Sex and the City

Yesterday, after sleeping in LATE, even for me, I spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch watching all of Season One of Sex and the City. I was sorta' disappointed. Does the show get better in later seasons? Specifically, I hated their portrayal of marriage and pregnancy.

The show seemed to suggest was that people only married once they finally "caved in" to growing up and settling down. Usually women settled for less than perfect mates for money and security, thereby sacrificing something of their selves. Then they only got pregnant to validate their self worth. However, through pregnancy they actually end up forsaking every shred of their individuality and become part of some society mandated mass-think organization. It was a very bleak portrayal. For example, it appeared rather degrading to women to illustrate the pregnant mom, one-time party-girl and extrovert, suddenly having a massive breakdown after seeing her "city friends" again at her baby shower. The women became so dissatisfied with her changed life, and apparent loss of identity, that in a fit she takes a cab to NY. Here she crashes a party where she makes an ass of herself by trying to take her clothes off for a come-back peep-show and is ready to start hammering drinks. As though pregnancy was not only a "cult" she had fallen victim to (as Miranda proposes) but it also some how shut down her ability to think logically and act sanely. Of course I am particularly sensitive about this topic! :-)

It just kinda made me sad to watch a show that was supposed to be an innovation in portraying women as strong and intelligent beings, in every way equal to men... mock the very parts of our femininity that truly make us amazing creatures. The women on the show were only seen as equal and powerful when they were preforming high powered careers and having casual sex. And of course women can do these things with equal zeal and proficiency as men. And I certainly DO NOT want to suggest that for a women to become self-actualized she must get married and bare children, because of course that is nonsense. It just disturbed me that Sex and the City seemed to suggest that if a women married and had children she suddenly became less of a person. I noticed that the only one of the characters that longed for marriage and pregnancy was Charlotte, who is also portrayed as being naive and very much a traditionalist.

Any way, I haven't given up on the series. Of course it is fun to live vicariously through these women with successful careers and wild if capricious sex lives. And I realised that the portrayal of marriage and children is through THEIR eyes. Through the perspective of women who either do not want to have committed relationships or by other reasons never had successful committed relationships. Of course they seem bitter and sceptical of marriage and family. I am interested to see how the show progresses. I know Miranda eventually gets pregnant and becomes a mother. I wonder how the show depicts that? All and all , it was a fun way to waist an afternoon, and now a morning in contemplation.