougal. Charlotte York is extremely traditional about what a marriage or relationship is supposed to be.
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