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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:
PoorYorick · 11/03/2018 21:09

Didn't she have a ummm, squirter storyline when she was in the relationship with the artist woman?

I forgot about that, but that's a sex plot, not a poo/wee/fart one.

squoosh · 11/03/2018 21:11

That's true. It was a sexy emission storyline.

Sevendown · 11/03/2018 21:13

pikehau

This life was much better

KERALA1 · 11/03/2018 21:16

Don't read too much into it - it's a tv show why does it have to represent all women?! Does House represent all doctors?

Remember I used to try to be home to watch it every week and mostly missed it as was stuck at work worked until 11 most nights. God it seems a lifetime ago analogue tv in my bed room in shared house working all the time as corporate solicitor in the city. Used to go on lots of dates so that bit was relatable.

Riverside2 · 11/03/2018 21:17

Elton "The sexual humiliation that KC was put through when the others weren’t seems like borderline sexual assault/harassment"

Is that in the TV shows? Because in those, the character with the most partners and sex scenes is....Charlotte.

I was late to that show so started with series 4. 3, 4 and 6 were quite good, the others weren't. Very well paced, great comedy structure. But I doubt it's stood the test of time, I wouldn't watch it again.

squoosh · 11/03/2018 21:21

I remember really enjoying This Life. But I also remember they produced an ill advised sequel too.

SpringHen · 11/03/2018 21:28

SATC wasnt ground breaking at all. It followed a well established formula in the 90s and was preceeded by lots of (at the time) shocking and fresh shows where women talked about enjoying sex. This trend started off good but went down hill as all these shows tried to be more shocking than the last (girlie show, eurotrash etc)

SATC took that and reined it back in a little. The only "fresh" take was that instead of street fashion the women talking about sex were in designer gear. And professionals not ladettes (that had gotten old and tired by the time SATC arrived!)

Ground breaking it was not.
At the time it was just entertainment.
It was love/hate fashion with the odd 90s-ish shock tactic moment.

As time has gone on people have superimposed more meaning to it than it ever had at the time. I think thats mainly because now it feels nostalgic to some people.

PoorYorick · 11/03/2018 21:33

I was surprised at how good the first SATC film was, I wasn't expecting much. Second one was dire though. KC might have knocked it on the head to spare us all.

PoorYorick · 11/03/2018 21:35

I remember The Girlie Show. I wish I didn't.

TheEagle · 11/03/2018 21:38

What other shows spring ? (genuinely curious)

I can’t bare Carrie in the later series, she’s saccharin sweet and trying to be girlish and it’s awful.

I did love it though, tucked up in my bedroom, just at the end of my teens and delving into dating, sex, etc. I lived in a small city and the glamour of NYC life was such a draw.

I don’t think it stands the test of time really but there are some really good episodes that I’d watch over again. The one where Miranda plans an abortion is excellent and I always loved the one where Big and Aidan roll in the mud.

The films were shite, I bawled through the first one as I was also left at the altar and the second one was simply embarrassing.

Kim Cattrall also did a good turn as a Vulcan in Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country

kerryweaverscrutch · 11/03/2018 21:42

SATC wasnt ground breaking at all. It followed a well established formula in the 90s and was preceeded by lots of (at the time) shocking and fresh shows where women talked about enjoying sex

Which other shows were about women and had men as very much secondary characters?

PoorYorick · 11/03/2018 21:42

For me, what set SATC aside wasn't its attitude to sex, relationships and fashion, fun as that was. It was that it really did hinge on female friendships and women liking each other and working their way through inevitable spats because they're all flawed humans. I just can't think of any other programme at the time that was doing that. Friends wasn't just about the women.

senua · 11/03/2018 21:43

We saw SATC when it first aired and didn't rate it then, haven't seen any re-runs but am not surprised to heat that it hasn't aged well.
We used to enjoy hooting "what the heck is she wearing this week?". I agree with a pp who said "I suppose 'style icon' is code for 'wears bloody awful clothes'."
Carrie used to wind me up with her musings to her diary. How can you take seriously a grown woman who sits on her bed like a fourteen year old, asking Big Questions. Sheesh.

squoosh · 11/03/2018 21:50

I suppose sex mad Blanche from the Golden Girls was an earlier version of Samantha. Rose was Charlotte. Dorothy was Miranda. Don't think there was a Carrie equivalent in the Golden Girls though.

IrenetheQuaint · 11/03/2018 22:01

Actually the most embarrassing scene I remember is the one where Miranda's back seized up getting out of the bath and she had to be rescued naked, by Aiden (have I remembered that right?).

TakemedowntoPotatoCity · 11/03/2018 22:20

Oh, the Girlie Show. Sara Cox making vile hand movements and shouting 'Wanker of the Week'.

Glad Ladette culture has died a death.

EachandEveryone · 11/03/2018 22:36

Theres no comparison between those Ladette shows and SATC. It was in New York for a start which made it seem much more glamorous.

Riverside2 · 11/03/2018 23:06

Really surprised by some of these comments

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

Certainly was in mine!im not one for dating but my friends did. One reason I liked the show is it covers so many real life situations, maybe took it to extremes but its a comedy! There's always a gallery opening, party etc etc and you don't need to be rich like they are.

Also, variations of friends? Sure, my group did and does still contain all such variety.

The main difference is money. but I enjoyed the luxury factor. And the apartments were realistic for the salaries, Carrie's was rent controlled and we got a clear pic of what she could afford on the open market when she broke up with Aidan.

Riverside2 · 11/03/2018 23:12

Also it was good on zeitgeist

Like when Carrie says "I stopped watching television when people started putting leeches in their pants".

Gentrification in the meat packing district. Fleet Week! And the way there was always a politically relevant New Yorker cover around.

I didn't rate the films but thank goodness Carrie and Big were childfree by choice. And when they talk about how people react to that - yes, they do react like that.

Riverside2 · 11/03/2018 23:16

SpringHen "This trend started off good but went down hill as all these shows tried to be more shocking than the last (girlie show, eurotrash etc)"

You think writers at HBO made any link with those? I don't. HBO as a brand is a planet away, quite apart from the fact that this is comedy drama and the girlie show was, what, bored make execs at channel 4? No connection that I know of but happy to be corrected.

FrannyAndZooeyGlass · 11/03/2018 23:25

The scene where Carrie goes to the loo in a trendy restaurant and bumps into the woman managing tree bookings who hithertoforth has refused to give her a table is brilliant. The snooty manager asks Carrie for a tampon. And they make a connection that way.

I have been in club toilets and been asked for a tampon by a stranger. It is a uniquely female experience. I recognise it.

I don't need to identify with the Carrie to find the storylines resonate with me.

FrannyAndZooeyGlass · 11/03/2018 23:26

Which tv programme had women talking about tampons in this most ordinary way?

Riverside2 · 12/03/2018 11:10

Also there's the "tampons won't fit in Kate Spade purse".

Samantha saying "if a man gets angry in a meeting, he's a pistol, if a woman does it, she's emotional".

In the sense of wanting characters to behave a certain way, of course there's things wrong with the show but we can't always agree with the writers. For me the biggest disappointment was Miranda ending up with stupid Steve and keeping the baby.

As someone with a "gay husband" I thought they showed those friendships well too. In fact, we don't have many shows that focus on friendship, possibly because Friends dominated that market for so long.

Jeez, I'm going to need to NC as all this story analysis will out me to anyone I know lurking Grin

Herbalteahippie · 23/03/2018 00:31

Carrie is awful!!! Thats what makes good telly!
And she looks like a foot Grin