When the show Girls first aired on HBO, it was seen as the next generation of Sex and the City. Both shows had many superficial similarities to the unsuspecting eye. It had four white women bound by friendship trying to live the best version of their lives in New York City. Naturally, both shows fell under heavy scrutiny for daring to have multiple women as lead characters. These shows do have a lot in common based on the idea of women being able to make choices on what they want to do with their lives. The main difference between the shows is the ideology behind the choices they make, especially their sexual choices. Sex in the City utilizes third wave feminist ideas of individualism to back their female characters sexual choices, while Girls relies more on post- feminist ideas on the matter of sexual choice.
Since the four main women in Sex and the City are rich and white, the only real concerns they
had on their minds was that of sex and how to obtain more of it (and not by
going to the corner of 28th and 9th after midnight). Sex and
the City displayed a very third wave feminist attitude towards the sex the
characters have. The show explores a
women’s right to pleasure and does not punish any of the women for going out
and having casual sex (Henry 75). There
are no downsides to their sexual encounters, only feelings of empowerment. This is best shown in the pilot episode where
Carrie hooks up with an old lover and leaves directly after her orgasm
exclaiming in a voice over that she left feeling powerful (Henry 77). There is no punishment for her like there
would be in an afternoon special. She is
able to just keep on keepin’ on and now she can do so with a feeling of
empowerment. Female orgasms are shown to
be just as important as their male counterpoints (who knew?). A women’s right to pleasure is a central
tenant in the sexual area of third wave feminism and Sex and the City seems to be a major supporter of this idea.
Things could not be more different in Girls.
Every sexual encounter seems to just be one slow motion train wreck
after another. Sex is not seen as
empowering, but as something with consequences both physically and
mentally. In what I have seen of Sex and the City and from what Astrid
Henry writes, the dangers of sex (Henry 76) are never explicitly shown. Girls immediately
took the opposite route and displayed the so called dangers of sex. In the episode “All Adventurous Women Do”,
Hannah finds out she has HPV and she seeks to find out who gave it to her. This episode deals with a consequence that
sex can procure. There is no feeling of
empowerment once you find out you have a genital based disease. That is just one of the physical consequences of sex
in Girls. Sex is not shown as empowering and the
emphasis is not on female pleasure. Most
scenes of sex in the show are more focused on the male characters. Hannah’s boyfriend Adam has most of the sex
scenes in the show and they tend to focus on his needs. Adam controls the sex in the
relationship. In the pilot episode when
she and Adam have sex, he holds the power.
He tells her how he wants her positioned and then even tells her that it
is time to play the quiet game when she keeps talking to him. She does what Adam wants her to do. She had little say in the matter and willfully
submits to what he asks. The sex in Girls is degrading and certainly not
glamorous when compared to Sex and the
City. Sex is not empowering in a third
wave feminist way, but more of a grey area between degrading and embarrassing
that may fit in more with post-feminist ideas and thought. Nobody seems to win after having sex in that
show.
In conclusion, both Sex
and the City and Girls have a
very different attitude towards casual sex.
In one show, casual sex is exactly what it sounds like, fun, unemotional
trysts that serve as empty pleasures (but as empty pleasures go it’s one of the
best). The other show treats casual sex
as something that can be horribly painful in both a physical and mental
way. These differing views are brought
on by the ideology that surrounds them.
Naturally a third wave feminist show would be different than a
post-feminist show. What both shows do
have in common is that they will be critiqued for years for having the gall of presenting
single female characters not obsessed with marriage. For shame!
works cited
Henry, Astrid. "Orgasms and Empowerment: Sex and the City and the Third Wave Feminism."Reading Sex and the City. Ed. Kim Akass and Janet McCabe. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004. N. pag. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment