In Defense of Carrie Bradshaw

Sex and the City 2
Written & Directed by Michael Patrick King

When Sex and the City aired on HBO, I wasn't a fan. I would occasionally watch an episode, but I certainly wasn't a die-hard follower of Carrie Bradshaw's misadvantures. I thought Carrie was materialistic, superficial, and trivial, and found her problems to arise out of shallowness and self-involvement. However, while watching the SATC sequel, I finally understood her. After her years-long quest to get Mr. Big to love her, he finally does, and yet, she finds herself restless in the certainty, unhappy that Big chooses the couch over a night on the town. This sequel deals with the reality of marriage and the compromises that go with it. Underneath its over-indulgent costumes, hijinx, and vulgar double-entrendre, this movie is really about the power of female friendship, and the freedom allowed American women to make choices, no matter how frivolous, insensitive, or irrational those choices may be.

But let me get to what I find to be the most interesting aspect of this movie: the controversy it has ignited for its supposed caricature of Arab culture. Some critics, like Ebert, gave the movie scathing reviews. For once, I must disagree with Ebert and come to the defense of Carrie and her entourage. I feel like Elaine in that episode of Seinfeld where she admits to hating "The English Patient." I like this movie... not for the trendy clothes or the risque dialogue but for the overall message it conveys.

In one scene, the women are attending a gay wedding ceremony in Connecticut (where gay marriage is legal) complete with Liza Minelli and a gay men's choir singing show tunes. Cut to the girls arriving in Abu Dhabi where women are required to wear head scarves, and public affection can land you in jail. The juxtaposition is striking. Do I have to ask - where would you rather live?

What I find most exasperating is that the same people who have always loved SATC for its liberal stance on sexuality and feminism, are now turning their backs on Carrie and her pals. The critics claim that their disdain for the film is based solely on its portrayal of Arab culture. Could it be, however, that these critics, however subconsiously, simply will not allow these over-40 women to get away with the same shenanigans they were up to in their 30's? The same critics who have lambasted the movie for being politically incorrect are apparently unaware of their own bias toward women over 40. The sad part is that some of these critics are women themselves!!

I'm one of the last people to take offense at jokes about aging actresses. But if you're going to make statements about what is considered unseemly behavior for a woman over 50 (Samantha's character) or about how a woman of a certain age should dress, then what was women's lib for? So that female critics can spew negative remarks about female characters who have chosen to neither marry nor procreate, and who dare to still follow their libidos at 50?!!

Regardless of director King's intentions, SATC 2 is much more a celebration of being American than a derisive commentary on another culture. This movie is about all that America and its people represent: transparent emotion (and sometimes transparent clothing), frivolity, abundance... but most of all freedom: freedom to love, freedom to be restless, freedom to dress how you like. In some countries, freedom is more yearned for than sex itself. And for some very lucky, priveleged American critics, that is a hard concept to accept.