Reading Sex and the city

Reading Sex and the City

Reading

Sex and the City

edited by

Kim Akass & Janet McCabe

Published in 2004 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd

6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU

175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010

www.ibtauris.com

In the United States and Canada distributed by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St.

Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010

Copyright © Kim Akass and Janet McCabe, 2004

The right of Kim Akass and Janet McCabe to be identified as the authors of this

work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and

Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part

thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or

transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN 1 85043 423 9

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress catalog card: available

Typeset in Goudy and Gill Sans by Dexter Haven Associates Ltd, London

Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements vii

Contributors ix

Regular cast list (and the classic cosmopolitan) xiii

Introduction:Welcome to the age of un-innocence 1

PART I SEX, SEXUALITY AND RELATIONSHIPS

1 ‘What’s the harm in believing?’: Mr Big, Mr Perfect, and

the romantic quest for Sex and the City’s Mr Right 17

Joanna di Mattia

2 The museum of unnatural history: male freaks and

Sex and the City 33

David Greven

3 Sexuality in the city 48

Mandy Merck

PART II SOCIO-SEXUAL IDENTITIES AND THE SINGLE GIRL

4 Orgasms and empowerment: Sex and the City

and the third wave feminism 65

Astrid Henry

5 Sister Carrie meets Carrie Bradshaw: exploring

progress, politics and the single woman in Sex and

the City and beyond 83

Ashley Nelson

6 Sex and the citizen in Sex and the City’s New York 96

Susan Zieger

PART III FASHION AND CULTURAL IDENTITIES

7 ‘Fashion is the fifth character’: fashion, costume

and character in Sex and the City 115

Stella Bruzzi and Pamela Church Gibson

8 Sex and the City: a fashion editor’s dream? 130

Anna König

9 ‘My Manolos, my self’: Manolo Blahnik, shoes

and desire 144

Sarah Niblock

PART IV NARRATIVE, GENRE AND INTERTEXTUALITY

10 Neurotic in New York: the Woody Allen touches

in Sex and the City 149

Tom Grochowski

11 Sex, confession and witness 161

Jonathan Bignell

12 Ms Parker and the Vicious Circle: female narrative

and humour in Sex and the City 177

Kim Akass and Janet McCabe

PART V FANDOM, FLÂNERIE AND DESIRING IDENTITY

13 In love with Sarah Jessica Parker: celebrating

female fandom and friendship in Sex and the City 201

Deborah Jermyn

FLÂNERIE, SEX AND THE CITY AND TOURING AROUND MANHATTAN

Location guide with map 219

14 Through a glass, malarkey 228

Lucia Rahilly

15 Outsiders in the city 231

Ashley Nelson

16 Carried away in Manhattan 234

Kim Akass and Janet McCabe

17 Coulda’, shoulda’, Prada: shopping for Satori and

strappy sandals in Sex and the City 237

Mark W. Bundy

APPENDICES

Episode guide 241

Film and TV guide 249

Bibliography 253

Index 265

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The editors would first like to thank the authors – Joanna di Mattia,

David Greven, Mandy Merck, Astrid Henry, Ashley Nelson, Susan

Zieger, Stella Bruzzi, Pamela Church Gibson, Anna König, Sarah

Niblock, Tom Grochowski, Jonathan Bignell, Deborah Jermyn, Lucia

Rahilly and Mark Bundy – for turning in such fascinating contribu￾tions and adhering to strict deadlines.

Special thanks go to Philippa Brewster for steering the project

from its earliest conception to final realisation, and for sharing her

ideas and much laughter with us along the way. Thanks also to Susan

Lawson, Veroushka Georgantis, Deborah Susman, Robert Hastings

and all who have supported the project at I.B.Tauris.

The editors would like to acknowledge the following libraries:

Trinity College, Dublin, London Metropolitan, the Billy Rose Theater

Collection at the New York Public Library for Performing Arts and

the British Film Institute library.

Janet McCabe

I would like to thank the Arts and Social Sciences Benefaction Fund

at Trinity College, Dublin for supporting this project, and awarding

me a grant to travel and research in New York. Thanks also to my

colleagues at Trinity, especially Paula Quigley and Kevin Rockett,

as well as Ann Mulligan, Rhona Greene and Brian Singleton for

listening to me and sharing ideas about Sex and the City around the

metaphoric water-cooler.

Thanks to John Thurgar for hating the series so much and to

Joan and Lydia for defending it so well. Thanks to Kim Akass for

what she has given me professionally and for being such a joy to

work with. She is not just a good woman but also my best girlfriend.

I owe an enormous debt of thanks – more than I can ever say – to

Michael Allen. His kindnesses are too numerous to mention, and

his gentle patience, both as an astute editor and loving husband,

during what has been an almost impossible year, is just inspiring.

Finally, to my father – Richard McCabe. His death as we were

finishing the collection is a profound loss to all of us whose lives he

enriched with his love and gentle humour. While he would be less

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than proud to be associated with another one of my American com￾edy shows, I hope he would be as proud of the end result as I am of

him. It is to him that I dedicate my half of the collection.

Kim Akass

I would like to thank the Research Committee at London Metro￾politan University for awarding me a grant to travel and research

in New York, also for allowing me teaching relief in order to realise

this project. Thanks also to my colleagues at London Metropolitan

University for their support in my first year as a permanent staff

member. As always, particular thanks to Tamméé Greeves for pro￾viding practical help and support when it all got too much. Thanks

too to Chris Townsend at Royal Holloway for introducing us to

Philippa Brewster.

My special thanks go to Janet McCabe for being such an inspi￾rational woman, wonderful writing partner and brilliant friend.

Thanks also for showing me round New York, giving me faith in

myself and having a wicked sense of humour. Many thanks to my

friends and family and to Elisabeth for their help over the years. My

most special thanks go to my husband Jon for quietly supporting me

in so many ways. Thanks for having faith in me when I had none of

my own, for encouraging me to aim high, for keeping the home fires

burning and for looking after our children while I was working on

this book. Thanks to Daryl and Caitlin for continuing to love me

even though I often spend more time with a computer than them.

My special thanks also go to Mike Allen for welcoming me into his

home for many hours of writing, for feeding me well, but especially

for mixing the best cosmopolitan this side of Manhattan.

Finally, to my parents – Madge and Tom Vinall. It is to them

that I dedicate my half of the book. They did not live to see my

name in print. I know that they would have been proud of me.

READING SEX AND THE CITY

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CONTRIBUTORS

KIM AKASS is a Lecturer in Film Studies at London Metropolitan

University. She is researching the representation of motherhood in

contemporary American TV. She has written with Janet McCabe

on female narratives and narration in American TV drama.

JONATHAN BIGNELL is Reader in Television and Film in the Depart￾ment of Film, Theatre and Television at the University of Reading.

He is the Director of the Centre for Television Drama Studies, and

leads a research project on British TV drama from 1960 to 1982.

His publications include Postmodern Media Culture (Edinburgh

University Press, 2000) and British Television Drama: Past, Present

and Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2000), and he is joint series editor

of ‘The Television Series’ monographs on TV screenwriters for

Manchester University Press. He has recently completed a book on

Terry Nation’s science fiction TV in the series, and is currently writ￾ing a book on Big Brother and reality TV.

STELLA BRUZZI is Professor of Film Studies at Royal Holloway,

University of London. She has written several essays on film and

fashion, and is the author of Undressing Cinema: Clothing and Identity

in the Movies (Routledge, 1997) and New Documentary: A Critical

Introduction (Routledge, 2000). She has co-edited and contributed to

Fashion Cultures: Explorations, Theories and Analysis (Routledge, 2000)

and has just completed a book on the representation of fatherhood

in post-war Hollywood cinema (BFI, 2004).

MARK W. BUNDY lives in Southern California, where he is working

on a PhD in English as a Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellow at the

University of California, Riverside. He has presented several con￾ference papers on ‘Gay and Lesbian Studies and Visual Culture’,

both internationally and in the US, and he has an article forth￾coming in a book of essays about the work of Gloria Anzaldua. And,

of course, he loves to shop.

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PAMELA CHURCH GIBSON is a Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at

the London College of Fashion. She has written a number of essays

on film, fashion and fandom while co-editing and contributing to

four anthologies – Dirty Looks: Women, Power, Pornography (BFI,

1993), The Oxford Guide to Film Studies (Oxford University Press,

1998), Fashion Cultures (Routledge, 2000) and More Dirty Looks:

Gender, Power, Pornography (BFI, 2003). She is currently working

on a book about women, cinema and consumption.

JOANNA DI MATTIA is a doctoral candidate in the Centre for Women’s

Studies and Gender Research at Monash University, Australia, where

she does some teaching in the area of feminist cultural studies. She

has written entries for the Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities

(ABC-Clio Press, 2004), and an essay on that other New York icon,

Seinfeld, is forthcoming in a collection on the show. Since watching

Annie Hall, years ago, she has dreamed of living in New York City.

DAVID GREVEN teaches literature classes at Boston University’s

College of General Studies. He has completed a book on manhood

in American literature, entitled Men Beyond Desire: Inviolate Males

and Antebellum American Literature. His research interests include

Alfred Hitchcock, Brian De Palma, horror and melodrama. His work

has appeared in Cineaste, vol. XXVII, Summer 2002, Cineaction, no

58, 2002, and Genders, Issue 37, Spring 2002.

THOMAS GROCHOWSKI teaches in the Department of Media Studies

at Queens College and the Department of English at John Jay

College of Criminal Justice, both of the City University of New

York. He has taught courses on the films of Woody Allen for City

University of New York and Purchase College, State University of

New York. He is a Native New Yorker who has been known to use

lines from Allen’s films and Sex and the City to amuse friends and

influence people.

ASTRID HENRY is an Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and

English at Saint Mary’s College, Indiana. Her book on generational

relationships in American feminism is forthcoming from Indiana

University Press. She has articles on third wave feminism in Mothers

and Daughters: Connection, Empowerment and Transformation (Boston,

READING SEX AND THE CITY

x

MA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000) and Catching a Wave: Reclaiming

Feminism for the 21st Century (Boston, MA: Northeastern University

Press, 2003).

DEBORAH JERMYN is a Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the Uni￾versity of Surrey Roehampton. She has published widely on the

representation of women in film and TV, and her co-edited books

include The Audience Studies Reader(Routledge, 2002) and The Cinema

of Kathryn Bigelow: Hollywood Transgressor (Wallflower Press, 2003).

ANNA KÖNIG is an Associate Lecturer at the London College of

Fashion, which is where she completed an MA in Fashion History

and Theory. She has written for publications including the Times and

the Guardian, and current research interests include the language

of fashion journalism and ethical consumption within the fashion

industry.

JANET MCCABE is a Lecturer in Film Studies at Trinity College,

Dublin. She has published several essays on early German cinema

and American TV drama as well as having written with Kim Akass

on female narrative and American TV drama. She is currently com￾pleting a book entitled Feminist Film Theory: Writing the Woman into

Cinema, and is researching on female representation and narration

in contemporary American TV.

MANDY MERCK is Professor of Media Arts at Royal Holloway, Uni￾versity of London. Her most recent books are In Your Face: Nine

Sexual Studies (New York University Press, 2000) and The Art of

Tracey Emin (Thames and Hudson, 2002).

ASHLEY NELSON recently received an MA in Liberal Studies from

the Graduate Faculty at New School University in New York City,

where she completed a thesis on single women in TV that focused

extensively on Sex and the City. She has written frequently on

women, politics and popular culture for a variety of American pub￾lications, including the Nation, Salon, Dissent and the Philadelphia

Inquirer. She lives in New York City.

CONTRIBUTORS

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SARAH NIBLOCK lectures in journalism at City University, London.

She is also a freelance journalist, contributing to radio, newspapers

and women’s magazines. She is the author of Inside Journalism

(Blueprint, 1996), and has published numerous chapters and articles

on visual culture and journalism. She is completing a PhD on

‘Prince: Negotiating Femininity in the Mid-1980s’.

LUCIA RAHILLY has done graduate work in film, TV and literature,

and holds an MA from the Cinema Studies Department at New

York University. Her other TV-related criticism includes ‘WWF

Wrestling as Popular Sadomasochism’, forthcoming in No Holds

Barred, an anthology of essays on professional wrestling to be pub￾lished in autumn 2004 by Duke University Press. A freelance writer

and editor, she lives in New York City.

SUSAN ZIEGER received her PhD in English literature from the

University of California, Berkeley in 2002, and currently teaches in

the English Department at the University of California, Riverside.

She is working on a book about addiction and novel form in nine￾teenth-century British literature and culture, which is the focus of

her interest in consumption and sexuality.

READING SEX AND THE CITY

xii

REGULAR CAST LIST

Mr Big Chris Noth

Jack Berger Ron Livingston

Stanford Blatch Willie Garson

Carrie Bradshaw Sarah Jessica Parker

Steve Brady David Eigenberg

Harry Goldenblatt Evan Handler

Miranda Hobbes Cynthia Nixon

Samantha Jones Kim Cattrall

Bunny MacDougal Frances Sternhagen

Dr Trey MacDougal Kyle MacLachlan

Aidan Shaw John Corbett

Richard Wright James Remar

Charlotte York Kristin Davis

The classic cosmopolitan

1oz Vodka

1

/2 oz Cointreau

1 tbsp. lime juice

splash of cranberry juice

1 cup ice cubes

cocktail shaker

chilled martini glass

Combine all the ingredients in the cocktail shaker. Shake gently

and with a steady hand. Pour carefully and strain into a martini

glass, filling up to the rim. Float a curl of lime peel in the centre.

Curl up with this book and enjoy!

xiii