The Robot

Before I begin, I want you to know that I realize the futility of this article. My friends have made sure of that. I mentioned to a good friend of mine that I might write something on the Sex and the City movie—which I saw, relatively voluntarily, with my significant other—and he immediately retorted: “But what’s the point? Guys will agree with you; girls won’t; and that’s that. It’s hopeless.”

Maybe so. But then I don’t want to lambaste the movie so much as analyze it. For to peer into Sex and the City is, as I argue here, to peer into the very shoals of the female mind.

My initial support for this claim is anecdotal: have you ever met a woman who hasn’t watched at least an entire season of the TV series in a near-vegetative trance? Or a woman who actually dislikes its televisual glitter? If so, I applaud both you and her, and urge you both to wed and defect instantly. In any case, I feel perfectly justified in taking women’s nearly ubiquitous endorsement of the TV series, and now film, as evidence for a fairly uncontroversial claim:¹

(1) If so many women love the show, there must be something in its structure and content capable of explaining why women love it.

So what is it? Well, let’s deduce from our above assumption that,

(2a) since the show enthralls women of all ages and backgrounds,²

(2b) then whatever “it” is about Sex and the City that attracts women so, its appeal must be more fundamental than one which attracts only a certain kind of woman.

In other words, what we’re looking for here is something in the story that attracts women of all ages and backgrounds. Which means that what we’re looking for transcends women’s differences in upbringing, culture, values, race, age, and class. Is there such a thing? What could it be? Well,

(3a) since it couldn’t be anything particular in the show, like a certain designer or shoe (because not all women like or even know that designer or shoe, and almost all women love the show),

(3b) then in order to explain how the show captivates all women, we need to look past the various objects of their desire to their common act of desiring.

Here’s an example of what I mean. Why do so many girls like to look at fashion magazines? If (3a) is true, then it couldn’t be anything particular in the magazine. It couldn’t be a certain kind of shoe, or even to “learn about” shoes—because even girls with absolutely no interest in shoes, or even fashion, will thumb through these magazines with visceral pleasure. So what could it be?

Well, if (3b) is right, then women desire to read fashion magazines because fashion magazines offer them a sustained experience of desiring. It doesn’t matter that girls might not know the label; what matters is much simpler:

(a) The magazine’s model is wearing the shoe.

(b) The magazine’s model is beautiful.

(c) It is desirable to be beautiful.

(d) By the transitive property of pornography, the shoe is desirable.

These few facts add up to a kind of desire “buzz,” a pleasurable state of desire—or, put another way, a continuous act of desiring. Think mild pornography. Men look at naked women to engage in an act of desiring, not to look at a particular pair of boobies. Women flip through fashion magazines not to look at a particular pair of shoes, but to engage in the act of desiring. So we can conclude that:

(5a) Since Sex and the City makes any and all excuses to cram as much fashion into the show as a porno does with sex,³

(5b) the show appeals to all women because it engages them in the act of desiring. I call this the show’s pornographic attraction.

Now I used to think that the show’s pornographic attraction was all it had going for it. In other words, I thought that women only liked the show because it offered them a 3D replacement to fashion magazines. But I was mistaken. As any girl will tell you, it’s not just about the clothes, it’s about the characters! Carrie is so like my best friend!

Here’s where it starts to get interesting. I think the movie’s pornographic attraction is really subordinate to a very different kind of attraction. This is because Sex and the City is not just a pornography; more importantly, it’s a fairy tale.

But that will have to wait for next week. Until then, my dear humans.

1. For my more punctilious readers, I have decided to indent and number the steps of my argument for clarity’s sake. [↩]
2. I once watched an episode with my (ex-)girlfriend, her younger sister, and their mother, all charmed as if by incantations of “Versace” and “de la Renta.” [↩]
3. In the movie there are no fewer than three “runway scenes,” by which I mean entire minutes of footage dedicated to nothing other than displaying women wearing clothes. The last one is justified thusly: Carrie says to her friends, “Oh boy, I’m depressed, what can we do to cheer us up? I know, let’s go to the fashion show!” [↩]