Sex and the City

Lexi Jolliff

Art Education 2367.03

Jill Decker

19 April 2013

The Women of Sex and the City

Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York, Miranda Hobbes and Samantha Jones were the four main characters of HBO’s television series Sex and the City, which aired from 1998 until 2004. The series followed the lives of these four women and showed many different aspects of their lives including sex, relationships, marriage, children and religion. As well as their personal lives, it showed how they dealt with “relevant and modern social issues like sexuality, promiscuity, and femininity” (“Sex and the City”). In analyzing three of the four main female characters in Sex and the City we see how the lives of these women break the traditional social norms that society has set for them. The personal and social lives of these women help to further many different ideals of feminism in today’s culture.

Sex and the City appeals to a feminist audience because the viewers are able to see world through the different female lenses of the four women. “The integration of feminism into the public sphere has irreversibly impacted peoples understanding of gender roles and issues in their own lives,” meaning that the show has had the ability to change the way in which many people feel that gender roles should be established. The women of Sex and the City each portray different aspects of feminism giving the show the ability to connect with a diverse audience of women. Today feminism is “dominating consumer cultures across the western world, projecting images of women in successful careers, as economically independent and taking control of their lives—enjoying new found freedoms and choices in personal arenas” (“Postfeminist Fairytale”). Miranda Hobbes, an intelligent Harvard Law graduate, Charlotte York, a true romantic as well as an art dealer, and Samantha Jones, a successful public relations executive all embody these aspects of feminism.

None of these women follow what many would...