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Start Date
24-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
24-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
HBO Max recently announced a December 2021 revival of Sex and the City, featuring three fashionable friends navigating life in their fifties. While early press coverage centered on wardrobe and casting choices, other critics posed provocative questions: Would Carrie’s insular world still appeal to viewers affected by the global pandemic and recession? How would the departure of Samantha, the most transgressive character, affect the series’ ability to challenge sexual mores? Would women of color and queer characters be granted more central roles in the franchise? How might the revival increase representation of middle-aged women’s dynamism and desires?
This paper builds on my extensive research on single women in media to address Sex and the City’s legacy and future. My presentation combines close textual readings with strategic analysis of audience response. While the forthcoming series’ content will shape my focus, I anticipate addressing the following themes. First, I plan to explore if the paternalistic relationship between Mr. Big and Carrie has changed with #metoo-era awareness of sexual power dynamics. Second, I analyze the series’ inherent queerness and attempt to address past omissions and stereotypes through incorporating a non-binary character. As women of color join the cast, I will examine if they provide mere surface-level diversity or expand the series’ conceptions of sexual liberation beyond white, upper-class women. Finally, I will ponder how the reboot, nearly 25 years after its debut, reflects the increased viability of aging women on television even as it supports notions of successful aging that celebrate affluent, able-bodied subjects.
‘And Just Like That’: Aging, Diversity, and Desire in the Sex and the City Reboot
HBO Max recently announced a December 2021 revival of Sex and the City, featuring three fashionable friends navigating life in their fifties. While early press coverage centered on wardrobe and casting choices, other critics posed provocative questions: Would Carrie’s insular world still appeal to viewers affected by the global pandemic and recession? How would the departure of Samantha, the most transgressive character, affect the series’ ability to challenge sexual mores? Would women of color and queer characters be granted more central roles in the franchise? How might the revival increase representation of middle-aged women’s dynamism and desires?
This paper builds on my extensive research on single women in media to address Sex and the City’s legacy and future. My presentation combines close textual readings with strategic analysis of audience response. While the forthcoming series’ content will shape my focus, I anticipate addressing the following themes. First, I plan to explore if the paternalistic relationship between Mr. Big and Carrie has changed with #metoo-era awareness of sexual power dynamics. Second, I analyze the series’ inherent queerness and attempt to address past omissions and stereotypes through incorporating a non-binary character. As women of color join the cast, I will examine if they provide mere surface-level diversity or expand the series’ conceptions of sexual liberation beyond white, upper-class women. Finally, I will ponder how the reboot, nearly 25 years after its debut, reflects the increased viability of aging women on television even as it supports notions of successful aging that celebrate affluent, able-bodied subjects.
Bio
Katherine J. Lehmanis author of the book Those Girls: Single Women in Sixties and Seventies Popular Culture(University Press of Kansas, 2011). She has presented at past Console-ing Passions conferences and looks forward to convening in Orlando. She is associate professor of Communications at Albright College in Reading, PA, where she also co-directs the Women’s and Gender Studies program. She has published widely on feminism and gender politics in media, including essays on #metoo and the Charmed reboot; motherhood and postfeminism in primetime television; GLBTQ teen television; and Mad Men’s portrayals of working women.