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Beyond the Backlash: Sex and the City and Three Feminist Struggles
Belinda A. Stillion Southard

Much scholarly debate surrounds the extent to which female situation comedies make feminist contributions, particularly in a postfeminist context. While Sex and the City (SATC) can be read as a postfeminist text, this essay aims to recover the shows feminist meanings. To that end, this essay situates SATC within three key feminist struggles between the individual and the collective, feminism and femininity, and agency and victimization. As Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha face each of these struggles, they often embody complex feminist identities. Exploring these complexities will highlight SATCs participatory elements as they relate to the ongoing feminist project. Keywords: Agency; Feminism; Polysemy; Postfeminism; Sex and the City In January 2003, Kim Cattrall accepted the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a TV Situation Comedy by saying, You have no idea how many men I had to sleep with to get this award (Bundy, 2003). The humor in Cattralls statement is based on her portrayal of Samantha, an attractive, sexually aggressive woman on the sitcom Sex and the City. In fact, Sex and the City writer, director, and executive producer, Michael Patrick King, admits that Samanthas dialogue intends to shock viewers (Gross, 2002). As the sitcom has received both critical acclaim and notable censure, its ability to challenge social norms is significant to its success.

Belinda A. Stillion Southard (MA, University of Maryland, 2004) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland. This paper began as a seminar paper in Professor Shawn J. Parry-Giless course on Historical=Critical Methods in Rhetoric. A previous version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, November 2003. The author would like to thank Shawn J. Parry-Giles for entertaining the idea of this paper and guiding it throughout its many stages, as well as this papers many readers, including Professor Janette Kenner Muir and two anonymous reviewers for their generous feedback on this manuscript. Correspondence: Belinda A. Stillion Southard, Department of Communication, University of Maryland, 2130 Skinner Building, College Park, Maryland 20742; Tel.: (503) 409-2793; Fax: (301) 314-9471; E-mail: bstillio@hotmail.com ISSN 0146-3373 print/1746-4102 online # 2008 Eastern Communication Association DOI: 10.1080/01463370802026943

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Sex and the Citys six-year run on HBO left an indelible mark on the trajectory of women in television. The shows season finale in February 2004 scored the highest Nielsen ratings HBO had seen since The Sopranos season premiere in fall 2002, in addition to toppling broadcast network programming that week (Bauder, 2004). Currently, the show runs in syndication on cable channel TBS, and a feature film based on the television series is scheduled for wide release on May 30, 2008 (sexandthecitymovie. com). Sex and the City (SATC) features Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha as four, single women living in New York City whose professional and personal lives intertwine in a way that exposes the struggles of the thirty-something woman, making the show especially popular among women viewers between 1834 years of age (Bauder, 2004). In addition to the shows influence on popular fashion (Thomas, 2004), it accrued numerous Emmy and Golden Globe Awards, as well as a Lucy Award from Women in Film, for Innovation in Television and enhanc[ing] the perception of women (Home Box Office, n.d.; Women in Film, 2003). In addition to the place SATC held in the world of popular culture, the show garnered critical attention. Some praised SATC for its complex treatment of womens life experiences. As one critic argued, [SATC is] the one show on television that is adept enough to tap into issues like sex, loneliness, true love, romantic failure, selfesteem, ageism, and surviving as a woman in the modern world (Goodman, 2001). The sitcoms fearless treatment of these issues contributed to its critical success, so much so that sex therapists, Dr. Jennifer Berman and Dr. Laura Berman, credited SATC with making women feel more empowered about their bodies, helping them to take control of their sexuality (Ross, 2001). This praise suggests that SATCs appeal lies in its ability to make women feel both sexually empowered and interconnected. The sitcoms provocative nature, however, invited notable criticism. For example, one critic ranked the show among the obligatory how-to-get-him-to-commit features in womens magazines and accused it of fostering single-girl angst [found] in novels such as Bridget Joness Diary and television shows such as Ally McBeal (Young, 2001, p. 24). Other critics similarly questioned the reality of SATCs depiction of women. After describing SATCs characters as women who manage to combine a successful career and busy social calendar with a top sex life, one columnist asked, how does real life measure up? (Swarbrick, 2002). Contrary to the shows supporters, these critics found that Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha perpetuate myths of the modern, consumerist, city-dwelling woman. Given the literature available regarding the construction of women in prime-time television, little doubt remains that SATCs portrayal of young, thin, white, economically successful, and attractive women contributes to unrealistic images of women. However, as media critic John Fiske (1986) has theorized, a television shows popularity can be attributed to the audiences ability to identify with a shows characters. He says, all television texts must, in order to be popular, contain within them unresolved contradictions that the viewer can exploit in order to find within them structural similarities to his or her own social relations and identity (p. 392). As such, this article suggests SATCs popularity is a reflection of its ability to play out multiple meanings, particularly as they relate to the feminist struggle.

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This ambiguity is said to provide a safe space from which the television viewer can reject oppressive meanings. Celeste Michelle Condit (1989) summarizes the freeing aspects of complex media constructions: Rather than portraying the mass media as the channel of oppression generated through the top-down imposition of meanings, such a perspective allows for the suggestion that the pleasures of the popular media might in fact be liberating (p. 104). For example, Brenda Coopers (2001) analysis of Ally McBeal, a sitcom often compared to SATC, argues that the portrayal of women rejecting the heterosexual male gaze creates a liberating safe space for women viewers to resist patriarchy (p. 431). The extent to which prime-time female sitcoms such as Ally McBeal and SATC empower women or make feminist contributions has been the subject of much scholarly interest, particularly in light of a postfeminist climate (Arthurs, 2003; Dow, 2002; Dubrofsky, 2002; Gerhard, 2005; Hammers, 2005; Kim, 2001; McKenna, 2002; Ouelette, 2002; Vavrus, 2000). While postfeminism is a rather loaded concept, the term is often used to refer to the depoliticization of second-wave feminist politics, which in turn produces an accessible and empowering version of feminism most often consumed by young women. As such, media texts considered postfeminist produce troubling, yet irresistibly attractive characters, compelling media scholars to ask, If a postfeminist culture tends to produce highly ambivalent pleasures, how do we make that ambivalence a wellspring for effective critique? (Tasker & Negra, 2005, p. 108). One scholar has taken to answering this question by arguing that the era of postfeminism does not necessarily signify the death of feminism (Kim, 2001, p. 321). In a similar move, this essay aims to recover the feminist meanings embedded in the construction of SATCs four main characters. To that end, this essay situates SATC within three key feminist struggles: between the individual and the collective, feminism and femininity, and agency and victimization. As Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha face each of these struggles, they often embody competing and contradictory feminist identities. Exploring these complexities will highlight SATCs participatory elements as they relate to the ongoing feminist project. Moreover, this study is committed to highlighting the multiplicity of gendered meanings and womens experiences. In large part, the feminist project has worked to destabilize gendered binary constructions, such as male=female, public=private, political=personal, and rational=hysterical (Campbell, 1973; Elshtain, 1993; Prokhovnik, 1999). Accordingly, this study posits the individual=collective, feminism=femininity, and agency=victimization as sites of ongoing feminist struggle that provide alternative spaces in which SATCs four main characters both reify and contest gendered meanings. Further, feminist scholars and activists have sought to recognize womens differences, oppressions, and privileges as they pertain to race, class, sexuality, and nationality (Barkley Brown, 1992; Brah, 1996; Crenshaw, 1991; Frankenberg & Mani, 1993; Hill Collins, 2000; King, 1988; Sandoval, 1991; Thompson, 2002; Yuval-Davis, 1997). Thus, this study notes SATCs limited portrayal of womens experiences, considering its characters particular locations of privilege relating to race (white), class (upper, educated), sexuality (predominantly heterosexual), and nationality (American). Despite these limits, the shows liberatory potential can be examined

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in the context of key feminist struggles as they are experienced through the lives of Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha. The Politics of (Post)Feminism in Television Scholarship regarding the representation of women in television maintains that women are systematically underrepresented, placed in traditionally feminine roles, and exhibit traditionally feminine appearances (Atkin, 1991; Elasmar, Hasegawa, & Brain, 1999; Glascock, 2001). Moreover, prime-time television shows that aim to break these stereotypes actually revert to situating female characters within overarching patriarchal schemes (e.g., Butler, 1993; Dow, 1990; Goodstein, 1992). The ways in which feminism emerged in television follow this pattern of commodification and depoliticization. In their study, which traces the rise and fall of feminist television, Andrea Press and Terry Strathman (1993) assert that the feminism that television elected to portray was narrow and impoverished, a version focusing on situations created by womens new roles in the work force, but giving little hint of the challenges feminism posed to patriarchy (p. 11; see also Beck, 1998; Dow, 1992; Goldman, Heath, & Smith, 1991; Rhode, 1995). In fact, feminism in television is considered to have such a thin presence that most scholars concur that television more readily embraces a postfeminist ideology (Dow, 1996; Owen, 1999; Press & Strathman, 1993). Postfeminism emerged as a concept in the early 1980s, yet scholars still have difficulty locating its definitional parameters (Arthurs, 2003; Coppock, Haydon, & Richter, 1995; Tasker & Negra, 2005). Most generally, postfeminism has been used to characterize the (non)politics of the generation of women in their 20s and early 30s who resist embracing a feminist identity (touting the phrase, Im not a feminist, but . . .). Mary D. Vavrus (1998) elaborates: A postfeminist perspective is based on an assumption that womens material needs have, for the most part, been met and that a politics of feminism is no longer necessary for womens advancement (p. 218). As a result, postfeminism moves away from the power of collectivity so central to second-wave politics and emphasizes individual choice (Hammers, 2005). Postfeminisms depoliticized and fragmented treatment of feminism translates particularly well to television. Bonnie J. Dow (1996) argues that postfeminism allows the media to conflate feminist politics with feminist identity, which denotes feminist progress through signature, professional appearances of women (p. 207). L. S. Kim (2001) argues that programs focusing on the single, working woman seem to proffer a feminist tone or objective, but actually depict a false feminism (p. 323). Most significantly, scholars express concern that the assumption of equality between the sexes will encourage political apathy among young women (Arneil, 1999; Coppock et al., 1995; Dow, 1992; Jones, 2003; Schneider, 1988; Vavrus, 2000; Whelehan, 1995). Scholars have noted, however, that SATC provides alternatives to or in postfeminist discourses by complicating female subjectivity and desire (Arthurs, 2003; Gerhard, 2005; Kim, 2001). According to Gerhard, the characters explicit discussions about sexand about enjoying sexmust be seen as an important contribution the

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show makes because it transforms them into the subjects of heterosexual sex, not its object (p. 45). Kim is quick to note that sexual subjectivity could be misconstrued as the effort to attract the heterosexual male gaze (p. 324). However, Kim argues that the women of SATC are not simply trying to get sexual attention, rather they possess a stronger gaze of others as well as of themselves . . . . Their characters possess more motivation, purpose, and depth than to solely elicit a gaze (p. 324). Certainly, SATC cannot escape its overt sexual content; nonetheless, the extent to which this sexuality is liberating is worth further exploration. As such, this essay aims to explore the shows more complex treatment of feminist struggles within and perhaps beyond a pervasive postfeminist climate. The Individual and the Collective A defining characteristic of the postfeminist era is its sense of fierce individualism. The conflict between woman as a person and woman as one of her sex takes root in the rise of feminism and has had clear ramifications in the mediated spotlight. SATCs polysemic construction of women allows viewers to simultaneously identify with the characters as individuals and as members of a collective force. The sitcoms power lies in its focus on the interrelationships of four women, an element not prevalent in most other female situation comedies. Furthermore, SATCs use of the narrating voice and its emphasis on friendship disrupts the way fiction and non-fiction television alike represent politics as a function of personality (Press & Strathman, 1993, p. 11). The tenuous and dialectical relationship between woman as an individual and woman as a member of an oppressed sex takes its ideological root in the movements conception. In characterizing the rhetoric of second-wave feminism, for example, Karlyn Kohrs Campbell (1973) addresses the process of building a shared identity:
[Women] must transcend alienation to create sisterhood, modify self-concepts to create a sense of autonomy, and speak to women in terms of private, concrete, individual experience, because women have little, if any, publicly shared experience. (p. 79)

In another work, however, Campbell (1983) identifies this quandary as an internal and persistent struggle between personhood and womanhood creating ideological inconsistencies (p. 104). Todays feminist generation has inherited these inconsistencies and unresolved tensions, which permeate the discourse of SATC. Further evidence of this individualistic sense is found in postfeminisms popular literature. Books laden with confessions, anecdotes, and autobiographical comingof-age stories have helped shape the medias creation of the lone but vociferous postfeminist woman. Works such as Naomi Wolfs Fire with Fire (1993) and Christine Hoff Sommerss Who Stole Feminism? (1994) have come under fire by feminist and communication scholars. Patricia McDermott (1995), for example, argues that the work of popular press feminists . . . trivializes feminist analyses of power, undermines attempts to effect social change, and casts feminism as a hegemonic bully (p. 671). Similarly, Lisa M. Gring-Pemble and Diane Blair (2000) argue that

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postfeminist authors such as Sommers, Katie Roiphe, and Camille Paglia use a narrative structure to associate the authors with revered cultural values of independence, rationality, objectivity, and freedom of thought and expression (p. 373). Other feminist scholars suggest that a disconnection to feminist predecessors contributes to this sense of individuality. Paula Kamen (1991), for example, readily admits that her generation is sadly lacking. . .a sense of history (p. 18). Kamens sensitivity to her generations past, however, does not go unchecked by her postfeminist individualism, for she declares: We young women need a chance to define ourselves (p. 18). The media packaging of this individual=group tension evidences itself in what Marjorie Ferguson (1990) terms the feminist fallacy, wherein the visibility of women of status lends itself to the acceptance of feminisms success (p. 215). Others (e.g., Steeves, 1987) argue that postfeminist individualism privileges individualism and the interests of elite, white, straight women at the expense of a collective politics of diverse womens needs (Vavrus, 2000, p. 415). It is also worth noting that postfeminist television typically portrays economically privileged women who have greater opportunity to explore their independence. Thus, not only do televisions single female characters appear isolated and individualist, but their race, economic status, and sexuality are unrepresentative of women in general. Television characters given the burden of representing feminism hold a dual power, according to Dow (2001). In her discussion of the media construction of Ellen DeGeneress coming out and of poster-child politics, she explicates the complications with this practice:
One the one hand, [poster-child politics] can often bring needed visibility to a deserving issue . . . . However, such politics as practiced in popular culture can serve a masking function as representation is mistaken for social and political change. (p. 137)

Similarly, Deborah Rhode (1995) discusses the medias treatment of political issues in what she calls medias tendency to undermine feminist objectives by placing focus on self-transformation rather than social transformation (p. 73; emphasis added). In short, television has made the political personal (Dow, 1996; Press & Strathman, 1993). The media construct a condition of the individual woman whose private or professional gains earned by feminist strides have a distancing effect on her connectedness to women and the feminist movement as a whole. Most certainly, SATCs characters can be charged with rendering abridged representations of feminism and furthering the construction of white, elitist, heterosexual postfeminists (Vavrus, 2000), particularly as their elevated financial status allows them the freedom to be economically independent. However, the sitcoms use of the narrating voice and its emphasis on friendship as a collective force challenges the postfeminist emphasis on self-importance and disconnectedness. The individual=group struggle emerges in SATC through its use of the main characters narrating voice. Although it could be argued that this narration privileges the individuality of Carrie, the shows main character, scholars have argued that a

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narrating voice is a vehicle for creating identification and relating common experiences. Richard Neupert (1995) describes the narrating voice as a group of narrative techniques that may even collectively create a definite personality or presence (p. 24). This presence facilitates an interaction between the narrator and the audience. Kathleen McHugh (2001) uses SATC as an example to discuss the feminizing effects of a female-voiced narrator. McHugh writes:
Carries questions and observations organize each episode, contrasting the very different opinions, experiences, and tastes of her friends on an array of different subjects (safe sex, breaking up, telling all), thereby giving sexual agency and voice to a variety of female sexual proclivities represented by this group of white, affluent, heterosexual women. One might wish that the representative group was not so exclusive, but the show does use female narration to make significant interventions in moralistic discourses concerning female sexuality and lifestyle choices. (pp. 195196)

McHugh echoes Vavruss (2000) critique of SATCs privileged characters; however, she maintains that the use of the female narrating voice gives sexual agency to a variety of female audiences and experiences. While Carries narrating voice accommodates the medias preference for the individual postfeminist woman, it simultaneously gives voice to a variety of female sexual proclivities (McHugh, 2001, p. 196). Carries first-person narration provides the viewer with one womans perspective and also gives voice to the lives of three other women, which disrupts the postfeminist sense of individuality. For example, in the episode Where Theres Smoke (King, 2000), Carrie narrates her experience dating a politician and her fear of compromising her independence. Her narration highlights this internal struggle and incorporates Charlottes, Mirandas, and Samanthas respective experiences with this issue as a way to show its universal appeal to women. For example, after Samantha discloses her recent sexual encounter with a firefighter, Miranda asks, Why are firemen always so fucking cute? While the discussion prompted by this question stereotypes the firefighter profession and objectifies men, Charlottes response is what concerns her three companions: Its because women really just want to be rescued. Carrie, Miranda, and Samantha respond with averting gazes and sighs, to which Carries voice narrates: There it was, the sentence single, independent women in their thirties are never supposed to think, let alone say out loud. The narrating voice broadens this scenes subject matter, sparked by Samanthas very specific experience, to the universal, taboo nature of questioning the independence of all women in their thirties. Furthermore, the narrating voice is delivered in first-person, which universalizes this discussion of female dependence. For example, as Carrie begins to write her weekly column, she ponders,
I got to thinking, what if Prince Charming never showed up? Would Snow White have slept in that glass coffin forever? Or, would she have eventually woken up, spit out the apple, gotten a job, a good health care package, and a baby from her local neighborhood sperm bank? I couldnt help but wonder, inside every confident, driven, single woman, is there a delicate, fragile princess just waiting to be saved?

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The narrating voice serves as Carries internal monologue as she develops this idea for her column. Although these thoughts are clearly Carries, as cued by the use of her voice and the use of first-person, she refers to the universal fairy tale narrative of Snow White to illustrate her ideas. The fairy tales storyline invokes the stereotypical passive, lady-in-waiting. Carrie provides an alternative ending, which involves work, health care, and even motherhood without a mans help. Although boldly inverting the patriarchal Snow White narrative, Carrie still feels compelled to investigate the extent to which women are really just waiting to be saved, demonstrating McHughs argumentthat the female narrating voice provides a common space within which women can identify. The second way in which SATC challenges postfeminist individualism is through great emphasis on friendship. Feminist media critic, Ginia Bellafante says SATCs construction of friendship is genuine:
[T]he relationship among the four [SATC] women, and many single women living in cities across America are very, very dependent on those kinds of female tribes to get through things. . . . What women relate to in SATC, I think, predominantly is the friend group as family. (Garfield, 2002)

Discussing the integral role friendship has played in the development of the womens rights movement, Schneider (1988) writes: While historical conditions have altered the meanings of female friendship over time, the development of friendship networks, particularly in later generations within a movement, may still be a necessary ingredient for womens movement strategy (p. 17). Schneider specifically discusses intimacy and sense of family as necessary for sustaining the womens movement and as missing elements in the postfeminist generation (p. 17). SATCs characters rely on this sense of family and connectedness and manage to maintain their individuality as well. In All or Nothing (Bicks & McDougall, 2000), their collectivity is most prominent when Charlotte gets married. Charlotte, the most conservative character of the show (Gross, 2002), struggles with the idea of negotiating a prenuptial agreement with her future mother-in-law, Bunny. At her engagement party, Charlotte consults her friends:
Charlotte: Help me, what should I do? Samantha: A woman named Bunny? Honey, you can take her. Miranda: You have to do whatever feels right for you.

Clearly, Charlotte relies on her friends for guidance, but, ironically, their advice helps resolve Charlottes conflict with the prenuptial (she insists shes worth $1 million instead of $500,000), which brings her closer to marriage and further from her friends. As Carrie, Miranda, and Samantha watch Charlotte and her fiance dance at their engagement party, the narrating voice says, It was then that each of us realized that we didnt have it all because we no longer had Charlotte . . . and then, there were three. This sense of loss shows how these four women regard themselves as a family. Even at Charlottes wedding, Carrie finds unconditional love in her three friends after ending a relationship. The narrating voice says, Its hard to find

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people who will love you no matter whatI was lucky enough to find three of them (Chupak & Algrant, 2000). These episode anecdotes demonstrate how SATC constructs women who rely on their strength as a collective force in addition to or in spite of their romantic relationships. Carries narration gives symbolic voice to the complexity of womens experiences by simultaneously drawing attention to the experience of one, single woman and to the power of womens collectivity. SATC also places emphasis on women as a collective force by stressing the value of friendship as family. These practices yield an intricate portrayal of women, one that suggests women have not lost a sense of connectedness to each other. The return to having shared experiences shows how female sitcoms such as SATC complicate the typical, individualistic prime-time feminist. Feminism and Femininity In McHughs (2001) analysis of the female narrating voice, she finds it significant that Carries voice narrates the composition of her weekly column for all of New York City to read. McHugh compares Carries narrating voice to the voice of the female lead in the television show, Felicity:
While Felicitys musings are private, intended only for an unseen friend, Carries are destined for a very public audience. While Felicity reinforces the conceit of womens lives and thoughts having only to do with personal and intimate interaction (in a homosocial private sphere), SATC emphatically challenges it, having Carries profession involve making the very private very, very public. (p. 196)

This analysis emphasizes how Carries weekly act of publicly disclosing sexual experiences, challenges social norms of what McHugh calls, the conceit of womens lives (p. 196). What is challenging about this practice is that historically, feminine issues are limited to the homosocial private sphere, and that a more feminist text challenges the traditional private=public sphere divide. SATC challenges ideological constructions of femininity by disrupting norms of public behavior. Many scholars argue that this pattern of disruption is necessary to effect social change for women, and as such, SATC confronts feminine norms. What is meant by feminine is integral to understanding how femininity differs from and intersects with what is considered feminist. Historically, femininity is a traditional and accessible means of assessing a womans worth as defined by men and is often associated with domesticity. What is deemed feminine today is informed by perceptions of femininity in the past, particularly by the nineteenth-centurys cult of true womanhood (Welter, 1966). While a true woman culture may no longer be relevant, femininity is still defined by a key set behavioral and cosmetic virtues, that, if violated, automatically suggests a woman is either promiscuous or masculine (Jamieson, 1995). Coppock, Haydon, and Richter (1995) argue that cosmetic, fashion, leisure and female media industries constantly recuperate and reassimilate what is considered feminine, which, the authors contend, reflect prevailing ideas, beliefs and attitudes about femininity which are imposed upon women whether they like it or not (p. 24). Clearly, femininity is a moving target, but one that encapsulates the

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behavioral and cosmetic expectations of womanhood of a given time. Also, femininity is closely associated with a womans sexuality, or sexual attractiveness to men (MacKinnon, 1982). Coppock et al., for example, discuss how fashion is a material manifestation of the prevailing sexual ideal (p. 27) and reflects a cultures gendered ideological framework. Many critics have argued that the medias treatment of the feminist movement uses femininity as a visual short-cut to denote political expression. Dow (1992) asserts that feminism is now represented through lifestyle choices and behaviors, rather than through explicit political dialogue. Similar to Dows argument is Kathleen Hall Jamiesons (1995) notions of the double bind. The femininity=competence double bind, for example, expects a woman to be feminine, then offers her a concept of femininity that ensures that as a feminine creature she cannot be mature or decisive (p. 120). Jamieson asserts that a womans aptitude is compromised by her perceived femininity, just as perhaps, feminism is delegitimized by its association with what is considered feminine. Goldman, Heath, and Smith (1991) align postfeminism with the medias tendency to replace feminism with femininity:
We see an ideological resemblance between postfeminism and the commercial blends of feminism and beauty counseling that have recently been constructed in the mass media. Commercial attempts to choreograph a non-contradictory unification of feminism and femininity have given rise to an aesthetically depoliticized feminism. (p. 334)

While Goldman et al. investigate the depoliticized feminism found in womens magazines, other scholars have criticized entertainment television for attempting to exchange feminist politics for feminist identity. Amelia Jones (2003) describes this identity, or what Goldman et al. describe as the aesthetics of feminism, as those self-defined feminists who confuse and transgress previously accepted codes of domesticated femininity, . . . visually and textually coded as a professionally powerful and often excessively sexual woman (p. 315). Press and Strathman (1993), for example, find that prime-time televisions preference for femininity over feminism reflects a conservative perspective: Femininity, traditionally conceived, as both glamorous and=or maternal . . . determinedly refutes potentially unconventional, feminist issues (p. 11). Moreover, Dow (1990, 1992) finds that situation comedies such as Murphy Brown and Designing Women denote their feminist agenda through the professional appearance of its female characters. Televisions adaptation of feminism typically conflates feminism and femininity in that women cannot successfully represent both concepts without eclipsing one or the other. Additionally, these two concepts are constantly exchanged in that these characters exercise their feminist freedoms, but remain preoccupied with their attractiveness, or femininity. In the context of postfeminism, SATCs portrayal of successful working women who obsess about men may be charged with this substitution of feminism with femininity, particularly because of the shows fame for trend-setting fashion. In fact, Arthurs (2003) attributes SATCs fame to its ability to exploit fully the glossy womens magazines consumerist approach to sexuality, in which womens sexual pleasure and agency is frankly encouraged as part of a consumer lifestyle and

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attitude (p. 85). However, the text resists rendering feminism and femininity interchangeable through its challenges to traditional female decorum. SATC disrupts the conflation of feminism and femininity through explicit and public discussions about sexual experiences. Challenging social norms is characteristic of womens liberation rhetoric in its use of confrontative, non-adjustive strategies designed to violate the reality structure (Campbell, 1973, p. 81). Campbell continues, [t]hese strategies not only attack the psycho-social reality of the culture, but violate the norms of decorum, morality, and femininity of the women addressed (p. 81). Designing Women was praised for confronting socially taboo subjects. As Deborah Beck (1998) argues, [the characters] frequently breached the bounds of good taste and politeness as they talked about such taboo topics as sexual harassment, premenstrual syndrome, menopause, single parenting, religion, and womens sexuality (p. 148). Such strategies seem to operate on shock value, and according to Campbell (1973), their use is a necessary stage in liberation (p. 81). Designing Womens southern setting, however, has been criticized for serving hegemonic ends, in that its Victorian home setting symbolizes containment and domesticity, two ideals that reinforce the shows femininity and temper its feminist agenda (Goodstein, 1992). SATC, however, has been noted for transcending the public=private divide through its characters exploration of all city spaces (Gerhard, 2005, p. 33; Kim, 2001, p. 329). Before discussing how SATC challenges the conflation of feminism and femininity, it should be noted that the shows storylines often challenge traditional gender behaviors. For example, in Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl (Bicks & Thomas, 2000), Charlottes art gallery features a photographer whose work depicts women dressed as men. The photographer says, Gender is an illusion, we have dual powers within each of us. Men can be very female and women can be very male. In the same episode, Carrie dates a man who used to be in a homosexual relationship. Samantha and Charlottes responses give voice to differing ideological perspectives:
Samantha: I think its great, hes open to all sexual experiences, hes evolved. Its hot . . . youre not marrying the guy, youre making out with him. Enjoy it. Dont worry about the labels. Charlotte: Im very into labels. Gay, straightpick a side and stay there.

Mirandas character particularly gives voice to the feminism=femininity struggle. Miranda discovers that her housekeeper has put a rolling pin in her kitchen because, she says, its good for women to make pies, to which Miranda says, I dont need to make pies. Im practically a partner in a major law firm, if I want a pie, I can buy it (Chupak & Thomas, 2000). Nonetheless, Miranda insists on finding her inner goddess after her boyfriend says, Jesus, Miranda, its like youre the guy sometimes. In the same episode, she talks with Carrie about her femininity and not wanting her boyfriend to move in:
Miranda: Im never going to be a girly girl. I never will. A girly girl would want her boyfriend to move in. Carrie: She also wears make-up to the gym. Miranda: And makes little hearts above her is . . . I do love him, I do. So, whats my problem?

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Miranda clearly gives voice to the conflict between feminism and femininity. She embodies second-wave equality politics as she finds her high-powered career all the evidence necessary to release her from expectations of feminine behavior. However, Miranda cannot escape the backlashshe considers her a-femininity a problem. As we see through Mirandas desire to please her boyfriend and through her and Carries rejection of girly-girls, SATC remains in constant negotiation of feminist politics and femininity. The women of SATC continue to disrupt standards of femininity through their public, frank discussions about sex. As the postfeminist climate has encouraged more conservative representations of feminism, confronting taboo issues makes way for political progress. Although the title of the show implies that sex is a common topic of discussion, SATCs dialogue has braved issues such as abortion, miscarriage, menopause, breast cancer, single parenthood, interracial relationships, and loss of a parent. Sex-centered issues such as homosexuality, bisexuality, masturbation, phone sex, golden showers, sexually-transmitted diseases, sex in public, and impotence (male and female) are discussed explicitly with equal doses of humor and severity, challenging the typical innuendo-style dialogue of prime-time sitcoms. SATCs use of its four main characters as representations of politically and socially diverse identities allows the show to treat such issues. For example, director, Michael Patrick King, admits: [w]hen we want to send up a firework or really shock someone, Samantha opens her mouth (Gross, 2002). So when Samantha says, My boyfriends spunk tastes funky, the show intends to shock viewers (King & McDougall, 2000). Charlotte, on the other hand, often voices a more conservative reaction (Gross, 2002) and fittingly, clashes with Samanthas notion of what is socially accepted public behavior. For example, when Charlotte feels uncomfortable telling her girlfriends that her boyfriend screams obscenities as he orgasms, Samantha feels compelled to interrupt:
Charlotte: When he, you know Samantha: Came, orgasmed, shot his wad? (Chupak & Anders, 2000).

Samanthas behavior conveys a higher level of comfort with sex than Charlotte, particularly as she discusses and performs her sexuality in public spaces. In fact, most conversations about sex occur between the characters while they dine. During one breakfast, Samantha candidly describes her sexual encounter with a firefighter, to which Charlotte replied, Will you be quiet? People at the next table have a child (King, 2000). Samanthas retort is highly reflective of her self-important attitude: Well, thats their choice. Indicative of the individual=group struggle, Samanthas behavior suggests that she values self-autonomy while sharing with her girlfriends. She also equates the public exhibition of personal choices such as having children with discussing ones sex life. Therefore, not only do these four women engage in discussions about the gritty specifics of their sex lives, they also address their private experiences in public spaces. Feminine norms suggest that sexual encounters are private or domestic affairs, hence its label as a tabooed subject, but in braving such topics in the public arena, Samantha violates norms of feminine decorum.

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While the women of SATC bring sex into the public sphere, it should be noted that they hold these conversations between each othernot explicitly with the public. Historically, women addressing the public sphere enter a deliberative space reserved for those with speaking and voting rightsi.e., menand as such, these women have been met with great resistance since the early-nineteenth century (Berg, 1978; Ginzberg, 1990; Hewitt, 1984; Zaeske, 1995). The four characters of SATC, however, restrict their discussions to each other and do not explicitly address those who share a public space with them. However, McHugh (2001) argues that Carries column is a vehicle for engaging the public on sex. Further, compared to earlier shows such as Designing Women (Goodstein, 1992), which contained its discussion of feminist issues to the home, SATCs willingness to blur public and private spaces and behaviors expands the terrain of feminist politics on television. In the process of bringing private, taboo issues into the public sphere, SATC both challenges and reifies conventional feminine behaviors. At the very least, these behaviors disrupt the mediated process of exchanging feminism with femininity. While critics argue that the appearance of these women and their Hollywood-hyped fashion sense may naturalize constructions of femininity, the issues they confront and their public behavior add depth to constructions of women in television and help bring the multiple issues of the feminist=femininity struggle to the fore of the feminist agenda. Agency and Victimization Female sitcoms often treat the struggle between agency and victimization by exploring the extent to which feminism liberates women from patriarchal institutions, such as the nuclear family, monogamy, and heterosexual romance. On one hand, for example, feminism empowered Murphy Brown to enjoy her professional success and sexual freedom. Dow (1992) finds, however, that she was ritually punished for inappropriate manifestation of patriarchal traits (p. 146). Murphy Brown thus became a victim of societys inability to cope with her feminist undertakings, and yet, she was empowered to choose a career and to be a single parent. SATC treats this struggle by casting its characters in a mock fairy-tale narrative that demonstrates how women can simultaneously resist and engage with patriarchal schemes. By offering four different, complex treatments of the empowered and victimized woman, SATC complicates media-friendly backlash politics and re-introduces agency into mediated feminism. To possess agency is to possess a means to an end (Burke, 1969, p. xx), and the women of SATC have been noted for asserting themselves toward their desired ends. Kim (2001) says, They dont just talk, they do; and they dont just think, they act. They also make mistakes and learn and move on and continue to make choices (p. 324). Much of this action is focused on sexual freedomone of the many fruits of second-wave feminism. However, Gerhard (2005) argues that although the women of SATC resist sexual objectivity, pleasurable sex is contextualized within an overarching narrative quest for the right man (p. 45). Further, Tasker and Negra (2005) argue that through the rhetoric of choice, postfeminist media depict female

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agency as retreatism, wherein a well-educated white female professional displays her empowerment and caring nature by withdrawing from the workforce (and symbolically the public sphere) to devote herself to husband and family (p. 108). This is often considered the backlash of the feminist movement and the crux of postfeminist debatehow feminist is individual choice if one chooses to participate in patriarchal institutions? Here, I argue that SATCs incorporation of individual agency resists reinscribing patriarchial meanings through a mock fairy tale in Where Theres Smoke (King, 2000). Samantha and Charlotte represent the ways in which women are punished by postfeminist politics, despite their opposing motives. Samantha embodies the politics of second-wave sexual liberation, while Charlotte offers a more conservative perspective on womens roles (Gross, 2002). They give voice to these perspectives at breakfast:
Samantha: I just wanted to let you know that my fireman was every bit the fantasy I had in mind. Charlotte: I think its wrong to sleep with a man to fulfill a certain fantasy. Samantha: All the men we sleep with fulfill a certain fantasy. . . . You fantasize a man with a Park Avenue apartment and a big stock portfolio. For me, its a fireman with a nice, big hose. . . . Charlotte: Ive been dating since I was 15, Im exhausted, where is he? Miranda: Who? The white knight? Samantha: That only happens in fairy tales.

Samanthas sexual agency allows her to proactively satisfy her desires, while Charlottes agency is limited to a narrative within which she waits to be acted upon. Susan Faludi (1991) would suggest that Charlottes passive behavior is evidence of the more acceptable roles considered for women, and that she is victimized by the notion that women must wait for a fitting suitor. On the other hand, Samantha demonstrates what Judith Stacey (1990) describes as an enigmatic dilemma, in which women try to retain and depoliticize basic tenets of feminism, in which sexual freedom symbolizes total freedom. The denouement of Where Theres Smoke (King, 2000) complicates Samanthas and Charlottes respective representations of woman-as-change-agent and womanas-victim. After asserting her agency and making her own firehouse fantasy happen, Samantha ends up in the fire stations garage, topless and hopping on one foot. As the narrating voice concludes, Samanthas rescue fantasy was suddenly something she needed to be rescued from. Charlotte, after being rescued by Arthur in a bar fight, quickly learns that her prince-hopeful has a penchant for breaking other peoples noses. As such, Charlottes white knight changed into a white nightmare. Despite Samanthas sexually aggressive behavior and Charlottes patient waiting, both women were left unsatisfied. Samantha and Charlottes experiences are symbolic of backlash politics in which women, given right to choose, are left unfulfilled by their choices. To an extent, however, both women are empowered to move beyond their situation. Perhaps Samantha will hesitate to take such charge of satisfying her sexual appetite, and perhaps Charlotte will be empowered to

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pursue men, or more so, not desire to be rescued by them. In spite of the agency= victimization extremes Samantha and Charlotte represented at the beginning of the episode, both were left disappointed, occupying the space in between these seemingly opposing ends. Carrie and Miranda, however, engage with the romantic fairy tale in a way that leaves them with a sense of tentative satisfaction. In the episode, Miranda fiercely resists help from her boyfriend after eye surgeryeven as he helps her into bed, she commands, No rescue. Carrie, too, resists being symbolically rescued by her prince-politician by disrupting the fairy-tale narrative a number of ways. First, she does not accept a date: when she does arrive at a fundraising event, she declares, Im very independent, this isnt a date. Later, she declines a ride home even if it means losing her shoe while trying to catch the last ferry to Manhattan. To an extent, however, Carrie and Miranda comply with the narrative quest. Miranda ultimately embraces Steve for his help and Carrie decides to allow the politician to drive her home. While both characters can be criticized for succumbing to the power of heterosexual romance, it is significant that neither Carrie nor Miranda find imminently happy endings. Neither find true lovethey simply find a moments or an evenings joy in engaging potentially worthwhile men. This sense of ambivalent satisfaction is a move away from the absolute dissatisfaction characteristic of backlash politics and occupies a liberating space between the empowered and the victimized postfeminist. Although Sommers (1994) criticizes scholars for splitting postfeminism into two groups politically at odds (p. 47), much like Dow (1996) criticizes the media for always having a hard time with understanding the complexity of feminist ideology (p. 207), SATC disrupts this tendency by offering more ideologically complicated characters. The agency=victimization struggle most poignantly characterizes the complex nature of feminist struggles in that women are afforded choices by the strides of their predecessors, and that these choices need not be highly sexualized or reinscribed into patriarchal schemes. Further, as the women of SATC simultaneously reify and contest patriarchal meanings, they disrupt the accessible, depoliticized portrayal of women in postfeminist television. Engaging the complexities of the agency= victimization struggle allows them to explore the alternatives to backlash politics. Conclusion Although discussed separately, these quandaries inform each other and are exhibited concurrently. Thus, Carries individual experience, represented by her behaviors and her narrating voice, speaks for single women in their thirties as a whole and shows a reliance on other women for a complete sense of self. This representation is indicative of televisions tendency to credit feminine appearance and behaviors as being feminist, despite SATCs more politicized representation of feminine behavior. Further, while television is charged with characterizing feminist freedom as sexual freedom, SATC characterizes female agency as the power to choose friends and self over men. SATC complicates the medias portrayal of postfeminism by resisting a

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dualistic worldview and suggesting that postfeminist texts can be read for more feminist meanings (Dow, 1996, p. 207). The shows challenging nature, then, renders polysemic texts in which many salient, conflicting perspectives interact simultaneously. SATC points toward a more hopeful future for feminist television. Imelda Whelehan (1995) writes:
. . . if young women are internalizing the postfeminist ideal and the assumption that feminist politics are redundant, then consciousness-raising is again one of the most vital feminist activitiesa consciousness raising that appeals to all women, whatever their background, but which avoids the pitfalls of divisive individualism. (p. 241)

SATCs resistance to this postfeminist ideal and individualism may free its audience of the media-framed either=or dichotomy and facilitate this move toward consciousness-raising. Resonating with Samantha and Charlottes complex identities, Arneil (1999) says, by not simply accepting a dualistic either=or world, but actively becoming the boundaries themselves, the connections between seemingly exclusive spheres, feminists put themselves at the very heart of politics (p. 212). This discussion of SATC renders significant implications regarding media constructions of women and the state of feminism today. Consider Carries statement: I was a woman who was not only capable of obsessing about my relationships with men; I was a woman who was capable of obsessing about my relationships with women (King & Coulter, 2000). Despite the shows limited ability to portray diversity along race, class, sexuality, and nationality lines, the characters ongoing feminist struggles offer alternative meanings within a postfeminist climate. The text challenges televisions postfeminist shows that feature characters who cannot manage to be both an individual and a member of a larger group, to be both feminist and feminine, and be both bold and vulnerable. While these dichotomies are evident in the text, they are also challenged and further complicated by the use of the narrating voice and the emphasis on friendship, by the disruption of social norms in public spaces, and by confronting its characters with the consequences of being a single, independent woman in her thirties. These challenging devices expand televisions renderings of feminism, which may help produce positive change for women in U.S. culture. References
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