The joys of Sex
Spicy show offers look at real life
March 21, 2007
Angela Wiebe
Guilty pleasures – we all have them, and even more so, we all want to have them. I must admit that while I have many, perhaps the “sinful” indulgence that sits highest on my naughty list is my obsession with the now defunct television show, Sex and the City.
With the series having gone off the air in 2004, I am one of those completely unoriginal bandwagon-jumpers who latched onto the series when available in TBS rerun and DVD format only. It’s not that I didn’t know the series existed while airing on HBO, it’s that I originally chose not to watch it for moral reasons. Featuring episode titles such as “The F*** Buddy” and “Politically Erect,” as well as the guarantee to see a bare breast or two almost every episode, I decided the show was completely inappropriate for a young Christian female to watch.
A couple of years ago, however, a good friend of mine began watching the series religiously and I reluctantly agreed to watch an episode with her one Saturday night when we had nothing else to do. I don’t know if it was that I was a couple years older, or that my beliefs had taken on a decidedly more liberal bend, but I loved it. I found myself laughing hysterically at the main character’s (Carrie Bradshaw) cheesy, yet lovable, puns, the show’s over-the-top storylines, and the characters’ outrageous outfits.
As I pleaded my friend to watch episode after episode that night, and as I slowly began collecting the DVDs on my own, I also grew to love the show on a much deeper level. I sympathized with the characters and immediately picked out my own personality from among them (I like to think of myself as a Carrie with a touch of Charlotte). Despite the very unfamiliar content of the show (four middle-aged women living, loving, and having lots of sex in New York City), I felt I could relate in a more universal way.
The show portrays real, flawed women trying to figure out life together. None of the actors are particularly beautiful and they are constantly falling flat on their face, in both the literal and figurative senses of the phrase. They make mistakes, they cry, they laugh, and they love together.
But perhaps the aspect of the show that I most grew to love was the friendship that is paramount to everything the four characters do. Despite the many, many men that come and go, and the outfits that are ever changing, the friendship between Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha, and Miranda is steadfast and sincere. Of course, while not perfect, I think the commitment to one another exemplified in the show is a value that young women can learn from and appreciate.
Overall, Sex and the City may not be for everyone. It features dirty language and even dirtier sexual romps. The characters act in many ways that I would be loath to imitate, and the plots are often offensive to my personal beliefs. But the show’s humour and honesty also offers a unique perspective into life that is about so much more than sex. Essentially the four characters are looking for the same thing we’re all looking for – to love and be loved.
Now you go...
One Response to “The joys of Sex”
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Hey Angela, great article. I think what’s interesting is that when many Christians see a breast and some sexually suggestive language they become immediately turned off (some secretly turned on) by a piece of media, that may be using a “provocative” concept such as sex to elucidate a much wider and rich concept, that of life itself, they really miss out on the bigger picture and see that media only as “dirty” or “impure”. Millions of women (and some men too!) identified with those four characters and the things they experienced together, there was lots of meaning found there, and we can’t deny that. It’s really frustrating to see that people can’t look past the sex, isn’t sex repressed enough as it is in Christian circles?