Those dirty girls (Susannah Breslin, Salon)
May 30th, 2008 by Viviane
Did “Sex and the City” change the erotic landscape or turn the female libido into a marketing ploy? Sex writers discuss the iconic show’s impact.
By Susannah Breslin
…While “Sex and the City” freed up the possibilities for a new generation of Susies, the downside is that, in pop culture, sex is now but one more commodity. Bright explains, “It does a disservice in the same way that you see an ad for a Lexus with your favorite Rolling Stone song or John Lennon song. This used to be something. I’ve always been sad when capitalism ruins my favorite passions.”
Does she intend to see the film version of “Sex and the City”? “If someone asked me to go on a field trip, I would go to see what everyone’s so excited about. Anything that gets women out of the house, hanging out with each other and confiding in each other and how they traverse their own sexual terrain, that’s great. I don’t care what gets you going. There will be no Susie Bright picket line. I’m not organizing a boycott. I have a real live-and-let-live attitude about it. But when pressed, I will confide that, for something so wonderful, this wasn’t it. You have to laugh sometimes, how these things finally enter the mainstream vocabulary, what becomes exploitable, and what becomes lost. Sexual ecstasy is not something you buy. It cannot be bought. But we have come a long way. No question. Definitely. But it’s not because of ‘Sex and the City.’ It’s because of what real women have done in real lives, not on TV sets.”
Tags: movies, nyc, sex, women