My roommate and I started watching Sex and the City this week and we just finished the first season. It is a very popular show that premiered in 1998 and concluded with two movies in 2008 and 2010. Neither of us had watched more than a couple of episodes before, so we decided it can be a fun bonding activity. The show follows the female lead – Carrie – who is a New York journalist writing about sex and relationships. A typical episode has her exploring an article idea of some kind while going to fabulous parties, talking with her girlfriends (Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha) and analyzing her encounters with her love interest – Mr. Big.
In fact, Mr. Big (Carrie’s love interest) is the personification of that norm. He is a successful, rich businessman (who is also white, heterosexual, Christian and able-bodied). Throughout the show there is also the running idea that he is out of Carrie’s league. This further supports the dominant social hierarchy – the mythical norm is at the top and everybody who are not a representation of that are ranked based on how many of the desired characteristics they have. As Carrie is a woman and someone not as rich (as evidenced by her admitting to having some financial trouble), she places lower on the hierarchy. Further, a very noticeable aspect of the first season is the glaring lack of people of color or people with disability. As far as I noticed, there were no people who are members of those groups that had a significant enough appearance in the show (by that I mean either a speaking role or appearing for more than a couple of seconds in passing). Further, there seemed to be no representation of people who are not wealthy or good looking. Finally, the few times there were people of ethnicities other than American represented (notably, all of them also Caucasian, just with an accent), they were shown in a very stereotypical and overly sexualized way. That exclusion and underrepresentation of all groups of people not belonging to the idealized majority (white, wealthy and thin), reinforces the message about power structures based on race and socio-economic status.
1 Comment
11/16/2022 06:08:07 am
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AuthorMaggie Zlatanova Archives
May 2021
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