Matt's Take on "Sex and the City"

****Warning: SPOILERS!!!******

I found some of the portrayal of women in Sex and the City to be kind of offensive. The general impression I got from most of the characters (the redheaded lawyer one being the exception) was that women are vapid, self-absorbed and capable of self-reflection only when pushed by others (which isn't really self-reflection after all, is it?). Why is it that Mr. Big realizes his big mistake just minutes after he leaves his wedding, while it takes Carrie the rest of the movie to see that she was insensitive to real concerns of his that he had tried to express well in advance? Jeeze, that's kind of depressing isn't it? Now given, I didn't have the context of the rest of the relationship from the ealier TV series, but this plotline struck me as particularily negative.

I was also concerned that the movie itself never really showed the women working. The women seem to be materialistic (which in itself if not neccessarily a bad thing) yet how they work to get the money for the designer clothes and whatnot its never portrayed - only referenced in passing. Is looking fabulous, having a lot of social capital and being witty really the key to life? Well, the underlying plot pieces would suggest "no". But if that is not the key to life, why is so much screen time devoted exactly to this?

Finally, don't even get me started about how racist the Jennifer Hudson plot line was. Ms. Hudson (the only black character, btw) comes in as Mammy to help poor old Ms. Parker's Scarlett O'hara put the pieces of her life back together. What does Mammy get in return? A Louis Vuitton purse ("Uh-huh, that's right girl, I got me a real Louis") and a pat on the back to go back to St. Louis (read, poor black city) and marry that black boy from back home. Nevermind that Carrie doesn't seem to impart any of her knowledge of the city or being a successful author to Mammy. Sorry, there's no place for Mammy in NYC - better go back home with your souvenir.