Kristen Hart

MEDC 5310

7 September 2004

Worldview: Sex and the City

When viewing media presentations, one must look at what type of world is being presented by the media communicator. The media not only reinforces a particualr culture, it can also shape that culture. The hit HBO series Sex and the City has been based upon life in Manhattan for single women in their thirties. The show features four main characters. All are white, heterosexual, and single. The show focuses on the lives of these four single women. Many messages about single life can be found in just one half-hour episode.

This media presentation depicts a rather interesting worldview. The culture is populated by single, white, heterosexuals living in Manhattan. Everyone holds a glamorous job that makes great money, but the individuals never have to appear at work. Instead, they can spend their days shopping and drinking martinis, spend their afternoons engaging in sexual affairs, and go to the latest night clubs, restaurants, and/or latest charity events in the evenings. In this culture, life revolves around social activities and sex. In fact, everytime the girls get together their conversations revolve around the place to be seen and the latest men in their lives. This view of single women seems stereotypical. They have no responsibility because they do not want any. There is nothing tying them down. Life is fun, wild, and exciting.

For example, in the episode “Three's A Crowd,” there is a scene that shows Samantha, the most promiscuous of the group, in bed in the middle of the day with a married man. The man says to Samantha, “I am so glad you aren't my wife.” Samantha replies by saying, “So I am.” The next scene is of Samantha getting together with Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte (the other main characters) for a martini lunch. Samantha tells her girlfriends that relationships are too much of a fuss for her. A few scenes later, the married man calls Samantha and tells here that he is leaving his wife for her. Samantha tells him, “No, no, no . . . you love your wife . . .” She hangs up the phone and never speaks to the man again. Samantha does not want the responsibility of a marriage.

Further, this world presents an optimisitc view of life on the surface. Everything these women engage in seems fun and exciting—shopping, socializing, no responsibility. However, are these women really happy? When really paying attention to the conversations these women have, it becomes obvious that to the audience that the women have a lot of unhappiness in their lives.

Carrie, for instance, is dating a man named Big. She discovers one morning that he had been married in the past. Carrie cannot come to terms with this news, so after spending the afternoon shopping for makeup with her girlfriends and wondering about Big's ex-wife, she decides she has to meet her. When she finally does, Carrie says to the audience, “It was the last straw. She was smart, beautiful, and she [understood] me. I'd have to kill her.” From that moment on, everytime Carrie is with Big she cannot stop thinking about his smart and beautiful ex-wife. The message here is that single women are threatened by smart beautiful women. Do you think Carrie would have felt threatened by Big's ex-wife had she been Big's current wife?

Thus, HBO's Sex and the City presents the audience with several messages about single life in New York City. Within these messages many values can be found—promiscuity, wealth, being in style, and having fun. These are not traditional values, but they are stereotypical of thirty-something single women (and hopefully extremely exaggerated). While the show presents a very different non-traditional culture, it always ends up teaching the audience an important lesson about life and love.