Antonia's Take on Sex and the City

First of all, I don’t think the film or the show represent a singular definition of female experience in general--which I think is to their merit--because they include four distinctive female characters with unique situations and perspectives on relationships. The structure of a show allows for lack of resolution (as a ploy to have you tune in next week) that turns out to be more realistic and poignant in my view. But I think the movie dealt with the burden of tying things up at the end quite well as each character’s story promoted a different kind of happiness and fulfillment, with Carrie getting married, and Samantha ending her relationship, both of which was right for them as individuals, and neither of which was promoted as an answer for all women.

The goal of Sex and the City as I see it is to be a contemporary relatable comedy of relationship issues from certain female perspectives. Towards this end, it will define familiar types of people and situations that at worst are cliché and at best are moving and funny, but that I don’t personally find offensive. For example, one complaint might be that it presents a view of women as materialistic. Again, because I don’t think the show tries to be representative of ALL women, I don’t think the show is insinuating that ALL women are materialistic. It even includes Miranda as a counterpoint to the fashion craziness of the other characters, and each of the other characters has personal depth that complicates their materialistic inclinations. Evenso, I don’t think there is anything wrong with taking pleasure in material things in the first place, and in my personal experience, women tend to revel in these things more often then men do. I mean, if I look at myself, 75% of the physical things in the apartment are mine while Matt is more of an ascetic, and I know many women that appreciate visual and material things and many men who don’t even notice them, so I don’t think this is a negative or inaccurate picture to paint at all. And for the sake of visual interest in the medium of television, these extravagances make for a more pronounced aesthetic experience anyhow.