Friday, June 20, 2008

Change your spots


I may be the only woman in the world who doesn't like Sex and the City. I really can't be moved by anything about it. What I do share with (what I understand to be) one of the bubble-headed pre-occupations of its protagonists (I may be being unfair here, but so be it) is a love of shoes I can't explain.

Today, at lunchtime, in Lane Crawford: Alexander McQueen.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

At the risk of being irritating (no change there then) surely the fact that you are moved to blog about it moves you in a certain way?

Film is predictable but fun. And you would love the shoes :-)

Mummy said...

I have tried everywhere known to man to get a pair of these, or the darling purple satin ones, in my size. They simply do not exist.

Neither does the gorgeous Alex MxQ dress in my size.

Roll on personal shopping with my Mum in Harvey Nics when I am back in the UK in 2 weeks. I have a budget and intend to spend it!

Claire said...

I think you may be part of a subculture of women who don't subscribe to the values espoused by SATC...the same women, perhaps, who are bemused by the array of goods on offer in the run-up to mothers - and fathers - day (thinking, "My mum has no use for a floral silk scarf; my dad would wonder if I'd gone mad if I presented him with a gizmo that calculates one's golf handicap"). I'm sure you know exactly what 9and whom) I'm talking about.

I don't mind SATC - it's mildly irritating but adequately entertaining - but what I can't stand is when the media implies that it's changed our lives. Hello?! I could go on, but a male friend has just turned up to cook me dinner. I must be Samantha!

Mummy said...

May I just highlight that last night three very gorgeous, successful women, at completely different points in their life (single, married, baby) got dressed up in their best shoes and dresses, asked for a table in the middle of one of Hong Kong's swankiest restaurants, drank champagne, and talked about men, careers, shoes, handbags, sex toys and threesomes.

Hmm, pot and kettle springs to mind.

And we all looked damned gorgeous.

Anonymous said...

I have never seen a single episode of sex and the city. I am not comfortable with reducing career women to shopping, shoes and wealthy men as the programme appears to do.

Mummy said...

MSS - If you've never seen it how do you know that it reduces career women to these things? I would disagree, these are women earning and spending their own money and having genuine female friendships (without the back biting and competition so often in evidence in many portrayals of female friendships).

It is, like all good TV, based on reality and takes it to extremes. It is good fun, not a social commentary.

LottieP said...

SATC has definitely had no influence on my life, because I've never seen it. So we would certainly have been having those conversations anyway. I'm with Claire and MSS on not feeling comfortable about the idea (and you have to admit it is prevalent in the press, in that lazy way they have of creating a "phenomenon") that all women must like, and be, and be like, the women in SATC.

I just don't like being told what to think... But I'm fan of true crime, so what does that say about me?

Unknown said...

But then again you can't blame the series for the way the press chose to portray it - the lazy stereotypes are more a reflection, i'd argue, of the need for your average hack to churn out an op piece rather than a true reflection of the show (which I think gives a reasonably accurate portrayal of the dilemmas that we women face)

Mummy - completely agree with you, if a SATC script writer had been hanging around our table they'd have had plenty of material for a couple of story lines....

Anonymous said...

The only thing I ever read about SATC was about an episode where the leading person was being mugged. She apparently told the muggger he can have anything but not her shoes. I could almost hear the script writers - hey lets add some humour to a mugging and ho ho here is the funny bit lets make it about shoes!!!! Ha ha women and shoes he he!

I found that insulting enough to never bother tuning in. I don't have anything in common with women like that so why would I watch a programme about them!

Claire said...

I must have been drinking when I wrote that last comment because now I'm annoyed just thinking about SATC. You're right, GP, it's done nothing wrong (though do we ever actually see them making the money that they have so much fun spending?), and the problem lies more with the gushing that goes on in the press towards it...as if you can't possibly be a normal woman if you have no interest in seeing the film. Nope. As female role models go, give me Corinne, Claudette or Danny in The Shield any day. Or even Pat Butcher in Eastenders. Er, perhaps I go too far...

LottieP said...

Here! This is turning into a Pat Butcher fan site, and we can't have that! Or can we...?

I'm sure Pat would wear neon accessories with pride (see post above).

Mummy said...

IT IS JUST A TV SHOW! It is escapism based on a grain of truth, a bit of fun.

In that respect I agree entirely with GP and Claire that this is a media issue not one with either the TV show, film or shoes.