Let me start by saying I absolutely love the show "Sex and the City." I mean, how couldn't I? Carrie is a curly-haired writer (much like myself) who lives in a suspiciously spacious apartment in New York City with designer clothes and 500 dollar shoes (nothing like me). She has my dream life.
The show is entertaining, witty, and downright sexy. That being said, I'm rewatching the entire series and I've noticed that this show has some serious flaws. Objectively speaking, the four main characters actually kinda suck.
It was filmed in the late 90s/early 2000s, so I'm not going to even touch on how politically incorrect half the shows are. However, I am going to discuss how these four women are supposed to be seen as feminists but don't act like it. They are all very sexually liberated, which is why the show is seen as empowering to women. They talk about real women topics and are even crude about it, which is always refreshing. Especially because in this time period, demonizing women for their sexuality was the norm (still kinda is but I can rant about that all day). It was the first show to be like: hey, women like sex and that's okay! Hell yeah, women empowerment.
But, have you seen "The Baby Shower" episode in the first season? It's FILLED with slut shaming. I know, very ironic, considering the title, but they ATTACK the pregnant woman's past. Granted, she was acting wild, but if the whole point of the show is to shed light on female independence and women sexuality, why villainize it in any sort of capacity? Doesn't make sense to me.
Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte are grown women in their thirties. By the way they act, you'd think they were still in college "figuring things out" when it comes to men and relationships with other women. When Carrie FIRST started dating Big (before all the shit really hit the fan) I screamed "red flag" each time he opened his mouth—she would even ditch her best friends for that crappy man. Miranda is insufferably insecure and sometimes lashes out on the other three when they are trying to help her. Samantha is a homewrecker and even says she prefers to have sex with married men because she knows it's casual. One of Charlotte's main aspirations throughout the whole show is to find a man. Do you see what I mean? The writing that exposes their characteristics is unsettling.
This whole time I thought this show was about the beauty of a women support system. Empowered women, empowering women. Nope. I mean, it does have those elements, especially in the later seasons, but these women need THERAPY. Their self sabotaging tendencies should not be idolized, only seen for entertainment value.
I used to look up to Carrie, hell, I wanted to BE Carrie. I know I'm not the only one because loads of my friends watch "Sex and the City" and wish they had their lifestyle. But after binging at the age of 22, I realized I'm more emotionally mature than any of these grown women. Their behavior is nothing to admire.
Now that I have successfully roasted one of my favorite shows, I'm going to make a Cosmopolitan and watch it for another few hours. The characters are the worst, but the show is the best.
