Vent: Sex and the City

Okay, with the Sex and the City movie, and Sarah Jessica Parker's new clothing line called "Bitten" (the web site features photos of her as a singer, and something called 'SJP's Manifesto'), and the news crowing about wow, this movie made a lot of money...hmmm, maybe women over 30 are a demographic worth considering when making movies...I have to vent: I HATE SEX AND THE CITY!!!! HATE HATE HATE!!!!!

You may wonder, why do I hate SATC so much? Well, I'll tell you. Everyone who I've ever talked to who likes the show says they like the fact that it's "realistic" and "true to life". All of these people make under $100,000 a year and do not live in New York. And of course, it's a matter of fact that SATC's main characters are all thin and attractive - no bad complexions, crooked teeth, round faces, health problems, etc. Soooooo...the obvious question (to me, at least) is how the FUCK is SATC representative of real life experiences of lower and upper middle class women? No one I know has Carrie's cushy joke of a job, or her ridiculous wardrobe of hideous runway fashion, or the show's obsession with all things superficial and shallow. Let's see...clothes, sex, money, cosmos, underwear,fashion, relationships...yup, that's pretty much it.

In contrast, the realistic worries and problems of the lower and upper middle class women I know who like this show include:

• money - most people right now are worried about the price of gas, food, and the quickly growing numbers of homes in foreclosure
  
• weight - most women I know are not happy with their weight, or their appearance in general. But weight is definetely the insecurity to which no woman is immune, and most women who work and/or have kids don't have the luxury of personal trainers, dieticians, or just being naturally thin with no effort whatsoever
  
• clothing - most women who are fans of SATC are nowhere near being able to afford the clothes that the show's characters wear, and honestly, most of them wouldn't want to look like such a freak anyway. If you give me $10,000 to spend on clothes, I'm not going to look like an idiot whose friends lied and told me that yeah, this HUGE ruffled organza skirt really does look good, especially with the pink bandana tied around my forehead.
  
• race - the show's main characters are all white...in fact, I think the show's characters are all white. I've seen one whole episode and the 8 million commerdcials that were on TV, so I can't be sure, but I think it's true.
  
• work - the rest of us don't have the luxury of working at odd hours, from home, on our laptops. We actually have to buy work clothes, and commute to (gasp!) an office, where we report to our superiors and deal with annoying coworkers, customers, etc. And we don't get paid nearly enough for it.
  
• free time for all the cosmos you want! The people I know that watch this show all work full time, and most of them have significant others, spouses, kids. So they don't have time to sit around at bars drinking cosmos and talking fashion and sex with their best gal pals...ever, really, let alone daily. And apparently the characters on SATC aren't concerned with things like making the mortgage, keeping their jobs, the trials of raising kids, not having time to exercise, health problems, or - improving the world. Doing ANYTHING that shows some kind of desire to contribute to the world in a positive way. This one irks me the most because as a single woman in my early 30's who is not married (I live in sin) doesn't have kids (I don't want them), I am recently compared to these women, and not only do I have nothing in common with them, but I can't freaking STAND them, and they're not even real people!!!

So, in a nutshell, that's why I loathe SATC more than words can describe.