Sex & The City II: Reflections
Whoo-weee Memorial Day Weekend is here and for many of us that means the first real break since January. Now summer is upon us and I can feel New York City finally ease back into a rocksteady sexy sway. This weekend as I remember all those, including my uncles and father, who courageously fought for a country that so often denied them their manhood, their American-hood, I’m looking forward to celebrating life with all of my Gemini friends, chilling-out, and seeing Sex And The City 2. Speaking of SATC 2, I am reminded of a story that writer and author Thembisa Mshaka contributed to theHotness back in 2002 about the absence of brown girls on SATC. Looking back at how Michael Patrick King created a New York City where Black and Latina women were largely invisible, Thembisa and I are both wondering now how much has changed for Carrie and company? Tomorrow night we’re going to see the flick and I guess we’ll know for sure then, but it seems that the ladies have to go to Dubai in order to mingle with people of color (not withstanding Jennifer Hudson’s lame role last time around)! So in tribute to summer days, full moon nights and all around general Hotness I’ve gone into the vaults and dug up Thembisa’s essay. Enjoy and have a fantastic weekend!
Sex And The Homogenized City
by Thembisa MshakaI don’t watch network television. I’m all about cable: reality TV, useful news information, music videos and tons of HBO. I am big on The Sopranos, OZ, Arli$$ and the subject of this month’s story, “Sex And The City.”
Let me say this up front. I am not complaining, just thinking in a Perfect Brown Girl World, if you will. I enjoy this show and have watched it religiously since it began. It sparkles with wit, candor and the glitz of the Big Apple. The ladies are all too believable as tightly knit friends. What’s unbelievable is that among these urbanitas, there is not even one sista. This is Manhattan y’all! Don’t even tell me you don’t know any six-figure makin’, $500 shoe-buyin’, livin’ off-credit swipin’, advance-degree havin’ divas with great bodies, fabulous hair and a terrific bedside manner. The closest the show’s characters have gotten to a Brown Girl was once when Sonia Braga appeared for an episode and half as Samantha’s better half of her experimental lesbian fling and then there was Adina on the July 9th, 2000 episode. But before we could even get to know her, she and Samantha ended-up cat-fighting over Adina’s objection to Samantha doing the interracial nasty with her brother. Two questions: Why is it that as soon as one of us enters the picture, we’re the one with the race problem? Did it occur to the writers that we’d be more interested in a sista who is preoccupied with a sex life of her own?
But I digress. In real life, the same eligible (mostly white) men portrayed on Sex And The City have also been known to taste a lil’ urban flava, or at least be as curious as Samantha about it. Is it a truth that today’s audiences are still unable to handle from the living room? What about the sight of a voluptuous, naked dark body arching in ecstasy (or deciding not to) on her own terms? I can see TV executives gulping on that jagged little pill already. I know they feel much more comfortable writing us as…
Go here for Thembisa’s full story