Though our love is strong for the girls, we Couldn’t Help But Wonder (LOL, sorry) which bits of Carrie and co wouldn’t work in today’s world…
We love Sex And The City – it’s one of our all-time favourite shows to binge watch (we mean, eps are only 20 mins so you can easily watch four without feeling guilty). It broke taboos, was genuinely warm and funny, and brought female concerns to the mainstream order. But since the show struck the milestone of 10 (very progressive) years since the last episode aired on British TV, you only have to look at the fuss surrounding SATC’s natural successor, Girls, to realise that SATC wouldn’t have been able to escape the internet scrutiny or feminist blogs imploding every time Carrie bought another pair of shoes to heal her heart.
1. Slagging off scrunchies
Carrie would spontaneously combust at the sight of the army of girls sporting these over-sized hair ties for the ‘it’s so uncool’ cool factor, considering that she commented on the ’90s accessory that, ‘No self-respecting New York City woman would be caught dead running around Manhattan in a scrunchie.’
2. Being just a little bit racist
Remember when Samantha tried to date a black man (so extreme!) and was told by his sister to back off (sample quote: ‘This is a black thing!’). It didn’t exactly dispel the myth that black women are feisty racists that won’t let anyone into their crew. If you think of how much criticism Lena Dunham got from her misrepresentation of ethnic minorities in Girls last series, imagine what SATC would have got for letting Samantha calling out her “big black ass” in a club in downtown New York. (We would hate to think).
3. Being irresponsible about flashing
In ‘Games People Play’, Miranda does a peep show with her neighbour where she flashes her boobs to a complete stranger. Ah, the early noughties, back when you could just flash your nip at anyone without the fear of them ending up on the internet – now wouldn’t that have been a PR nightmare for her law firm!
4. Using the word ‘frontier’ loosely
LOL at Carrie asking if ‘threesomes [are] the new sexual frontier?’ in season one. If she thought that was frontier, how would she cope today? Think back to what Cleo magazine used to cover and you’ll appreciate what we mean…
5. Not embracing technology
She takes pretty much ALL her calls on her house phone, even after season four (which was aired in 2002) when she finally gets a mobile. Yes, SATC was made before we got all technology obsessed, but dear Lord, Carrie needs a phone. And how ’bout a watch, while we’re at it, considering she’s always late for everything? Again, if she used her darn phone, it would a ‘two birds, one stone’ sitch.
6. Making lesbians look like b**ches
When Charlotte meets the Power Lesbian Elite, she is swiftly thrown out of the in-gang after they realise that she doesn’t swing both ways. Thus, perpetuating the myth that all lesbians are a pack of nasty women who won’t let you sit with them.
7. Mistaking anorexia for reading
‘When I first moved to New York, I used to buy Vogue instead of dinner. I just felt it fed me more.’ We’re hoping she’s speaking figuratively to emphasise her love for Vogue, because in this day an age, that kind of remark translates to an eating disorder. #NotEncouraged
8. Being religiously intolerant
Whether it’s Samantha completely disregarding religion when she tries to bang a celibate priest, Charlotte and her Jew-fetish (not just Harry Goldenblatt – remember when she sleeps with a Hasidic Jew in season one?), one could argue that religion is pretty much included solely for a comedic release.
9. Terrible money management
Carrie has been famously quoted to saying something to the effect of: ‘Where’s all my money? I know that I made some’, before Miranda promptly explains she’s spent it all on shoes. If Carrie tried to engage in that carry on post-2011 – where everyone is being paid marginal wages and resorting to a scrambled egg dinner on the reg – she’d for sure be making enemies (or back living with her parents).
Which leads us quite nicely on to…
10. Lying about pretty much every aspect of Carrie’s financial life
The biggest lie that underpins the whole series is that you can live on a writer’s wage, write one column a week and rent an apartment, live in couture and eat out all the time. So. Many. Lols!
11. Trying to marry a banker
Even though Charlotte doesn’t explicitly utter the words, “I want to marry a banker”, it’s pretty much implied she’s all about finding a guy who has money, wears a suit to work and probs drinks scotch on the rocks – okay we made that last clause up, but one can only assume. Anyway, she goes on loads of dates with investment bankers in the pre-Lehman Brothers episodes, back when bankers still had a kind-of okay reputation, or, at least, it wasn’t widely accepted that they had next to no empathy as a human.
