Monogamy, marriage new values at 'Sex and the City: The Movie'

Sun, 07/06/2008 11:37 AM  |  Lifestyle

ADPARA>They were once four savvy single women whose friendships came before love affairs, whose shoes came before a mortgage and whose men never came before they did, or else they'd be thrown out of bed. They were Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte of HBO's instant-hit series Sex and the City.

Ten years after the TV show's debut, promiscuity and independence is replaced with monogamy and marriage in the newly released Sex and the City: The Movie.

Dr. Astrid Henry, gender and women's studies professor at Grinnell College, in Iowa, the United States, and author of the essay Orgasms and Empowerment: Sex and the City and Third-Wave Feminism, said the film was conservative, contrived and inconsistent with the TV series.

"I was bothered by the ending, which has all the women married, except for Samantha, who, at the end of the film, is 'old, fat and alone'. She's left in a sort of 'loser' role, even though she was always happy with her autonomy in the series. The ending of the film makes her seem much more pathetic than the show did," she said, adding the characters had all become more like the character Charlotte in their quests for marriage and monogamy.

Noted writer Ashley Sayeau said the characters had evolved and the transformation from bachelorette to bride was in line with what the characters wanted.

"As in the series, the film did a good job of showing each character come to terms with what she wanted out of her life -- not what society wanted for her, or what men wanted for her, or even her friends, but what she wanted. I loved that Sam became single again," she said.

"The show said to them, if you want to marry, great. If you don't, that's great too. The same goes with the decision to have children or choose a particular career."

In its time, the show received more praise from feminists than criticism.

Dr. Nicola Evans, a media and cultural studies lecturer at the University of Wollongong, Australia, said, "Sex and the City broke new ground in the rather conservative terrain of American sitcoms. It refused to worship at the altar of marriage and monogamy, daring to suggest there might be other objectives in life worth pursuing."

Sayeau said, "It was one of the only series in the last decade that showed independent women making money, having relationships and just existing on their own terms."

Henry said, "The show made people more aware of female sexuality and the idea that women are sexual beings with desires -- and that they have a right to talk about their desires in public."

The show impressed feminists around the world with its portrayal of women as intelligent sexual beings, but critics agree the TV series' socio-economic politics did not reflect most viewers.

"The show represented a particular vision of female empowerment -- one focused on white, economically privileged, working women, who did not seem to be facing any of the traditional forms of oppression addressed by feminism," Henry said.

Evans said, "The series draws on the very familiar and very narrow demographics of TV land where to be visible, women must be white, young, attractive, well-paid and obsessed with expensive shoes."

Sayeau is aware of this skewed demographic, but said there was room for such a depiction on TV.

"Try to remember that it is a work of popular culture, not a literary theory text. As such, it's no surprise that it made certain concessions, like lots of shoes and nudity. But overall, I think the show did a lot more good than it did bad."

"Critics get upset by all the sex the women have, and all the money they make. They call these things as if they are making an aesthetic argument, but in reality it's a moral judgment. In real life, after all, women are making more money than ever and marrying later," she said.

In the film, however, the characters' socio-economic status has been pushed up a notch. The four are depicted as the shopaholics they always were -- times 10. When Samantha is feeling tied down in her relationships, she goes shopping, filling the trunk of her car with Chanel and Gucci goodies as she drives off with her new pooch, resembling a 50-year-old botoxed Paris Hilton.

"The film totally sidesteps questions about money and makes it seem like everyone is now in the upper tier financially, and that having three published books has made Carrie a wealthy woman -- highly unlikely -- who can now afford to give her assistant a US$5,000 designer bag," Henry said.

Sex and the City: The Movie offers a dramatic breakup, a Cinderella marriage proposal, a Vivienne Westwood wedding dress and one perfect husband.

These larger-than-life fantasies will please those looking for glamor and a fairy-tale ending, and will frustrate those hoping the characters had frozen in time just as they were in the TV series -- when it was all about women, sex and the city.

--Angela Dewan and Jemise Anning

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