My Contribution to Project Sex and the City

The first time our group members met outside of class to decide how we wanted to approach the Sex and the City discussion, I brought in the August 2011 Vogue Magazine presenting none other than actress and producer Sarah Jessica Parker on the cover. In her approximately twelve page spread, she discusses her new film entitled I Don't Know How She Does It, and also squeezes in quite a few references to her life as Carrie Bradshaw.

When watching the trailer for the movie set to release in September of this year, it's understandable why the article would mention, "it's as if we're seeing Carrie Bradshaw, the character that has dominated Parker's life for the past twelve years, in a new phase of her life" (Vogue 153). I thought that this article would be a great way to delve deeper into what kind of world and expectations Sex and the City has modeled for women. In the article, Parker also mentions, "'I ultimately chose to stop doing the television series because I felt like it required, and deserved a lot of time when I really wanted to be a parent." Also, she says, circumstances had changed. "It was such a different time in the city, culturally, socially, economically... the kind of liberty that Carrie Bradshaw had. You couldn't start off with a story like that today... There are probably more women, even now, who are trying to be all things to all people," she observes. All of which is good news for the timeliness of I Don't Know How She Does It" (161). Saying that Sex and The City couldn't exist today brings up the question, well, why not? Is it because our culture has become so inundated with women's sexual freedom that in oder to be entertained, the shows must go even further than what Sex and the City was able to accomplish? I showed these sections and brought up these ideas to my group members and suggested that it would be a great way to bring up the future of television, and how, if at all, media and television has been influenced by the groundbreaking elements of Sex and The City.

Leslie and I took on the group which would focus on the implications of whether Sex and the City should be considered a feminist text or not. I brought in the sections of the course text book as well as some sources from Susan Bordo's article in order to ground the Sex and The City discussion in theoretical and cultural understandings. I showed Leslie what I was thinking, and we agreed that it would work out. I then constructed a handout for the group, so that there would be questions available to them on a hardcopy that allowed them to see the possibilities of connections between theories and the show. I mixed in entertaining questions that would help to generate a lively discussion with questions that were more central to the course text so that people would be interested in what we had to say and subsequently feel comfortable asserting their opinions. Here is what the handout looked like:

Sex And The City

As A Feminist Text?

1. Which character would you consider to be the “slut” in the group of friends? What evidence from the clip supports your answer?

2. Do you think the modern woman should be comfortable having multiple partners? Or should they revert to more traditional notions of what is appropriate behavior for women? What seems to be the women’s stance on this question?

3. Would you consider Sex And The City to be:

- a “difference feminist” (Barker 282) text?

- a “poststructuralist feminist” (283) text?

- a “post feminist” (284) text?

(find quote(s) from the textbook to support your argument, as well as a moment from the show)

4. Based the moment you saw from Sex And The City, would you argue that the show reinforces the gender roles presented on pages 286 and 287 of the class text? Or would you argue that the show is more radical than it seems? In what way?

5. Why do you think these characters rely so heavily on sexuality for their identities? Do you think the images of women mentioned on pages 307 and 308 have anything to do with it?

6. When looking at the Susan Bordo article: “‘Material Girl’: The Effacements of Postmodern Culture,” are there any ways that Sex and the City reflects the subversive qualities that Madonna represented to her fans? Would you argue that Madonna somehow influenced Sex And The City? How?

7. What do you think is Sex And The City’s theme or overall message? How do you think casting an overweight woman or a minority woman as another friend in the show affects that theme?

Sex And The City

Quotes from the Ladies

“Relationships have been on the decline ever since women came out of the cave, looked around and said, ‘this isn’t so bad.’” – Samantha

“Would it be bad to have a martini with my muscle relaxant or bad in a good way?” – Samantha

“I said no white, no ivory, no nothing that says virgin. I have a child. The jig is up.” – Miranda

“You do this every time! Every time! What do you have, some kind of radar? (She) might be happy, it’s time to sweep in and shit all over it! Forget you know my number, in fact, forget you know my name… and you can drive down the street all you want because I don’t live here anymore!” – Carrie

“No matter who broke your heart or how long it takes to heal, you’ll never get through it without your friends” – Carrie

“I’ve been dating since I was fifteen! I’m exhausted! Where is he?!” – Charlotte

“Do any of you have a completely unremarkable friend or maybe a houseplant I could go to dinner with on Saturday night?” – Miranda

“Women who stay with men who cheat are women who are afraid to be on their own. And that’s not me. I can handle it. Always could.” – Miranda

“I got everything I ever wanted. I’m so happy I’m terrified.” – Charlotte

“I don’t really believe in marriage. Botox, on the other hand… that works every time.” – Samantha

“I’m looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can’t-live-without-each-other-love…” – Carrie

“If you can only have one great love, then the city just may be mine. And I don’t want nobody talkin’ shit about my boyfriend” – Carrie

“We finally have the penis working. I don’t want to scare it.” – Charlotte

“It’s amazing. In a courtroom, reasonable doubt can get you off for murder. In an engagement, it makes you feel like a bad person.” – Miranda

“Smart, yes, sometimes cute, but never sexy. Sexy is the thing I try to get them to see me as after I win them over with my personality.” – Miranda

“The only think I’ve ever successfully made in the kitchen is a mess. And several small fires.” - Carrie

I added an additional page on the back of the questions just for supplemental information about the characters of the show. Each quote is followed by a name of the character who said that phrase at some point in the six-season spread of Sex and the City. I thought this would help the class understand who each character was in terms of the women stereotypes that are presented on television, and could also help them form an argument about whether or not Sex and the City is a feminist text. One argument could have been something like since Carrie is the main character and she claims that she can't cook and only produces small fires, perhaps the show is sending the message that traditional values and women's roles in the home aren't significant any longer. If there was ample time (which there wasn't) I also thought about getting into the discussion of who most aligned with what character, or felt like they would be most inclined to date which character. I thought this activity could tell us a little more about the direction our current culture is leaning, and whether more traditional roles are accepted, or if more liberated roles for women are accepted.

I also chose to show the group a clip from Season 3 Episode 6 entitled "Are We Sluts?" that would help them understand the questions and the text in relation to an actual clip from the television show itself. The groups response to the clip was entirely engaging and I was happy that they took to it so well. Here is the clip:

The group's response that Samantha was probably the "slut" of the group based solely on this clip was interesting. Some people in the group had not seen the show before, and yet they were still able to tell that Samantha was the most sexually promiscuous or sexually liberated depending on one's perspective. They said the Samantha's line, "Oh please, if you're a whore what does that make me?" was the give away. She was willing to admit to her hyper-sexuality, which the group agreed made her the slut of the friends.

Overall, I think through picking the clip to show the feminism group, and creating the questions and handout, as well as finding a culturally relevant and timely article addressing the stance of Sex and the City's reliance on the cultural stability of the time it was produced, I was able to contribute a significant amount to our group's success. I'm glad the class seemed to take a lot of information and critical thought away from our discussion. Maybe some classmates even began to see Sex and the City as more than simply a shallow show concerned with shoes and sex.

Word Count: 971 (excluding the copy of the handout)

Works Cited

I Don't Know How She Does It. Dir. Douglas McGrath. Perf. Sarah Jessica Parker.Youtube.com. 27 May 2011. Web. 17 Aug. 2011.

MacSweeny, Eve. "Show and Tell." Vogue Aug. 2011: 150-62. Print.

Sex and the City. By Darren Star. Perf. Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon. Darren Star Productions, 1998. Youtube.com. 29 May 2007. Web. 14 Aug. 2011.