Sex and the City Mega-Post
by Latoya Peterson
Y’all knew we had to do it, eventually. Sex and the City is an event, and though none of the Racialicious staffers have seen the movie yet, we got enough tips and articles sent in we decided to do a post. (Carmen and I are both opting to catch the film on DVD.)
Random Trivia
In the July 2008 issue of Marie Claire, Willie Garson (who played Stanford Blatch) said this about his character:
I didn’t audition for the role of Stanford at all the way he’s played in the show. I just read it as a guy who happened to be homosexual. Then when we went to shoot the pilot, I remember Darren shouting at me, “Gayer!” You know, to the point where it felt really kind of artificial to me. But people loved it.
The Women Themselves
Dodai from Jezebel breaks down why the movie was all kinds of wrong:
To be honest, I was a fan of the TV show when it first aired. A female writer living in New York and dealing with messy relationships? Of course I could relate. Of course I was attracted to the glitter, the nightlife, the search for love and the dating psychodramas. And what the show did really well was to tell those modern urban love legends: The Guy With The Funky Spunk, The Guy Who Died Before The Second Date, The Time The Writer Fell On The Runway, The Time Your Friend Had A Brazilian Lesbian Lover For Like A Week. But the movie made me want to cut myself. It was a showcase for how hollow and soulless these characters were. Do they have hobbies, aside from shopping? Interests? Do they read anything beyond Page Six? They are just rich bitches who don’t even have the decency to be over-the-top, and therefore amusing, like Absolutely Fabulous. I was seriously offended when Charlotte wouldn’t eat anything except packaged chocolate pudding on their trip because “It’s Mexico.” I was also offended by Miranda’s rudeness to her nanny and Samantha’s “Honey, we can pay people to do the stuff we don’t want to do” attitude. Then it dawned on me: These women are assholes. [...]
While the SATC TV show often presented silly conundrums easily solved and then post-mortemed over cocktails; SATC the movie insists that the audience empathize with these fools. Carrie cares more about herself and her elaborate gown than her groom, and we’re supposed to feel sorry for her? I always thought Big was a smug cad who dyed his gray hair black, so I didn’t care if she ended up with him or not. Samantha breaks up with Smith by saying “I love you, but I love me more,” and that’s supposed to be empowering? Is getting a lapdog really a happy ending for a 50-year-old? I found myself hating every single one of them: Idiotic, superficial Carrie; stuck-up, naggy perfectionist Charlotte; cold, ruthless Miranda and bitter, narcissisitic Samantha. The worst part is that these women have spawned a new generation of materialistic empty-headed women: When Carrie thanks Jennifer Hudson’s character, Louise (rightfully called a magical negro by Moe’s sister) for bringing her back to life, Louise replies, “And you bought me my first Louise[sic] Vuitton.” Because the only thing more important than soul-searching is having a thousand-dollar bag that will be out of style in three to six months.
The BBF (Black Best Friend):
This piece from the Root examines a phenomenon we are all familiar with:
In August 2007, Greg Braxton of the Los Angeles Times first coined the term BBF — black best friend — in the article “Buddy system; They’re wise, loyal and often sassy. Black Best Friends help white heroines, but do they limit black actresses?” One unnamed source joked that celluloid BBFs should form a support group to save “woefully helpless white girls.”
Here are the specs on the BBF: “They are gorgeous, independent, loyal and successful. They live or work with their friend but are not really around all that much except for well-timed moments when the heroine needs a dining companion or is in crisis. BBFs basically have very little going on, so they are largely available for such moments. And even though they are single or lack solid consistent relationships, BBFs are experts in the ways of the world, using that knowledge to comfort, warn or scold their BFF.”
Of Hudson’s “bossy” Louise, one article said the character had “an uncanny ability to help her boss get her life back in order.”
Seriously?
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