To think SATC is a terrible representation of women?

[BlueNeighbourhood1]

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?

I also think it is hard

carrie was a horrible person I can't remember one good trait about her, she went on and had an affair with Mr big while he was married, cheated on Aidan, was angry with charlotte for not offering her money. Who does that! I'm surprised she had friends.

I really hated the show,but I used to watch it for the clothes, and for charlotte's fab apartment, but now I can't even believe I found the clothes nice, its really the worst of the noughties fashion , still like charlotte's apartment.

I honk it is also hard to imagine how refreshing it was to hear women talking about diaphragms, and farting after sex, and men with the "funkiest-tasting spunk", and women shagging for fun who were never slapped down as punishment.

I think the problem is imagining them as a representation of "women". They have as much in common with me as I do with a banana, they in no way represent me.

You can have all the opinions about them and the show you want, but don't pretend they, or any other small group of women, either real or fictional, are representative of over half the population of the planet.

I always assumed she was meant to be a dick, and was quite glad that there could be central female characters who are not entirely likeable.

I don't get why if you've got a group of friends on TV, they have personalities that are somewhat polar opposites.

I do wonder if life is like that, given my friends all have mutual interests, we're of similar backgrounds, career wise we differ. We never have split the bill sagas.

The one SATC moment sticks in my mind is that The Lawyer (I think Cynthia Nixon is her real name) or someone was late to dinner due to needing to have sex then, they didn't seem annoyed, they were all tell us, tell us.

Another programme with odd polemics is Girls. Don't know if anyone got past season 2?

Daisy That's because you need polar opposites in order to create friction, and subsequently create drama. It wouldn't have been much of a show if they were all the same and had the same lives.

Granted they were of a similar ilk - they certainly could afford to be drinking $100 cocktails in a New York bar on a Friday night and wear clothes that could probably fund a space mission but you get my wider point?

Actually one thing that only recently struck me about Carrie is that for someone who makes her living as a sex columnist she's really very vanilla. She's shocked at the idea of kissing a woman (was it Alanis Morrisette?) during a game of spin the bottle, she freaks out when the politician guy wants her to pee on him. Anything even slightly kinky sends her into a panicked whirlwind.

Look up mark kermode’s review of SATC2 on YouTube it’s a cracker

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.

Agree but having lived and dated in a city during my twenties and thirties I thought it was actually a pretty accurate representation of just how depressing and soul destroying trying to find a relationship in such an environment can be.

SATC could be really patchy and yes, Carrie is horrific... but I watched it avidly when I'd just moved to London in my early 20s and a lot of scenes really spoke to me. Probably best I never watch it again!

Agree but having lived and dated in a city during my twenties and thirties I thought it was actually a pretty accurate representation of just how depressing and soul destroying trying to find a relationship in such an environment can be.

I agree with this - I had just forgotten.

I honk it is also hard to imagine how refreshing it was to hear women talking about diaphragms, and farting after sex, and men with the "funkiest-tasting spunk", and women shagging for fun who were never slapped down as punishment.

SATC was a refreshing challenge to the hollywood male gaze. Something tv is still awash with.

I read that cosmo article, it omits episodes where Carrie challenged Samantha for not supporting Miranda as a new mother, or where all the friends went to Miranda's mother's funeral with her as family. The show was about friends as family but done with women as centre stage, flaws and all. It was shocking and funny and of it's time, it has been borrowed from ever since. If it seems a bit grainy now that's because tvs have changed a bit in the last couple of decades!

Another here who watched in her single younger career years in London.

Actually Samantha was a great role model for me at the time...to go out and have mutually enjoyable respectful sexual encounters and still lead my own successful independent life.

I had a lot of friends as screwed up as Carrie and as committed as Charlotte to the happy ending life. We rubbed along ok.

And actually I ended up like Miranda very much, sacrificing myself and my time and my career to support a family with a guy with no career interests or goals.

Im the movie I have to say I cheered when she moved out at screamed at him "you broke us".

I always liked Big, and hated the way Carrie did everything to change herself or him to make her ideal relationship.

But you can't deny there aren't people like that in life..

She wasn’t supposed to be a role model, but it’s also 20 years old now so times have changed

Oh it was fantastic at the time real groundbreaking. It was a pleasure to escape from my Northern bedsit and be in NYC one night a week.

Also the fashion was fabulous because it was fun and about people wearing whatever they wanted and I loved every crazy frou frou moment of it.

One time I was chatting with friends and the conversation got on to ‘which character or celebrity do I remind you of?’..my friend said I was like Carrie from SATC and I was mentally offended! Personality or appearance, I wasn’t pleased!

It’s funny how I don’t think they really wanted you to like Miranda, she’s supposed to be uptight and the least fun but now I look back and find her the most relatable character. Best scene in the entire show is when she goes bra shopping for her Mum’s funeral. That was beautifully done.

My best bit was Miranda helping with MIL bathe. Touching.

Actually one thing that only recently struck me about Carrie is that for someone who makes her living as a sex columnist she's really very vanilla

I don't think she was really a sex colmunist, it was much more about relationships than sex.

Someone upthread mentioned that SjP seemed quite shocked when Jonathan Ross said Carrie was an awful character. I’d always assumed that all the actors and actresses in major US TV shows are made to sign something that means they can never say anything bad about the show or its characters.

The way they are all young free single in their late thirties, early forties having casual relationships isn't true to life.

If you watched it when it first aired it was quite revolutionary. I admit that it seems somewhat dated now, but for its time it was a really fresh view and opened up a new conversation. I was at uni when it was on and doing a Women Writing and Feminism course. We regularly talked about it in contrast to the 19th century texts we read. It was really quite modern. I wish you could have seen it at the time, you’d have had a very different experience of it. I remember thinking Friends was the best thing ever, but watching it recently it is very dated and quite uncomfortable to watch!

Tbf though demirose it was NYC, pre 9/11, based on women who were on the periphery of Manhattans elite. I think that made their age and status more realistic than had it been based in Leicester or somewhere

I still love the show, but I never viewed them as role models.