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Theses & Dissertations

Sex and the city: a promotion of modern american feminism.

Cameron Michael Tufino , University of the Incarnate Word

Date of Degree

Document type, degree name.

Master of Arts (MA)

Communication Arts

Valerie Greenberg

Enrique Esquivel-Lopez

Pat Lonchar

The television series Sex and the City (SATC), has left a significant impact on American society. The show displays this revelation: American women today have many established cultures of equal worth in male dominated discourses. This thesis explains how the shows narrative represents and expands feminist ideology in America. By modernizing feminist discourses, SATC challenges televisual female representation on subject matters including motherhood, sexuality, marriage, gender identity, and family. Investigating its four protagonists - Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha - demonstrates how the narrative contributed to the social movement of feminism. Furthermore, with analyzing its construction and display since the show began airing, an evaluation of SATC's realistic influence on American women may be considered.

Recommended Citation

Tufino, Cameron Michael, "Sex and the City: A Promotion of Modern American Feminism" (2012). Theses & Dissertations . 292. https://athenaeum.uiw.edu/uiw_etds/292

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Home > John M. Pfau Library > Theses Digitization Project > 3239

Theses Digitization Project

Sex and the city: a postmodern reading.

Antoinette Christine Di Guglielmo

Date of Award

Document type, degree name.

Master of Arts in English Composition

First Advisor

Golden, Bruce

Second Advisor

Pigeon, Renee

Third Advisor

Rhodes, Jacqueline

Sex and the City was a television show that aired on Home Box Office from 1998-2004. The tv show succeeded because of feminist's wanting a modern woman's drama rich in episodes about consumption, women's sexuality, financial independence, fashion and contemporary relationship dynamics. The characters captured and perpetuated just that. The modern take on the ideologies that drive women's perception of personal fulfillment, body image, consumerism, social behavior and values and romantic relationship dynamics made this tv show the phenomena that it became.

Recommended Citation

Di Guglielmo, Antoinette Christine, "Sex and the city: A postmodern reading" (2007). Theses Digitization Project . 3239. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/3239

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Postfeminism and progression: an investigation into representations in sex and the city and big little lies.

• Sarah Olivier
• Media Production
• Year of Publication:
• BA (Hons) Media Production

Looking specifically at the HBO series Sex and the City (HBO, 1998-2004) and Big  Little Lies (HBO, 2017-), this dissertation will seek to determine how postfeminist these series are by analysing and comparing two key representations from each show, in line with postfeminist theory. Furthermore, it will strive to determine whether the representation of women in television has advanced over time, and whether the influence of previous female-centred series can be found in modern television.

The women presented in these shows are complex, challenged by the lives they lead and are all extremely varied, which makes them interesting subjects for a textual analysis and comparison. Textual analysis has been chosen as the investigative method of choice, as it will allow for important scenes throughout each series to be analysed in detail. By looking at various elements including mise-en-scene, narrative advances and character discourse, a greater understanding of each character’s representation will be inferred. Through these methods of textual analysis, this dissertation will aim to understand why these characters have been presented in the way they have and what these representations mean within a postfeminist context. The first, female-centred television series which this dissertation will analyse is Sex and the City (hereafter SATC ). SATC has been described as a “television milestone” (Jermyn, 2009, 4-5) as a result of its progressive female representations and frank exploration of themes such as female sexuality, divorce and infertility. The series debuted on the pay subscription service HBO (Home Box Office) in 1998 and follows the day to day lives of four women in New York City. The women of SATC have been both hailed and condemned for their actions within the series, and as the series debuted during the height of the postfeminist era, provide a great opportunity to determine the extent to which they can be classified as postfeminist representations. The series with which this dissertation will use as comparison is another HBO original series, Big Little Lies (hereafter BLL ). BLL first debuted on the network in 2017 as a mini-series adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s novel of the same name. The series follows a murder enquiry within a seemingly perfect Californian community, whilst delving into the psyche of the complex, varied and opinionated women who call the town of Monterey, home. The series explores the small lies we tell to present the image of a perfect life and how detrimental, or deathly, these lies can be. By comparing BLL and SATC , this dissertation will be able to compare the representations themselves and explore whether the wider representations of women in television have, in any way, advanced since the women of New York first stepped onto our screens in 1998.

Chapter one will begin by outlining the historical context with which these two series can be placed; exploring the representations which preceded them and the wider history of female-centred television. It will also discuss the postfeminist theory with which this dissertation will utilise throughout its analysis; discussing the work of prominent, postfeminist theorists such as Bonnie Dow (1996), Robyn Swink (2017) and Amanda Lotz (2001), before defining ‘postfeminism’ in its own way. In addition to this relevant context, chapter one will also provide a brief history of the network channel that premiered these two female-centred series, HBO. This context will provide a crucial platform for the analysis of SATC and BLL which will follow in chapters two and three.

Chapter two will focus solely on SATC . This chapter will introduce, analyse and debate the representations of Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), whilst looking at their representations within a postfeminist context. As the series premiered during the height of the postfeminist era, exploring the representations of two of its most opposing and complex characters will provide a great case study into how postfeminist television represented women, and the types of themes which were present at the time. These themes will then be discussed in relation to BLL to enable comparisons to be drawn between the two HBO series. Chapter two will execute this exploration through methods of discourse and narrative analysis, focusing on key episodes which prominently feature crucial elements of the representations discussed.

Chapter three will be dedicated to the representations featured in BLL . Similarly, using methods of textual analysis including discourse, narrative and mise-en-scene analysis, this chapter will seek to understand how the women of Monterey are viewed, and whether they can be classified as postfeminist representations. Looking specifically at the representations of Renata Klein (Laura Dern) and Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman), chapter three will apply postfeminist theory to these representations and compare them to the women of SATC . Once the representations have been explored and debated, chapter three will seek to understand how the female representations within each series compare to one another and whether the wider representation of women in television has advanced.

This dissertation will ultimately aim to understand how postfeminism is represented in both series, and what influence the women of late 1990s New York had on the modern-day women of Monterey. By looking at both shows, in relation to postfeminist understandings, a clear comparison and conclusion will be drawn as to how the representations of women in television have developed over time, and whether previous female-centred series should be praised for their bold strides in female representation.

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E.E. Dimova

Breaking Taboos with "Sex and the City"

Publication.

A quantitative research of media effects of a groundbreaking TV show on perceptions of women

Television is still a significant force of popular culture, however continues to represent even the “modern” woman in a rather superficial and biased manner, both regarding her professional development and her intimate life. Failing to capture the countless shifts towards a more empowered view on women’s work achievements and expression of sexuality, such conservative female portrayal continues to reinforce dated understandings on the matter. The TV show “Sex and the City” has been recognized world-widely for its daring representation of the modern woman, in terms of placing women in power over men and thus challenging the stereotypical Television content. The TV series is perceived by many as an expression of a nontraditional woman that is financially independent and sexually empowered. “Sex and the City” quickly managed to become widely successful, whereby raising post-feministic discussions on women’s societal roles. Given the societal importance of shifting gender roles, an examination of the impact that “Sex and the City” has had on the perceptions and personal feelings of the modern woman was conducted. As the TV show was launched in a time of changing gender roles, a retrospective study design aimed to capture the exact effects that it had on its viewers. Cultivation Theory was incorporated as a base for understanding the impact that repeated exposure to TV content can have on the audiences. Attitudes Towards Women, Hyperfemininity and Gender Empowerment Scales were used as main measurements. The data was gathered using a quantitative empirical method, in the form of an online survey, whereby the final sample consisted of 361 participants of various demographic backgrounds, as well as with diverse viewing experience with the TV show. The results indicated that being exposed to “Sex and the City” increased women’s egalitarian views, as well as their personal sense of empowerment. Additional implications were made, concerning demographic descriptions of the respondents. These were further discussed within the limitation section.

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Sex and the City

• Jane Gerhard
• Published 1 March 2005
• Feminist Media Studies

253 Citations

The sex wars continue: hung's postfeminist debate, voices of a generation: hbo's postfeminist anti-heroines, sex and the city and consumer culture: remediating postfeminist drama, from sex and the city to girls : paving the way for ‘post feminism’, beyond the backlash: sex and the city and three feminist struggles, international criminals, discourses of sexual morality in sex and the city and queer as folk, jewish performativity on sex and the city, who is watching the market for prostitution services, 39 references, backlash: the undeclared war against women, the grounding of modern feminism, sex wars: sexual dissent and political culture, listen up : voices from the next feminist generation, the reproduction of mothering: psychoanalysis and the sociology of gender, desiring revolution: second-wave feminism and the rewriting of american sexual thought, 1920 to 1982, a girl's guide to taking over the world : writings from the girl zine revolution, feminism without women: culture and criticism in a “postfeminist” age. by tania modleski. new york: routledge, 1991., related papers.

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“Can Women Have Sex Like a Man?”: Sexual Scripts in Sex and the City

• Original Paper
• Published: 16 January 2008
• Volume 12 , pages 45–57, ( 2008 )

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• Gail Markle 1  

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The television series Sex and the City became an instant international hit from its 1998 debut on HBO throughout its final episode in 2004 and still remains popular through syndication and DVD sales and rentals. The series garnered widespread attention due to its explicit depiction and candid discussion of female sexuality. Sex and the City challenges commonly held cultural beliefs about what constitutes appropriate sexual desires and behaviors for women. According to sexual script theory, sexuality is not innate, but is learned through cultural messages. I performed a content analysis on the sexual scripts embedded in the series to determine if the sexual encounters of the characters were more likely to be relational or recreational. I also compared the characters’ sexual behavior to that of respondents of an extensive survey of sexual practices in the US. The encounters of the characters were much more likely to be recreational than relational, and their sexual scripts differ significantly from behavior that women actually report practicing. Yet for all the promotion of equal opportunity sexual freedom, by series end, all four characters were engaged in committed relationships—“happily ever after” endings for all!

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Markle, G. “Can Women Have Sex Like a Man?”: Sexual Scripts in Sex and the City . Sexuality & Culture 12 , 45–57 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-007-9019-1

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Published : 16 January 2008

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-007-9019-1

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• Sex and the City

In this Book

• Deborah Jermyn
• Published by: Wayne State University Press
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Table of Contents

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• Introduction: Four Women and a City
• 1. Making Sex and the City : “Authorship” and Ensemble Television Production
• 2. “You see us, Manhattan? We have it all!” Sex and the City , Women, and Television Comedy
• 3. New York Stories: Representation and the City in Sex and the City
• 4. Goodnight, Ladies: The Legacy of Sex and the City
• pp. 103-105
• WORKS CITED
• pp. 107-112
• pp. 113-114

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