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To think SATC is a terrible representation of women?

156 replies

BlueNeighbourhood1 · 11/03/2018 11:40

I'm 34 now so probably should've watched this in my younger years but I was way too into Friends.

Ive started at the beginning and one season in and Carrie is absolutely awful! She basically has every red flag we say men have but in a woman. Possibly narcisstic and everything is all about her, how was she a role model in the 90's?!

Or is it just me and she's still an icon?

OP posts:
BeastInView · 11/03/2018 12:03

I saw an episode recently and the thing that struck me was how grainy the camera work was. We're so used to HD nowadays that it looked like it had been filmed on a camcorder.

expatinscotland · 11/03/2018 12:09

Aiden was a twonk. He was always trying to change Carrie to suit him - nagged about her smoking, nagging her into camping and shit.

DaisyInTheChain · 11/03/2018 12:13

I watched it when it came out, now I think back to what I watched, it's basically friends but with a twist.

I've never in my adult life had anyone say oh you have that post sex glow tell me all.

I wouldn't even say it's a British thing, it's a what happens in the bedroom stays there thing.

Birdsgottafly · 11/03/2018 12:16

"Back then, it was nice (unusual) to have a show in which all the main characters were women who (usually) were nice to each other. And talking about expecting to enjoy sex (I know, shocking...) "

I watched it, at a time I was happily single, thinking the description above would be what the show was about.

All I saw was needy, whiney, spoilt, selfish Women whose aim in life was to snag a Husband. They didn't value or empower each other, at all.

It was a terrible show.

TSSDNCOP · 11/03/2018 12:16

They are extremes of types of people, and they have to be extremes for the plot lines to work. They’re all flawed but that’s the point. The series was if it’s time, but at that time it was totally new and fun. Try and spit how many times everyone except Sam gets to keep their underwear off on though.

LassWiADelicateAir · 11/03/2018 12:19

I read the book on which the series is based - a collection of Candace Bushnell's columns. It was one of the most soulless things I've ever read

Wasn't it dreadful. The television charcaters are actually much nicer than in the book.

Idontbelieveinthemoon · 11/03/2018 12:20

I think it hasn't stood the test of time well but in it's day it offered something to young women to say "hey, we're all fucked up and ridiculous and it's absolutely ok that we don't have our shit together". A huge amount of what I watched on tv as a twenty-something contained perfect-looking perfect-sounding females in perfectly organised families who fulfilled one another and never really pushed the boundaries.

SATC never offered perfection; they were flawed and awful and whiny and navel-gazing but they never pretended to be otherwise. That's why I enjoyed it. Because real life in my twenties wasn't Kardashian-style-flawlessness-and-perfect-white-walls it was fucked-up shenanigans and bullshit men and bullshit women whining and winging their way through things.

I always liked Charlotte but felt she was pretty wet until the part where she watched the Liz Taylor documentary and forced herself to go to Brady's first birthday party. Cried for at least half an hour at that and I'm dead inside.

LassWiADelicateAir · 11/03/2018 12:21

Aiden was a twonk. He was always trying to change Carrie to suit him - nagged about her smoking, nagging her into camping and shit

Oh he was awful. Such a self righteous prat.

witchofzog · 11/03/2018 12:22

I love that article. Dick Grin

DSHathawayGivesMeFannyGallops · 11/03/2018 12:22

I love it. When I was single I found the dating types encountered and the questions asked were still pretty bang on. I wouldn't necessarily ape the behaviour of the main 4 but it dealt with a lot of what I saw. I also don't think Big is all bad ib season 1/early season 2. He's rational, Carrie is a bunny boiler. He gets a shitty make-over with the Natasha-marriage though x

TheQueenOfWands · 11/03/2018 12:23

She was such a hypocrite.

Remember when she asked one of her friends to hoik her diaphragm out for he because she was too helpless to do it herself?

But when Miranda exposed one tiny nipple with which to feed a child Carrie freaked out and left? "Miranda, you're a mother...!" Subtext being that now Miranda's life had some meaning and was no longer fascinated by shoes she wasn't worth spending time with.

And when she had a go at Charlotte for not giving her 30k to buy her crappy bedsit because no other flats in the area had enough room for her shoes.

FFS. Who behaves like that?

Dozer · 11/03/2018 12:25

I mainly enjoyed the clothes, jokes

Also enjoyed all the lead actors, particularly Kim Catrall who was fabulous, and Chris Noth who was so convincing as dickhead “Big”.

I liked charlotte when she divorced the twin peaks guy due to his erectile dysfunction and mummy issues, got to keep an extremely posh apartment and then found love with her divorce lawyer.

Tartyflette · 11/03/2018 12:25

I also particularly disliked the way Carrie changed from being forthright with her own opinions when she was with her girlfriends to being giggly, coy and uber-girly when she was trying to get with a man or in the early stages of a relationship.

The way the writers changed her personality to make it more man-friendly in order to 'catch' a male specimen made me cringe. At least Miranda and Samantha were allowed to be naturally themselves and it worked better, they came across as more honest characters.

Clearoutre · 11/03/2018 12:28

I happened to watch one episode with my mum - it HAD to be the one with Samantha having sex in about 10 different positions didn’t it!! (including on a chair on the bed I think)

LoisWilkersonsLastNerve · 11/03/2018 12:29

I thought it was bad then and really didn't get the hype. I'm doing a slow hand clap now at the amount of retrospect hand wringing Grin

AnnaMagnani · 11/03/2018 12:31

Miranda was nice, had a career and then they lumbered her with Steve. I mean he was a nice guy but it just wasn't believable she would have dated him.

Samantha was fun and it was great seeing someone who knew what she wanted. But then SJP fell out with Kim Cattrall and made her storylines ridiculous.

Again, Charlotte was nice and had a serious job with her own gallery. And then they turn her into a lady who lunches with a gay best friend, bitching about everything and with more money than sense.

Carrie - there are no words. I suppose 'style icon' is code for 'wears bloody awful clothes'. Hugely irritating. I never knew how the other 3 put up with her, let alone the boyfriends.

DaisyInTheChain · 11/03/2018 12:33

The whole Big thing was what got to me, even as a young woman I thought he's obviously not that into you move on.

Do we all have a Mr Big?

Peanutbuttercups21 · 11/03/2018 12:36

I watched religiously with a good friend, drinking margaritas, every Tuesday we'd get together to work our way through 2-3 episodes....a fabuloys break from our martyred mum_of toddlers existence!

I used to love the friendships, the clothes, the NY cocktails and taxi lifestyles, I liked Mr Big for being sexy yet unavailable.

I like that Carrie was not pretty, but she acted like she was (if that makes sense), I liked the confidence of the women though I thought Charlotte was a bit wet.

Then I rewatched an episode a few years ago, and it is soooo dated and unwatchable Shock

IwantedtobeEmmaPeel · 11/03/2018 12:39

I must admit when it first came out I loved the show and was very taken with the fashion and the glamourous nightlife & the idea of these great friendships, however even I could see how needy and insecure Carrie was, and some of those outfits - the poncho she wore at the picnic, I mean WTF. I started off wanting to be Carrie & ended up really liking Miranda & Samantha. Actually a lot of the time I loved the character of Samantha, she was tough, shrewd and honest about how she loved sex - she also gave the best description of a blow job I have ever heard.

JazzHandsJack · 11/03/2018 12:39

I loved it. Blush

IwantedtobeEmmaPeel · 11/03/2018 12:50

You know what, I think it's time I blew the dust off my box set and re-watched it Grin, just wish I had some cranberry juice for my cosmopolitan.

VladmirsPoutine · 11/03/2018 12:54

They reveal that people are not perfect, that human nature is flawed. To err is to be human.

All that said, they were all in a way caricatures - the sexually liberated promiscuous one, the wholesome one, the badass lesbian lawyer and finally the very lost narcissistic one.

Chattycat78 · 11/03/2018 12:55

I used to love it in the nineties. When I watch it now I’m the same age as them in the show (or older!) i can see the flaws I suppose but hey I’ll still watch it if it’s ever on!

FrannyAndZooeyGlass · 11/03/2018 13:02

Funny how Dallas was on of the most popular programmes on telly with a main male protagonist who was selfish, greedy and unfaithful.

Likewise Breaking Bad, The Wire, The Shield, Sopranos...all flawed make protagonists.

Then SATC, and we expect "role models"?

Ridiculous.

Carrie was never meant to be a role model. In the episode where Carrie wears the naked dress for her date with Big, she is conforming to what them she thinks the patriarchy tells her is sexy. Then when he says "interesting dress", she is peeved. She wants Big to respond to her in the way she wants all the time and he rarely does. But the reality is he DOES find it sexy and 2 minutes later they are snogging in the back of the limo. It plays with expectations: Carries and ours.
And that's why their relationship was interesting to watch. She is narcissistic, neurotic, silly and superficial. She is also a good friend, clever and witty.

Watch it for role models and you will be disappointed. Watch it for complex women who take centre stage and entertain, you'll be fine.

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