Sex+and+the+City


 * W**e hear it. We see it. We watch it. We are consumers and producers of popular culture. Throughout our lives we experience the popular culture relevant to our time. “We are not necessarily taken by culture, we are taken with it” (Gedalof et al., pg 1) and how we receive the mass amount of **messages** being sent out is what defines us. So who are we? We are what we know. We are what we like. We are what we do. But most of all, we all just wanna be like one of the girls living it up in the Big Apple...don't we?




 * But is that identity our own? Or are we simulating what we perceive through mass media?**


 * What they’re about**

//Sex and the City// premiered on HBO on June 6th, 1998. "While premium cable channels tend to attract more male viewers, //Sex and the City// boasts more female viewers (ages 18-34) than any other original HBO series. The total audience last year averaged more than 9 million per episode, up from 6.9 million in 1998"(Mansfeild, 2000). //Sex and the City// is not only aired in the United States and Canada but also in countries all over the world from Europe, South Africa, and Asia (Sex and the City). It has become a popular show that focuses on the lives of four female friends in the bustling city of New York. The women, in their late thirties and early forties, face social issues all while relying on each other for womanly support. Their goal is to navigate through life as successful, single and sexually active women. The show was groundbreaking for women of the twenty-first century. Not only do the women talk about their sexual fantasies and desires, but they openly discuss their values, beliefs and opinions touching on many female issues. "'It's looking at sex from a female point of view' says the show's creator and executive producer"(Mansfeild, 2000).

Carrie Bradshaw, the main character, narrates through each episode posing thought provoking questions and rants about her emotions. As a journalist writing her weekly column, “Sex and the City”, she tackles a new topic every episode which structures the plot for the rest of the show. Her three closest friends, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha are quite the colorful trio. Charlotte, the conservative wanna-be wife, Miranda the cynical and uncommited lawyer, and Samantha, the seductive man user share countless sotries over martini's and sushi.


 * But are these Representations of Women accurate?**

Carrie and her friends do not represent the average woman. They represent what women should be like in today's society by media's standards. “Television typically glamorizes skinny models who do not resemble the average woman. In fact, today's models generally weigh 23% less then the average woman”(Witmer, 2006) To etch the physcological effects that such simplistic forms of media (i.e. TV shows like //Sex in the City//) has on it’s veiwers, consider the following: · A 1996 study found that the amount of time an adolescent watches soaps, movies and music videos is associated with their degree of body dissatisfaction and desire to be thin (Tiggemann & Pickering, 1996). · In a study among undergraduates media consumption was positively associated with a strive for thinness among men and body dissatisfaction among women (Harrison & Cantor, 1997). · In a study on fifth graders, 10 year old girls and boys told researchers they were dissatisfied with their own bodies after watching a music video by Britney Spears or a clip from the TV show "Friends" (Mundell, 2002). (Statistics retrieved from the ‘National institute on Media and the Family’; Media Effects on Girls, Body Image and Gender Identity)


 * Criticism: A Bad Name for Women**

Not only do the characters hone in on sex in their discussions, they seem to associate the number of male partners they have, with their own independence. Samantha, never wanting to get emotionally involved, lures men into her lair, uses them, and gets rid of them. For a show that is supposed to represent women of the 21st century, it seems to promote women’s lack of respect for men and essentially themselves. Ironically, these women have turned into what women of the real world have fought against, inequality. “Carrie and her friends appeared to be man-crazy. But the men they wanted, they wanted only on their own terms. That, at least, was a giant leap for womankind.”(Moore, 2004) Or was it? The promotion of a woman’s self-sufficiency is stressed, but is it the message you get when listening to Carrie’s thoughts which nullifies her positive image; ‘//why couldn’t I have a deeper relationship with the man I have shallow sex with?’// It's quotes like these that flood the scripts of Sex and the City and are absorbed by an influencial audience. The youth of today want to grow up quickly and its sitcoms like this that they take examples from. It's those 'Sex and the City' types again, he said, rolling his eyes in sympathy. Such belittling asides used to be reserved for inebriated stockbrokers or the so-called bridge and tunnel crowd. Now, they are being liberally used against women who seem to have adopted a beefed-up version of the style and behavior of the characters on the HBO series "(Chaplin, 2001).

A sitcom with similar qualities to Sex and the City can seen in the newest hit Desperate Housewives.


 * __Sources__**

Chaplin, Julia. 2001. //I'm Stylish, I'm Single and I'm Not Carrie Bradshaw//. New York Times (Late Edition (east Coast)), p. 9.1. August 26. Retrieved from Telecom database. (Document ID: 78785666) at: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=78785666&Fmt=3&clientId=43106&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Feminism and Women’s studies. (2006).Media effects on Girls, Body Image and Gender Identity. Retrieved on Novemeber 22nd from : [|__http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_mediaeffect.shtml__]

Gedalof, Allen J. et al. //Cultural Subjects: A Popular Culture Reader//. Canada: Thomspon Nelson, 2005.

Mansfeild, Stephanie. (2000). USA Weekend Magazine Retrieved on Dec 1st, 2006 from: [|__http://www.usaweekend.com/00_issues/000528/000528s_j_parker.html__]

Moore, Frazier. 2004 Sex and the City's key to success: :[Final Edition]. Edmonton Journal,p. E11. February 20. Retrieved, from Canadian Newsstand Major Dailies database. (Document ID: 552024371) at: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=552024371&Fmt=3&clientId=43106&RQT=309&VName=PQD

//Sex and the City//. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 30 Nov. 2006 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_the_City#Distribution_and_syndication >.

Witmer, Denise (2006). Body Image, Teens and the Media. Retrieved on December 1st, 2006 from: [|__http://parentingteens.about.com/od/bodyimage/f/media_bodyimage.htm__]