"Woman in Charge, Women Who Charge", by Judith Warner

[wlotus]

New York Times
Published: June 5, 2008
In a nation indifferent to the sexist attacks on Hillary Clinton, no wonder a film like "Sex and the City" is a hit.

"Is it a coincidence that the bubbling idiocy of “Sex and the City,” the movie, exploded upon the cultural scene at the exact same time that Hillary Clinton’s candidacy imploded?

Literally, of course, it is. Figuratively, I’m not so sure."

Read the rest...

Comments

[verucas-chaos.livejournal.com]

No even seems to get that it isn't a coincidence. I believe we are living on the edge of a scenario not far from the fictional future created in The Handmaid's Tale. Women are wearing figurative scarves over the faces in America right now. Soon they will be all the rage in the fashion industry and, not so far into the future (probably near the end of my life) woman will once again become property. The dichotomy of Sex in the City and back to family values in the good ol' USA is really not so much of a mystery to me anymore. Men get what they want....women get it for them. Hillary threatened that future.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

And the people who sound the alarm are accused of being fear-mongerers and of exaggerating. ESPECIALLY if they are women.

[ciardhapagan.livejournal.com]

Exactly. And the media tells young people that the vapidness of sex in the city is "feminism" and they buy it, and the propaganda that they were sold that feminist activists are "feminazis" etc...

[iswari.livejournal.com]

I know so many women who are into Sex and the City. I watched ONE episode and had to turn it off midway through because I could feel my brain cells rapidly dying. What passes for "feminism" these days is really disturbing.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

...I could feel my brain cells rapidly dying.

LOL!!!!!!!!!! I had the same reaction when I just heard about the show. I have never sat through a minute of any of the episodes, thank goodness. I'm traumatized enough from what I saw of "Flavor of Love 3"; I don't need to add "Sex and the City" to the injuries my brain sustained.

[ciardhapagan.livejournal.com]

I half listened to about five minutes of one show- I was typing out a blog, and was so disgusted by the vapid stupidity of what I heard I had to stop typing and get up and find the clicker. Gah! It makes the worst Naruto anime filler episode sound like Shakespeare!

It never ceases to amaze me that a Japanese anime (from a manga) targetted to 10-15 year old boys has some the most positive portrayals of strong, intelligent, self-reliant girls and women without making them into faultless "sues" of anything I've ever watched. The manga/anime series Naruto. Especially the second part of the anime (not here in the US yet, but the manga translations of part 2 started at the beginning of the year. Even in part 1 of the anime/manga I didn't feel like my intelligence as a reader was being insulted, nor that the female characters were sexist stereotypes- in fact, especially in the manga- trying to play the stereotypical subordinate role was portrayed as a bad choice for girls. But you didn't get the thing you often get in US and European shows when guys do write "tough chicks". No, the strong women in Naruto act more like real women do, they aren't male sex toys- far from it! They expect respect from their male companions, and if they fall in love they don't become the guy's hot to trot girlfriend. I've seen manga and anime even written by guys trending this way for some years, but Naruto is the best so far.

[iswari.livejournal.com]

I think SATC bothers me more, just because with Flavor of Love, there is no pretense about the women being empowered. *shudder*