The Postfeminist Fairytale in Sex and the City - Case Study Example

The Postfeminist Fairytale in Sex and the City Once upon a time in a land far away, a beautiful, independent, self assured princess happened upon a frog as she sat, contemplating ecological issues on the shores of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow near her castle. The frog hopped into the princess’ lap and said: Elegant lady, I was once a handsome prince, until an evil witch cast a spell on me. One kiss from you, however, and I will turn back into the dapper, young prince that I am and then, my sweet, we can marry and set up housekeeping in your castle with my mother, where you can prepare my meals, clean my clothes, bear my children, and forever feel grateful and happy doing so. That night, as the princess dined sumptuously on a repast of lightly sautéed frogs legs seasoned in a white wine and onion cream sauce, she chuckled to herself and thought . . . I don’t f**king think so. (Haase 2004 p. 197) Introduction Women, who once labored under the ideal of the Ozzie and Harriet concept of gender roles in which vacuuming in pearls, a dress and heals was the perfection of the female identity, have broken free from these ties to the home that created a limit on achievements and goals. However, in changing the role of the woman in society, the perception of the female identity has evolved into an all encompassing version of perfection that is even more unattainable. As the entertainment media struggles with the concepts of the princess on the pedestal versus the capable and goal oriented modern woman, ideals of perfection have crossed reasonable boundaries and set women up for a deep sense of failure. In HBO’s series based on Candace Bushnell’s novel, Sex in the City, four female characters struggle with the multiple aspects of the post-feminism in balance with the desire for interpersonal relationships and the creation of what is considered well-balanced lives. In a continuation of the objectification of women, the modern female identity in the media is one of absolute perfection in all aspects of life. Women are expected to be high achievers in their careers, gourmet cooks, perfect housekeepers, sexually experimental with libidos in overdrive, and able to leap tall buildings in four inch Manolo Blahniks wearing this year’s Roberto Cavalli. Bodies are expected to be tight and worked out, hair is expected to be perfect, smooth, and without a hint of grey - ever, and facial features are expected to remain youthful and without lines or drag well past the age of fifty. However, in the HBO series, Sex and the City, the four women who were the focus of the ensemble characters openly struggle with these issues while exuding attractive Roberto Cavalli Spring/Summer 2005 - Illus. 1 Manolo Blahnik Shoes from Neiman Marcus Illus 2 qualities that are both feminist and feminine. The Characterizations in Sex in the City Carrie Bradshaw, Samantha Jones, Charlotte York, and Miranda Hobbes are the four main characters of the HBO series, Sex and the City (1998 - 2004), in which Carrie Bradshaw writes a feature article of the same title where she explores the ways in which men and women relate to one another in contemporary society. Each of the characters reflect aspects of feminism while trying to balance those aspects against the search for sexual fulfillment and love. Carrie Bradshaw is an artistically inclined woman who covets expensive fashion while struggling to commit to journalistic prose her experiences and observations of herself and her friends in regard to their relationships with men. Serving as the central character, she has a cavalier attitude toward her career, although it is an important aspect of her identity. She has a crucial passion for all things fashion, spending more on a single pair of shoes than many average women spend on rent. The shoes featured above are a favorite designer of Carrie, Manolo Blahnik, and are priced at $745, a mid-price for this particular brand. Charlotte York can be considered the anti-feminist, believing in the power couple marriage that is based on a deep sense of romantic love. She desires a life bound by rigid morals and developed on a modern version of Victorian standards. This is not to suggest that she is without a sexual identity, but she is the antithesis to the character of Samantha who epitomizes the sexually uninhibited high powered career woman who is not in need of a man to fulfill her life. Miranda Hobbes, on the other hand, is a driven career woman with a pragmatic attitude toward her life. She desires a man to be a part of her life, but recognizes that she cannot depend on one to appear in her life. At times her character is embittered by her recognition of this fact. She is strong, but does not enjoy the burden of her independence. Feminism versus the Fairytale of Love The quality of post-feminism that dominates the media interpretation of the female identity is that she can have everything and it is a matter of choosing to achieve, rather than having those things imposed upon her. However, the need for a male companion appears to contradict some of what the feminism of the 1970’s and 1980’s seemed to promote. In the search for equality, the need for a male counterpart was definitive of a lack of emotional independence and could be weaponized against the concept of equality that was desired. Only in complete autonomy could equality be achieved. This standard of autonomy that was then counterbalanced by a need to find a mate suggests that “the reigning psychological theories had the effect of giving scientific sanction to age-old beliefs about the inferiority of women. If women were judged by male standards, they would always come off looking second best” (Lasch 1997, p. 122). In following the biological imperatives to join with a male, the female was therefore diminished. However, those biological imperatives do exist in both men and women. The story of Big and Carrie in Sex and the City - a storyline that spans the series and the film of 2008 - creates a forum for the discussion of the need for love versus the need for autonomy. The romance between Carrie and Big had that classic quality of the man who cannot commit - at least not to her - and created the dilemma by which many modern women are plagued. Big would find redemption at the end of the series by “His recognition of emotional dependency, the male side of the romance bargain, ensuring that when, as a redeemed Prince Charming, he is sent on a mission to rescue Carrie” (Thornham 2007, p. 79). In taking on this mission and finally embracing his need to be with this woman he has transformed through “discovery of the nuturent, essentially ’feminine’ which will complete him”(Thornham 2007, p. 79). Eventually, by the end of the film, marriage has occurred between the couple and the classic romance has found a completed journey that might be viewed as an anti-feminist sentimentality. The strength, however, of the post-feminist is in the acknowledgement that while equal, women are different than men. As well, the concept of autonomy should not be a goal beyond the economics of self-sufficiency. Being capable of surviving on one’s own is very different than choosing to do so over surviving within a partnership. According to post-feminist theory, “ As a theoretical perspective (as opposed to empirical claim), post-feminism implies that given the diversity of womanhood it is problematic to assume that feminism is based on a unified subjectivity (as in the idea of a ’universal sisterhood’, for instance) so that if there is no universal woman as the subject of feminism, it is logical to argue that contemporary theories of sexual differences are post-feminist”(Abbot 1997, p. 53). Therefore, as the characters within Sex and the City embrace their feminine aspects while maintaining an economic autonomy, they are exemplifying the post-feminist ideal. Having the capability to create full lives that embrace their sexuality as much as they can succeed in a professional environment does not create a diminished capacity and desire for a mated relationship. Embracing this need does not diminish their equality. By the end of the series, all four women have found fulfilling romantic partnerships with men. Charlotte is in a relationship that constitutes a romantic love that embraces her feminine ideals without diminishing her as an individual. She has been through relationships that equated her ideals with inferiority, but in the relationship that she ultimately settles into she is not diminished by her ideals, but valued for those aspects of her personality. Miranda has become the self-sufficient working wife and mother, juggling all the aspects of her identity with pragmatic grace and dignity. Samantha finds love with a younger man, maintaining her autonomy and establishing herself as the alpha by virtue of an age difference, although by the end of the subsequent film she has disassociated herself with this man because of a subversion of her autonomous identity. She gave up her life in order to join him in Los Angeles and could not reestablish her identity, but instead became an extension of his life. The moral of Samantha’s story is that it is more important to retain one’s identity than to lose one’s self for the hope of love. Love cannot exist if the identity has been subverted. The theme of identity in relationship to love was a dominant theme within the series. At the end of the series when Carrie has moved to Paris to be with her love interest, Alex, portrayed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, she finds that she has sacrificed her identity in order to fit into his life. She declares that “It’s time to be clear about who I am. I am someone who is looking for love - real love - ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, cant-live-without-each-other love”(Thornham 2007, p. 79). However, this love cannot be at the expense of the self. In the context of the story and in the theory of the post-feminist ideal, Carrie could have it all. She could “have not only the fairytale, but also ’a job . . . friends’ and authorship. . . Sex and the City works to invest the fairytale ending with a rather different meaning, rewriting it as a post-feminist narcissism and choice” (Thornham 2007, p. 80). The concept of choosing what aspects of life will constitute the identity is at the heart of post-feminism. Women do not have to be limited by an either career or family type of choice. A proper relationship allows all aspects of the identity to thrive. “The story arc may be reminiscent of those childhood fairy tales we feminists love to deconstruct, but the "Sex and the City" ladies aren't damsels in distress; they're all fully realized women who sought out a meaningful and fulfilling relationship, and eventually found it”( Clark-Flory 2008). In creating storylines that celebrate the female identity, the romantic aspect was carried forward with a strong sense of the self. In posing the relationship of the post-feminist ideal to the concept of romance, Sex and the City embraced the correlation between identity and social interaction by exalting the differences between men and women while embracing the sexual identities of these women without imposing a double standard in morality. The character of Samantha was almost ten years older than the three other characters. A woman in her early forties, Kim Cattrall embraced a role that required her to reveal her body and exalt the sexual identity of Samantha as a woman who was unapologetic for her lust and desire. Her need to dominate was typified by the way in which she sought out conquests, much the way men have been identified as seeking such conquests. By portraying this woman who embraced her sexuality without an oppressive moral code of conduct and without suggesting that her actions should be subject to judgment, the character was able to exemplify the sexual nature of women in a way that allowed the natural aspect of that sexuality to be explored without a diminishing label. Age and Grace: The Search for Self--Assurance While Worshiping at the Alter of Youth and Materialism When the series began, Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie) and Kristin Davis (Charlotte) were 33 years old. Cynthia Nixon (Miranda) was 32 and Kim Cattrall (Samantha) was 42. By the end of the 2008 movie, all of these women were in their forties, except for Kim Cattrall who was in her fifties. The aspect of youth quickly waned during the course of the series, allowing for a glimpse into the sexuality of women as opposed to girls. However, these women did not actually show many signs of age. The standard that was developed was idealized and created a level of achievement that was not realistic in regard to self-maintenance of most women. In developing a commentary on social interactions between men and women, one of the central aspects of this interaction - the consequences of age - were not very visible in relation to what occurs to real women. The entertainment media has embraced the ideal of the female that denies the consequences of aging. In the denial of the real-life consequences of aging, the pressure put on women to be all things is reinforced. Even within the context of post-feminism that creates an atmosphere of choice around the liberated female, it is clear that if a woman has not achieved at all things, her choices are limited because of her failure to maintain an impossible standard. The Hollywood ideal that supports the feminist and post-feminist ideals also suggests that without success on all levels, including in beauty, a woman does not deserve the fairytale reward at the end of the journey. According to Lambert (1995) on beauty, “We need not, then, wait upon the lover to pronounce our beauty, as our appearance (whether or not anyone is there to see it) is the expression of our identity”(11). In other words, the identity of a woman is based on her ability to exude beauty. This is a great deal of pressure to impose on a woman who must also meet all the expectations of the other roles in which she must excel. In the process of creating a post-feminism that allows for the choice of which roles to embrace, the standards required to create the circumstances of choice have become impossible to attain. Another impossible standard developed in the series Sex and the City is the standards of fashion that seem mandatory within the context of the search for a well-balanced life. Few women are immune to the allure of a beautiful shoe, however, by the standards set within the series and the film, the concept of the shoe that is worth many hundreds of dollars sets the bar for acceptable footwear very high. The same is accomplished when addressing the concept of the handbag. Attaining the perfect shoe, handbag, or dress appears to be as vital as maintaining a youthful appearance and a low BMI (body mass index). A pair of shoes is the final thread of connection that pulls Carrie and Big back to one another during the film. The suggestion becomes that if one maintains youth into one’s forties, if the perfect career is attained and great success is achieved, if the perfect pair of Manolo Blahniks sit in your closet, then one deserves the love of a quality man who will not suppress the quintessential essence of the personality and ‘happily ever after’ can be achieved. This version of the Hollywood affirmative response to the post-feminist ideology has created a frightening ideal and has produced generations of women who are feel the weight of constant failure to be all of the things that give them the right to claim all that they want. Conclusion Sex and the City has created a response from women by celebrating all that is feminine while embracing the post-feminist ideals that suggest that, under the right circumstances, a woman can have it all. However, the concept that having it all is contingent upon the success rate at which a sense of personal perfection can be achieved creates a perversion of this ideal that stifles real women in their feelings of inadequacy. In a society that seeks youth and materialistic gains, a women is expected to stay young and to maintain an appearance of wealth, regardless of the actuality of economic circumstances. As in all things Hollywood, the appearance is more important than the substance. Despite this shallow aspect to the series and the film, the characters are developed from a standpoint that their identity is not solely created from their appearance. The careers that they have chosen also help to create their identity and this aspect of their cultivation of the self takes precedence over the search for love. Having the privilege of being able to fully express themselves as contributing members of society is as important, if not more so, as being in an all consuming love affair. In creating this tribute to the post-feminist, who can differentiate herself from the male identity without being deemed as inferior, Sex and the City brings the concept of choice into the open and reveals the power of being able to choose. In the power of this choice, not in the power of economic autonomy, is the essence of equality. Men and women achieve equality when mutual respect of identity is developed and allowed to flourish. List of Illustrations Illus. 1 Roberto Cavalli Spring/Summer 2005. Available at http://images.search.yah oo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%3Fei %3DUTF-8%26p%3DRoberto%2BCavalli&w=225&h=450&imgurl= www.ruggedelegantliving.com%2Fa%2Fimages%2FMilan.Roberto.Cavalli.2005. jpg&size=12.6kB&name=Milan.Roberto.Cavalli.2005.jpg&rcurl=http%3A%2F% 2Fwww.ruggedelegantliving.com%2Fa%2F003096.html&rurl=http%3A%2F%2F www.ruggedelegantliving.com%2Fa%2F003096.html&p=roberto+cavalli&type=j peg&no=3&tt=77%2C595&oid=ffcafc6afb3398ee&tit=Milan.Roberto.Cavalli.20 05.jpg&sigr=11gn4load&sigi=1233nkv1a&sigb=11p9cihlh Illus. 2 Manolo Blahnik Shoes 2009 Neiman Marcus. Available at http://www. imanmarcus.com/store/catalog/templates/EntrySC.jhtml?itemId=cat000209&pare tId=cat000199&masterId=cat000149&navAction= List of References Abbot, P., Wallace, C. & Tyler, M. (1997). An introduction to sociology: Feminist perspectives. New York: Routledge. Clark-Flory, T. (17 April 2008). “Feminism vs. ‘Sex and the City’”. Salon. Available at http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/04/17/satc/ Haase, D. (2004). Fairy tales and feminism: New approaches. Fairy-tale studies. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. Lambert, E. Z. (1995). The face of love Feminism and the beauty question. Boston: Beacon Press. Lasch, C. (1997). The new radicalism in America: (1889 - 1963) ; The intellectual as a social type. New York [u.a.]: Norton. Thornham, S. (2007). Women, feminism and media. Media topics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Preparing for the Case Study What Kind of Feminism is Represented in Sex in the City? Research Questions 1. How is the representation of women changing in popular culture? 2. How are women represented in general in the media? 3. How does the representation of women in the late 1990’s and the early 2000’s changed from previous decades? 4. How is the representation of women feminine sexuality in developed in popular television? 5. How is the postmodern feminist fairytale represented in Sex in the City? The Main Research Question How are the two dominant ideals of female subjectivity present in post feminism: female autonomy and personal love relationships of equality, both useful in their ability to provide reference points and frameworks that inform peoples social experiences - how are these ideals represented in Sex in the City? Outline I. Introduction II. Background The Characterizations in Sex in the City III. Theory1: How does post-feminism and the fairytale of love balance in the search for identity and autonomy within a loving relationship balance within the story lines Feminism versus the Fairytale of Love IV. Theory 2: How is the concept of the idealized self stand in conflict with the success of self actualization in regard to achieving the concept of choice? Age and Grace: The Search for Self--Assurance While Worshiping at the Alter of Youth and Materialism V. Conclusion Working Bibliography Barker, C. (2004). The Sage dictionary of cultural studies. London: Sage Publications. Bernard, Jessie. (September 1974) “Age, Sex and Feminism” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol. 415. pp. 120-137. Byerly, C. M., & Ross, K. (2006). Women and media: A critical introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. Clark-Flory, T. (17 April 2008). “Feminism vs. ‘Sex and the City’”. Salon. Available at http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/04/17/satc/ Dines, G., & Humez, J. M. (2003). Gender, race, and class in media: A text-reader. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Haase, D. (2004). Fairy tales and feminism: New approaches. Fairy-tale studies. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. Jordan, M. (2007). Sex and the city uncovered: Exposing the emptiness and healing the hurt. Nashville, Tenn: B & H Pub. Group. Lambert, E. Z. (1995). The face of love Feminism and the beauty question. Boston: Beacon Press. Lasch, C. (1997). The new radicalism in America: (1889 - 1963) ; The intellectual as a social type. New York [u.a.]: Norton. Thornham, S. (2007). Women, feminism and media. Media topics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Kingston, A. (2005). The meaning of wife. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Woodward, K. (1997). Identity and difference. Culture, media, and identities. London: Sage in association with the Open University. Read More