The women in Sex and the City 2 aren’t like any I have ever known

[UTUSN]

So DISH makes available some premium channels on a trial basis and these couple of weeks it’s been a few HBO/Cinemax, and I’ll finally see Bill MAHER a couple of times, plus a couple of movies for a movie-phobe like me, who never SITS and actually WATCHES t.v. but lets the political yak shows run as background noise. The only movie time for me is from about 11 P.M. to 1 or 2, and that only a couple or three times per year.

As for Sex and the City, the series, I have seen about a season’s worth of episodes in the daily re-runs, the way I never saw any series when it was in its live incarnation, and have now seen all of The Drew CAREY Show, Raymond, King of Queens, Golden Girls, a few/several Arrested Development, etc.

Through most of the episodes of the SATC series, I was basically charmed by SJP as contrasted starkly with “Samatha,” with the other two being nondescript blips. It wasn’t until the episode where Carrie spends the night with her married sex object at his MARRIED DIGS and nonchalantly lounges about in the morning after he’s gone to work when the wife arrives unexpectedly and the two women chase each other down stairs that I let the charm go bye-bye with the ugliness of the rampant amorality of the entire premise of the whole series being starkly undeniable, charm be damned.


Didn’t see the first movie and deferred to the Lounge fans of it who told the rest of us to butt out and let the fans have their pleasure, fine.

So last night at the appointed hour I chose to let SATC2 play as opposed to the heavier DEPP-DILLINGER deal.

First, a couple of peeves: Mainly, why do people with a hit franchise that is rooted in a concept think they should uproot the entire premise?!1 So this thing with a major thing being “THE CITY” is moved to Dubai, like when “Reno 911” went to Miami for THEIR movie. The other peeve is despicable movie music that drones on detached from the movie, just keeps going, not like GREAT movie music that is a true accompaniment, but let’s get on with this.


So, stepping into it here, my father and I lived with three strong women who had definite voices and say-so and I came to maturity in the ‘70s when Feminism was blooming and let’s just say that Hillary was not the first woman I actively supported in politics -- and driving home my point, my support of women was not BECAUSE they were women but for what they stood for. And all I can say is that, even here at this beloved internet discussion board, strong women are not exceptional, they are EQUAL, such that “deference” is not an issue.

So I didn’t pay much attention when it was said that SATC was a girl-thing. I *did* think it odd when I went to a Hillary rally that I seemed to attract some little negative attention for being an older male. I hadn’t gotten the memo that it was supposed to be for girls at a junior high pep rally.

Anyway, finally to SATC2, I was SHOCKED. The characters were CHEESY and materialistically RAPACIOUS and totally SUPERFICIAL, grasping at a boondoggle to Dubai, incredibly for NOTHING IN RETURN – REALLY?!1, completely low-consciousness about their expectations that THEIR cultural habits are enlightened and superior to those of other cultures, and feeling OUTRAGE about being arrested for strange laws in, oh-I-don’t-know, OTHER countries.

Besides all of which, the CHARM of SJP/Carrie seemed to be missing. She always found flaws in everybody and even everything but here she is just really unpleasant in her ugly dissatisfaction. Plus, among so many incredible things, there was Carrie's erstwhile philandering husband now being profoundly *moved* over her kissing an old boyfriend who himself incredibly appeared in Dubai.


********All of *that* said, I actually wondered whether there were some “deep” levels I was missing: I actually injected some DEPTH into it all, and I’m sure to be corrected. But just as the Carrie and Samantha characters have been played against each other only to have the, um, “veil” so to speak be torn aside to show them equally amoral, here we are with the absurd spectacle of these supposedly liberated women behaving like fools signing “I Am Woman” and flaunting their anatomical parts in the most dead-opposite hostile cultural setting imaginable. I harked back to an undergraduate class where one of those budding academic mascots asked, “Did SHAKESPEARE really *know* what he was doing, was he AWARE?!1” And the Teaching Assistant said with awe, “Oh, I think he was pretty aware!1”

Another smart bit was how Samantha was told the dress she wanted was "young" for her and she exploded, then later was embarrassed with Miley CYRUS wearing the same dress, aha self-deception exposed!1 All this to ask, did SJP and her co-creators KNOW there were kernels of DEEP contrast, Carrie-Smantha and City-Dubai?!1

Hookay, here: :hide:

[seabeyond]

1. yea for you and your perception

sorry you didnt get a warm welcome and felt discontent was due to your being an older man. i love the support of men. above the support of women in ways because they are the ones that are heard from other men.

i can not watch the protrayal of women, on that show, either. no interest at all. i dont know a single woman that is like that. if i did, i would not be friends with her anyway.

[UTUSN]

2. Wow, I'm expecting to be flamed to a crisp!1 n/t

[seabeyond]

5. the problem i see today

is too many social networks are portraying women in such an ugly light, in so many ways, so far from the reality conditioning not only men, but many women to perceive women in a very ugly way.

you think to the women you know and say, they aren't that, then you can pretty well see the conditioning both genders are constantly being bombarded with and the problems it causes.

[monmouth]

6. Not all. You parsed that out so beautifully even noting things I had

noticed but ignored. To be simplistic I found the show to just be about selfishness and me, me, me. Loved your critique.

[UTUSN]

9. Wow thanks n/t

[lunatica]

3. Let me tell you what Sex and The City is really about

It's about the $1,000 dollar Manolo Blahnik shoes and the over $1,000 dollar clothes and the over $100,000 dollar jewelry and getting real women with real jobs think that's who they are.

It's pure fantasy and vanity.

[hedgehog]

4. "The characters were CHEESY and materialistically RAPACIOUS and totally SUPERFICIAL"

I couldn't agree more. It was my first encounter with SATC, although I've heard about it for years. But none of these women were at all pleasant.

[Denninmi]

Actually, I knew someone in real life who was much like this.

This woman, who was a pediatrician of all things, was obsessed with shopping, fashion, high end material goods, and men, married to be exact. I think it was an excuse to hide from some other kinds of demons, although I didn't know her well enough (she was a friend of a relative of mine) to really know the full story.

Ultimately, she chose to commit suicide with narcotics when her latest romance with a married man ended badly after he refused to leave his wife for her.

[pitohui]

11. i also knew a pediatrian IRL who was like this

obsessed with sex, gambling, shopping, his jaguar...yep, he was a man

so what does that prove?

we are all flesh and blood, and there are real women who have ambition, drive, and the problems that go with ambition and drive (which includes high sex drive, wanting material flash, etc)

we accept it in men, but we pretend women are all holy and shouldn't be this way?

MANY doctors are about proving themselves and the ego, the sex, gambling, fancy cars, shopping...it's all part of the package

drive isn't just a positive thing, the drive to prove yourself includes the negatives too

SATC showed that

to be a success in a career in nyc takes a lot, you are competing with a lot of people, and yes to dare that high, you are prob. going to be a little bit vain, a little bit needy ... how is that false?

[Denninmi]

7. Actually, I knew someone in real life who was much like this.

This woman, who was a pediatrician of all things, was obsessed with shopping, fashion, high end material goods, and men, married to be exact. I think it was an excuse to hide from some other kinds of demons, although I didn't know her well enough (she was a friend of a relative of mine) to really know the full story.

Ultimately, she chose to commit suicide with narcotics when her latest romance with a married man ended badly after he refused to leave his wife for her.

[Flaxbee]

8. it was an awful movie. Awful, awful. The first one wasn't much good, either,

but the second one was pure shit.

And the last few seasons when SJP got more creative control the show became much more materialistic (though that could have just been a result of the show's popularity and branding tie-ins).

I don't know anyone like them.

[pitohui]

10. well i haven't seen the movies but here's the thing

everyone i know who says they don't know any women like the women in "sex & the city" the teevee show, or who use the alternative phrasing of saying, the women in "sex & the city" are exactly like gay men...these are invariably people who don't know or don't accept that women are actually interested in sex, perhaps because the women they know AREN'T actually interested in sex ( or won't admit to being interested in sex or obviously don't having sex with the speaker of the obnoxious cliche in question)

and i have to say, for people to be proud to say that they don't know any woman "like that" in year of our lord 2011, is pretty goddamn sad

the women of SATC are obnoxious because "nice" frigid women don't make interesting teevee and because the reality of our society is that there are relatively few desirable men so if you want to have a career AND have a sex life, there may be times for some career women where you are having sex w. somebody's husband -- that is reality and too bad so sad if reality threatens people's nice fluffy pink fantasies

so scared people say it can't be real, women aren't like THAT, this is a show about gay men in drag
--hey they can prove it must be about gay men in drag, look at all the costumes and shoes, right? carrie is practically elton john with all that footwear (sarcasm!)

so, not to flame you, but it does not make a man look attractive to say that he doesn't know any women "like that," if you don't know any women who have actual genuine forceful sexual feelings instead of "convenient, what they're supposed to feel" sexual feelings...i almost have to feel sorry for you

or at least i have to feel sorry for the women you know!

again, can't speak to the movies, ain't seen 'em

[seabeyond]

12. your conclusion, a person must be shallow and materialistic in order to enjoy sex

and have an active sex life?

i dont think there is one poster on here that said they do not know a single woman that enjoys sex.

please point out to me where you see anyone advocating women being frigid

your analysis and conclusion are amazing.

[6000eliot]

13. A sketch on Saturday Night Live years ago was based on the premise that the characters were all

basically gay men, but I'm not sure I buy that either. They represent some sort of fantasy. Who's, I'm not sure.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

14. I liked the early seasons --

the movies, not so much. The early seasons were kind of fun. I love NYC.
and a huge shoe freak here
would love to have Charlotte's job in the art museum.
Don't think I would get my freak on with all those men like they do.
The friendship of 4 women is cool.
They are there for each other, no matter what, through thick or thin.