Twenty Years After Sex And The City The 'Real-Life Carrie Bradshaws' Are Wishing They Hadn't Slept A

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
There's only one problem: eventually women do want to settle down. In fact, many of the women who bought into the Sex and the City lifestyle twenty years ago are coming forward to share their regrets. Julia Allison says the show literally “ruined her life.” She says it peddled a “fear of intimacy disguised as empowerment.” Writing for The New York Post, Allison wistfully wonders what her life might have been like if she hadn’t bought into the Sex and the City philosophy. “Perhaps I’d be married with children now?”

In her memoir, Unwifeable, journalist and former dating columnist Mandy Stadtmiller describes how a decade of living the “real-life Carrie Bradshaw” lifestyle left her fearful that there “might be no one out there left for me at all.” She writes, “I told myself I was a feminist,” but, ultimately, she came to realize that happiness came, not from casual sex and no-strings-attached relationships, but from “only revealing [her heart] when someone has proven themselves worthy.”

The fact that the women of Sex and the City ultimately want to settle down is not the unrealistic lie the show sold these women. The lie is that they can settle down after spending their 20s and 30s sleeping around. At the time, it seemed like a radical act of feminism to do away with Prince Charming and focus, instead, on the dress, the shoes, and the physical attraction. After all, as novelist Keira Cass said, “Cinderella never asked for a prince, she asked for a night off and a dress.” But suddenly, with biological clocks ticking and one man after another running away from the thought of commitment, these women are beginning to wonder. Maybe Cinderella knew something they didn’t, after all.




MOORE: Twenty Years After Sex And The City The 'Real-Life Carrie Bradshaws' Are Wishing They Hadn't Slept Around
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
And yet during the course of Sex in the City:

Miranda: uber-feminist and career chickie who had a child with her super sweet occasional one-night guy; finally realized how great he is; and finds happiness as a wife and mother.

Charlotte: uber-traditional little woman wannabe; zeroes in on her "perfect" man; has a disastrous marriage to him; finds an excellent contender who isn't her traditional "type"; tries to little woman him (which he rejects); gets her chit together and reunites with him; they find happiness as a family.

Samantha: free-thinking sex pot and casual sex aficionado; samples the buffet until she finds a guy just like her; realizes it sucks to be a casual hookup; finds a real sweetie and runs away because she can't commit; as of this writing is still searching for happiness.

And finally Carrie: who we were all supposed to want to be; successful, independent, keen fashion sense; chases after Mr. Big throughout the whole series; screws up a great relationship because of her obsession with Big; escapes a crappy relationship because of Big; improbably, after all these years, Big decides he loves her and they settle down to marital bliss.

Any woman who watched that series and took away a message that uncommitted casual sex was the key to happiness wasn't paying attention. I can speak for all women when Miranda kept throwing Steve out: "WTF is wrong with you???"
 

lucky_bee

RBF expert
There's only one problem: eventually women do want to settle down. In fact, many of the women who bought into the Sex and the City lifestyle twenty years ago are coming forward to share their regrets. Julia Allison says the show literally “ruined her life.” She says it peddled a “fear of intimacy disguised as empowerment.” Writing for The New York Post, Allison wistfully wonders what her life might have been like if she hadn’t bought into the Sex and the City philosophy. “Perhaps I’d be married with children now?”

In her memoir, Unwifeable, journalist and former dating columnist Mandy Stadtmiller describes how a decade of living the “real-life Carrie Bradshaw” lifestyle left her fearful that there “might be no one out there left for me at all.” She writes, “I told myself I was a feminist,” but, ultimately, she came to realize that happiness came, not from casual sex and no-strings-attached relationships, but from “only revealing [her heart] when someone has proven themselves worthy.”

The fact that the women of Sex and the City ultimately want to settle down is not the unrealistic lie the show sold these women. The lie is that they can settle down after spending their 20s and 30s sleeping around. At the time, it seemed like a radical act of feminism to do away with Prince Charming and focus, instead, on the dress, the shoes, and the physical attraction. After all, as novelist Keira Cass said, “Cinderella never asked for a prince, she asked for a night off and a dress.” But suddenly, with biological clocks ticking and one man after another running away from the thought of commitment, these women are beginning to wonder. Maybe Cinderella knew something they didn’t, after all.




MOORE: Twenty Years After Sex And The City The 'Real-Life Carrie Bradshaws' Are Wishing They Hadn't Slept Around


what is it about your quest to always paint every woman aside from a demure church mouse, with some broad slutty brush?


And yet during the course of Sex in the City:

Miranda: uber-feminist and career chickie who had a child with her super sweet occasional one-night guy; finally realized how great he is; and finds happiness as a wife and mother.

Charlotte: uber-traditional little woman wannabe; zeroes in on her "perfect" man; has a disastrous marriage to him; finds an excellent contender who isn't her traditional "type"; tries to little woman him (which he rejects); gets her chit together and reunites with him; they find happiness as a family.

Samantha: free-thinking sex pot and casual sex aficionado; samples the buffet until she finds a guy just like her; realizes it sucks to be a casual hookup; finds a real sweetie and runs away because she can't commit; as of this writing is still searching for happiness.

And finally Carrie: who we were all supposed to want to be; successful, independent, keen fashion sense; chases after Mr. Big throughout the whole series; screws up a great relationship because of her obsession with Big; escapes a crappy relationship because of Big; improbably, after all these years, Big decides he loves her and they settle down to marital bliss.

Any woman who watched that series and took away a message that uncommitted casual sex was the key to happiness wasn't paying attention. I can speak for all women when Miranda kept throwing Steve out: "WTF is wrong with you???"

:dingding:
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
what is it about your quest to always paint every woman aside from a demure church mouse, with some broad slutty brush?

He's a He-Man Woman Hater.

HeMan.jpg
 

PeoplesElbow

Well-Known Member
Anyone who changes their life based on a TV show, especially one as goofy as that, is a retard to begin with.
 

Monello

Smarter than the average bear
PREMO Member
I bet those liberated women got asked out on lots of dates. Hey, it beats sitting at home with the cats.
 
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