FAKES AND THE CITY:

I don't understand why 'Sex and the City' should be such a popular show with any sane minded person. I have no argument with the people who watch it simply for entertainment and leave it at that. However, there is a major clique of people for whom the show sets new trends. Of course, that's the case with any show. But somehow, 'Sex and the City' really gets to me because I think that it is a 'danger for feminism and all that it stands for'.

The show essentially revolves around four hep, trendy New York single women. All the time in the show, it appears that they are obessed with only one thing; men and relationships. My problem is not with what the show portrays (In fact there certainly are both men and women like that in real life). In fact, some of the humour in it is quite good and intelligent in its own context. My peeve is with what the show PUPORTS to portray. As far as I can see it, and I may be wrong here, it essentially exhorts casual sex and casual relationships more than anything else. Worse, it portrays all of this under the name of humour, feminism and woman-power, and worst of all, sophistication. We are led to believe that this is, and should be, the life-style of respectable, sohpisticated and well-educated single women in the great progressive cities of America and finally the whole world, and that they could well be role models for women in the real world. What comes through after even a little thought is nothing more than hubris-loaded hypocrisy. The four protagonists seem to be women in search of the 'perfect one' but in fact they are little more than pleasure seeking sybarites, engaging in all their escapades under the guise of innocent efforts, modernity, and high-culture. They also act like they are the epitome of the fashionable, forward looking women of the world, who would set the trend for their counterparts in the rest of the world. Actually, I think that they are worse than the most obvious hooker in Harlem, who at least does not hide the fact she is one. So, ironical as it may seem, I would probably pay due respect to Samantha, one of the characters who is a professed sex-maniac, but at least one who does not hide her obsession and intent. As for the other three, "relationships" seem to be only ways of embarking on flagrant adventures. In all of these, the supposed aim is the search for true love, the desire propelling it is a purported restless angst for a tranquil connection with the man of their dreams. Appalling!

Arthur Holden's comment in "Memoirs of a Geisha" is revealing. I don't remember the exact words, but he says, "It is ironical that women in the Western world who get into 'relationships' with rich, older penthouse-owning men, sneer at Geishas, when actually, the Geisha's are much more dignified and honest than them". This comment could perfectly apply to 'Sex and the City'. I don't mind blatant and scandalous sensationalism and portrayals. What I truly despise are hypocritical guises of progressive culture, donned to hide the crudity beneath the ostentatious exterior.

Is all this done for humour? Well, when humour becomes an instrument of social change, you better watch out for what kind of humour you portray on screen, especially when it is propagated through such powerful mediums as television and cinema.
From Sex and the City to 'American Pie', I believe that American films and shows are losing even the iota of quality that they had before. Outrageousness substitutes for intelligent humour, simply because the writers and directors have run out of good ideas. Morbid fascination is guaranteed to draw audiences, at the cost of genuine quality. Non-sexual comedy is almost forbidden, and is supposed to be 'old-fashioned'. But it's even worse when all that morbid fascination and outrageousness starts setting the trends for future generations, all under the name of "freedom of speech" (I don't even know anymore what that phrase really means). 'F.R.I.E.N.D.S.' is one of my all time favourite shows. That certainly does not mean that I would want to adopt the lifestyle portrayed in it, or even approve of it. Unfortunately, considering the impact that films and TV shows have, the gratuitous humour and the casual sex does not leave your mind when you walk out of the theatre or switch off the TV. You begin to think that since it's portrayed so frequently on the screen, it's normal and in fact should be a part of reality (if it is not already). This is a very serious state of affairs, and I don't see how it's going to improve in the next few years, with competition increasing even more, and advertisers, moviemakers, and producers wanting to buy people's minds and hearts at any cost. We are already living in a world where many of our actions, even at an unconscious level, are dicated by the vagaries of corporate movers and shakers. It is very easy to influence the mind of the public, as a hundred years of enormously successful advertising can easily prove. However, again and again I think we must keep in mind, that when relationships start becoming the handmaidens of the whims of propaganda, especially when it's diabolically hidden under the guise of culture, sophistication, freedom, innocence, and even dignity, things start to get extremely problematic.
After a thousand years, if we are sustained in a 'relationshipness world' (although I cannot imagine what kind of draconian future that will be), I am sure that looking back, we will surely think that 'Sex and the City' really wasn't worth it at all...