Jun 08
Sex and the City Part II: they’re really just gay men
Cats: beauty, culture|What about the idea that those four women are actually depictions of four gay males?
I’ve been told by a gay friend that this show has a huge following in his “community” because it presents an accurate portrayal of the lives and psyches of gay males.
It’s well known that the writer of the series, Darren Star, is a gay male, and that his interpretation of Candice Bushnell’s columns is loose.
Not to go all post-structural on you here, but isn’t it a good bet that Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha are really Calvin, Matthew, Charlie and Sam?
June 8th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
“It’s always struck me that the show is a more accurate a portrayal of gay men than urban women.” – (Based on what exactly?)
As with any sweeping statement, there are bound to be some people upset. I’m not going to be one of those nasty complainers but I will say that I don’t think it’s fair to simply assume that the sluttiness of four television characters is based on the widely-assumed sluttiness of gay men.
As there certainly are slutty gay men, there have also been slutty women (yes, even PRE-SATC), and slutty straight guys. Given your argument, does it really matter whether the writer created a new stereotype of promiscuous, designer-hungry, urbanite women, or wrote a series based on an existing stereotype of gay men?
Either way but it’s all furthering stereotypes, isn’t it?
June 8th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
This observation is based conservations with a very sharp gay male friend who watched the show and who’s gay male friends watched the show, partly because they saw themselves in the characters. They actually identified with each character as some women to. So and so is Carrie or Miranda.
My friend isn’t a slut, nor are all of his friends. All the girls in the show aren’t either. There’s the career woman, the old-fashioned prude and the writer and, of course, the slutty PR exec.
The comparison isn’t as much about sexual behaviour as it is contemporary urban lifestyle, relationships, socializing and consumer behaviours which have resonance with certain urban gay males who are liberated from the shackles of old prejudice whether based sexuality or gender based.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:18 am
I live with a gay man and he doesn’t even have as much sex as these chicks do. There aren’t THAT many NORMAL single men in this city – gay or straight.
June 9th, 2008 at 8:45 am
I think the moral of the story is that based on the “cool”-factor of the SATC lifestyle, there are plenty of people both men and women who would surely LOVE to identify with the characters. Whether they actually do (hard to believe in a small, not-so-designer-filled city like Halifax), remains to be seen.
Thanks for clearing it up, and don’t mind my Bayers-Lake-on-a-weekend induced crankiness.
June 9th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Ben, Bayers Lake on the weekend – zoiks! – I was there too and I came back in a foul mood too
thanks
BeckEye, no one has as much sex as Samantha does