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Fears of a recession will vanish when the movie of Sex and the City is released this month. High street retailers will cry, "Let a billion sweatshops bloom!" as Chinese labourers work to death stitching knock-off Carrie Bradshaw outfits to satisfy the fashion-lust consuming women who watch it. Food prices will collapse as Western women forgo calories in pursuit of Sarah Jessica Parker's proportions. It will be the biggest economic stimulus since the Marshall Plan.
SATC was a manifesto for modern women, as its heroines neurotically strove after the perfect relationship, wardrobe, cocktail and gay best friend. But while posing as have-it-all divas, they suffered fates any true feminist would die to avoid.
Carrie desperately sought a man who met her high standards. In truth, she was every bastard's dream: a ditz he could string along while playing the field then settle down with when he's too old and fat to get anyone better. That's what Big did.
Sweet and beautiful Charlotte bent over backwards and even changed her religion just to marry a man who looked like Austin Powers's nemesis, Dr Evil. And having reached the summit of her legal career, did spunky Miranda choose a man who matched her intellect and ambition? No. She landed a timid, half-educated handyman she could outsmart and out-earn, whose balls she would break for the rest of his godforsaken life.
Samantha almost had her cake and ate it, making her own money and living with sexual abandon before snaring a kind younger lover. But the scriptwriters knew no woman can bear to see another happy, so gave her cancer to make up for it. SATC was a curse for men, too. As the show's characters flitted from man to man, its audience dreamed of ever greener grass. In the past, women were happy to find a nice bloke and got on with enjoying him. Now, every man's partner subjects him to endless nit-picking discussions about "us". This Bradshaw-induced over-analysis has destroyed more relationships than anything else over the past decade.
If SATC had wanted to empower women, it would have dealt honestly with what really holds them back: their bitchy internecine competition and how they sell themselves short with men. Instead, it sold them the myth that as long as you have the right handbag and enough girlfriends to gossip over brunch with, happiness is only around the corner.
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Actually he's read it wrong, as to be expected. The SATC girls weren't in competition with each other, it was about their friendship that lasted as they went through unsuitable boyfriends. And they learned and eventually found and settled for men that made them happy, even if these didn't fit the archetypical hubby type (as so many Mr Rights don't, but who cares, as long as it works). But importantly, these men were all lovely and loyal– even Mr Big, who seemed a bad bet for several seasons didn't get Carrie until he got over his commitment problems. Most of us find the right person by kissing frogs.
- Helen Maher, West Hampstead
