It's fairly safe to say that just about everyone of the female gender has heard of Sex and the City. Sex and The City has become so synonymous with pop culture, specifically female pop culture, that in 2009 The Guardian named Bradshaw as an icon of the decade, stating that "Carrie Bradshaw did as much to shift the culture around certain women's issues as real-life female groundbreakers."
And this is certainly true. The show addressed sexual boundaries, women's roles in the professional world, and whether or not four, single, flesh and blood women in their thirties could truly "have it all." Yet despite the show's ability to break new ground in the world of the modern woman in terms of content, none of the four main characters themselves are particularly groundbreaking when it came to typical gender roles. Carrie Bradshaw may have asked the question "If it is instantly clear that a person, a place, or even a profession is not for you, is it better to ignore your better judgment and read between the lines, or should you judge a book by its cover?", yet she never really seemed to learn from the answers she got. The four main characters, Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha, generally conform to one female stereotype or another.
The most obviously "typical" woman is Charlotte.
"Everyone needs a man. That's why I rent. If you own and he still rents, then the power structure is all off. It's emasculating. Men don't want a woman who's too self-sufficient."
If this was coming from a housewife-to-be in the 1950s in the suburbs, this wouldn't exactly be too out of the blue of a statement. But considering the show is set in the 90s, in New York City, I find it a little surprising (and personally insulting) that Charlotte, who is the most stereotypical gender role fulfilling character, is the only one of the foursome to end up happily married without a single hiccup by the end of the second movie. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting married and having kids, the fact that the show is marketing the idea that that is the only way to get through middle age without a hitch is more than a little bothersome. For a show that was so focused on the idea of women "having it all", none of the four women were made happy at the end of the series by each other or their jobs. They all ended up, as all Hollywood women do, settling down. Carrie was rescued from Paris by Mr. Big, Samantha gave up a life of sex for a life of monogamy, Miranda chose 'married with kids' over her job, and Charlotte got married and moved to the Upper East Side.
For a show that was so innovative in so many other ways, it's a shame that at the end of the day, typical gender roles still peeked through. Has the idea that the only way a woman should be is married penetrated so far into our society that even a show entitled Sex and The City still ends up being Married with Kids?
Works cited:
Sex And The City. HBO. Television.http://www.pollsb.com/photos/o/754-charlotte_york.jpg
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