Post feminist attributes:
1) Narratives that explore the diverse relations to power women inhabit,
2) Depictions of varied feminist solutions and loose organization of activism,
3) Deconstructions of binary categories of gender and sexuality, instead of
viewing these categories as flexible and indistinct,
4) The way situations illustrating struggles faced by women and feminists are
raised and examined in the series.
Amanda Lotz found that Sex and the City best exhibited the Post feminist attributes of exploring diverse power relationships of women and deconstruction of the binaries of gender but handled political issues of activism and race either subtly or superficially.
Sex and the City's use of directing and film techniques add to identification with the characters. By first hearing Carrie’s thoughts, and then having the perspective of Carrie as she looks out her window, around her apartment, and then ultimately at her computer screen, the viewer not only gains access to her thoughts, but is actually able to virtually become the character. The combination of hearing the words as she speaks the central question and watching them simultaneously typed on the computer screen is a strong bridge in tying the subject position of the audience to the character.
While the main characters, Carrie Bradshaw, Miranda Hobbes, Charlotte York, and Samantha Jones, are seemingly similar in background and status, one way in which multiple meanings are conveyed is through the unique perspectives of each woman. Miranda is the successful attorney that has a cynical outlook on relationships; Charlotte is the eternal optimist, searching for the perfect man; and Samantha uses sex as its own end, more concerned with pleasure than intimacy. Carrie is the practical one, caught between the reality of her situation as an independent, single woman and their deal that she will one day find her soul mate. While each character is ostensibly true to the stereotype she represents, the plot often involves juxtapositions of traits that make for less consistent, yet more believable characterizations. While specific issues of feminist activism are not portrayed in the text, issues of gender, sexuality, and power are often dealt with by the central question. For example, during Season Three, an episode entitled “Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl” posed the question, “Has the opposite sex become obsolete?” Carrie’s newest boyfriend, having revealed that he had previously dated a man, brought on this dilemma. While Carrie struggled with this confusion, the other characters are dealing with gender ambiguity in separate ways. Miranda is grappling with a relationship with Steve, a clingy boyfriend who seeks a more committed relationship. Miranda is leery about making the decision to move in together. During an argument, Steve accuses Miranda of being the “guy” in the relationship. This causes Miranda to question her own femininity and sends her in near panic to “New York’s newest trend,” the goddess workshop to find her inner goddess. At the same time, Charlotte has met a photographer at her gallery that photographs women in male drag, and he convinces her to pose for him. But during the session, Charlotte feels uncomfortable performing masculinity. She uses excuses like claiming to be “bad at math” or “not able to change a tire,” thus making her incompetent as a man. To inspire Charlotte, the photographer gives her a pep talk about feeling
powerful and dominant, telling her “every woman has a male inside of her.” The scene ends with Charlotte saying, “I think I need a bigger sock,” and falling into passionate embrace with the photographer. Samantha is in a power struggle of her own in this episode in which she has hired a male assistant. The assistant is described as an “alpha dog” and proceeds to run Samantha’s business in an aggressive and arrogant manner. In a final confrontation, he is rude during a client phone call. Samantha subsequently fires him and then propositions him, with the implication made that during sex she would be on top. In the final scene of the episode, Carrie’s relationship with her “bisexual”boyfriend comes to a head when she goes with him to his ex-boyfriend’s birthday party.
A multitude of sexualities and complex relationships are portrayed in that the ex boyfriend is now involved in a committed relationship with another male, and they have a baby together. The baby is the result of an egg that was donated by the exboyfriend’s ex-girlfriend (played by Alanis Morissette) who has recently gone to Hawaii to marry her female partner. Ultimately Carrie describes the party as “Confused Sexuality Land,” and compares herself to the character of Alice in Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole. The scene concludes with a game of Spin the Bottle in which Carrie is kissed by the Alanis Morissette character. Carrie leaves the party resigned to not being comfortable with the deconstruction of the gender roles, chalking up the ambiguity to youthful dalliances. While this scene crushes the potential to grasp the indefinable quality of gender, it does provide one example of the character grappling with her own sexual confusion. What this narrative does is provide a troubling aspect of gender that illustrates the imaginary nature of the social constructions of the
binaries of male and female. Other episodes have dealt with confused gender
roles. In “Belles of the Balls,” the plot is complicated by the fact that the men in which each of the women are involved are acting in a manner that is considered by Carrie to be more stereotypically feminine. “Body image problems, depression, mood swings, late night phone calls, obsessing over relationships. Did I mention these were my male friends?” She poses the question “Are men just women with balls?” Carrie’s exboyfriend, known only as Mr. Big, calls her because he is distraught at having been dumped by his latest girlfriend. At the same time, Carrie’s current boyfriend acts childish when she receives calls from Big. When Steve finds out that he has testicular cancer and must have one of his testicles removed, he acts in what Miranda considers to be a very vain manner in inquiring about receiving a testicle implant. And, Charlotte now married to Trey and trying desperately to get pregnant, asks Trey to have his sperm tested. His response is one that highlights the importance of sperm count to his idea of masculine identity.
While these scenes deal with overt lesbian themes, there are other aspects of Sex and the City as a woman-centered program that could also be deemed a lesbian narrative. Alexander Doty argues that the interest in shows that feature close female friendships is “their crucial investment in constructing narratives that connect an audience’s pleasure to the activities and relationships of women – which results in situating most male characters as potential threats to the audience’s narrative pleasure.” (Doty, 1993: p. 41) Throughout the series, the women characters are portrayed in supportive family roles, as many of the men often disappoint, leave or are left. Often the central question deals with the loss of independence or a change of lifestyle due to a new relationship, thus disrupting the equilibrium of the female relationships of the series. Examples of this carried across the series include Carrie coming to the aid of an ill Samantha or being asked to accompany Miranda home after eye surgery, Carrie joining Miranda when she breaks down walking down the aisle at her mother’s funeral, and Charlotte, upon hearing that Miranda planned to go through with her pregnancy, joyfully proclaiming “we’re having a baby” as if she were the father. These ironic and often surprising twists provide more than simply interesting plots. By positioning the multiple meanings, the audience is able to consider a variety of ways in which an issue might be relevant to them. It also shows the multiplicity of meaning and provides a point that often spurs discussion causing it to be talked about among friends who will find a way to connect it to their own lives. It is this ability to create meaning in the lives of women outside the text that provides possibly the greatest power of the narrative.
Sex and the City can be analyzed, in terms of women’s relationship with fashion, shoes, men, friends, New York City, etc. But looking at the narrative device of the central theme, the main object in Carrie’s life is her laptop computer. Women’s relationship with technology has been a topic under study in regard to the gendering of technology. Carrie’s relationship with her laptop can be analyzed for the accuracy of the portrayal. There is a long standing view that males continue to monopolise technology and the very definition of the word ‘technology’ seems to have a male bias, however, in presenting itself as a postfeminist sitcom Sex and the City reject this idea. The column that Carrie writes for the fictional New York Star situates her in a career that is both virtual and flexible. A self-proclaimed sexual anthropologist, it is this argument that provides the authority of the varied issues the show covers. By positioning Carrie as a freelance columnist, she is free from the workplace relationships that have often confined the contexts of single women in past television series. Carrie’s usage of a laptop computer is a clever device that allows her to be shown in a variety of ways working on her column. Primarily, she is seen in various positions around her apartment, on her bed, at a desk, in a chair, but often Carrie takes to the streets to work on her column, with scenes of her typing in coffee shops and hotel rooms. The presence of technology has changed many traditional workplace interactions, as Sadie Plant found: “all the structures, ladders, and securities with which careers and particular jobs once came equipped have been subsumed by patterns of part-time and discontinuous work which privilege independence, flexibility, and adaptability.” Sherry Turkle, also working with the nature of technology and identity,
found that “the computer offers us both new models of mind and a new medium on which to project our ideas and fantasies.” These theories are consistent in how the laptop and thus Carrie’s relationship with the technology is portrayed in the series. The laptop provides key representations to the narrative. First, it aids in portraying Carrie as a fancy-free type, not chained to a desk or any particular set of circumstances causing us the audience to be envious. Her regular relationships are those of her own choosing, not imposed upon her by family or work status. In one episode, Carrie is compared to a wild stallion that is unable to be tamed. Her chosen career and usage of technology are reflective of that position.
Secondly, by freeing Carrie from the workplace, the action is able to occur in any number of settings, while still portraying her as the career woman. She can travel across country for a book tour or go on vacation and still be considered working, as she contemplates relationship issues that occur in the Hamptons or on a visit to the suburbs. The laptop takes on the role of sexy accessory, as during Season Five, when Carrie is photographed for her book cover. After discarding several pose ideas that were too risqué for her comfort, the chosen shot shows her in a very short, yet smart skirt, holding the laptop in a shy manner near her waist. In contrast, on the cover of the book, Sex and the City, by Candace Bushnell, on which the series is based, Sarah Jessica Parker is photographed in the nude, with only the laptop computer for coverage. But Carrie’s relationship with her computer has been complicated in some episodes. In “My Motherboard, Myself” from Season Four, Carrie’s Macintosh computer crashes and she is frantic as she tries to recover it. Her then boyfriend, Aidan, tries to assist her with the rebooting process, but only makes matters worse while Carrie looks on nervously. The next scene shows the two anxiously waiting for tech support with the laptop wrapped in a pashmina shawl, much like waiting for medical attention in the emergency room. When they are finally called by the technician, they are told that Aidan is a PC guy and Carrie is a Mac person, so therefore incompatible. Aidan later tries to come to Carrie’s side by purchasing a new laptop. Carrie, however, is bothered by Aidan’s need to fix things for her, to make things better. Even though her whole career of columns is on the computer and she is helpless in dealing with the situation, she has trouble receiving help. This is not the typical plot in which boy rescues girl. Carrie knows she needs help, but is afraid to accept it for what it might mean in terms of her own independence and ability to handle situations. By complicating the situation in this manner, the plot is opened to a broader identification with the audience.
While the show does not try to tackle issues of feminist activism nor does it regularly incorporate images of women of color, it is able to offer a “realistic” portrayal in which many in diverse circumstances can still find meaning and perspective on the complicated subject positions of single women in our society. This is why Sex and the City can be considered a post feminist sitcom it shows there is not longer the culture of feminism that was present in the 1960’s. The abnormality of a woman engaged with technology and living an independent career fulfilled life has been completely turned around to the extent that it is perfectly normal to see women like Carrie and her friends lead their high flying promiscuous lives.
