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Educational TV at Its Best Media Matters
Specifically, all four of the good-looking and professionally accomplished women featured in the program have repeatedly been depicted as taking steps to avoid becoming pregnant or contracting a sexually transmitted disease. The message began in the premier episode. The sex columnist, Carrie, who is the show's leading character (played by Sarah Jessica Parker), is shown walking down a busy New York street when someone accidentally bumps into her, causing the items in her purse to spill onto the sidewalk. The most notable contents: Half a dozen condoms. The message: Anyone who is sexually active should have protection at the ready. Similar scenes and lessons have been sprinkled through other episodes.
Indeed, the recently married Charlotte immediately delivers a line-"I'm so happy to be out of that condom stage"-that reinforces the message that sexual protection should be a consistent part of every single woman's life. Other plotlines have communicated that the threat of AIDS is another reality that must be dealt with responsibly. In one episode, Samantha mentions that she is going to her doctor's office that afternoon for an HIV test. Her friends then instantly volunteer that they are periodically tested as well. In addition to sending clear messages about taking precautions, Sex and the City also has depicted the consequences of a person not using protection. During season four, the corporate lawyer in the group, Miranda, breaks up with her boyfriend but then several months later sleeps with him, at least partly out of pity because he has been diagnosed with testicular cancer. Miranda has sex with Steve without using protection because she assumes there's little risk involved when her bed partner only has one testicle and she has been diagnosed as having one "lazy" ovary. Wrong. When Miranda discovers she is pregnant, she is depicted as suffering considerable anxiety about having to make one of the most difficult choices any woman ever has to face. She initially leans toward having an abortion, but, after hearing her friends' rueful experiences with that procedure and its emotional aftermath, she decides to give birth and raise the child by herself. The segment depicting Miranda's struggle with this enormous decision-"Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda"-was so well done that it received a Shine (Sexual Health IN Entertainment) Award from The Media Project, a non-profit organization concerned with how the media portray sexuality. Since Miranda had her baby boy, Sex and the City has not ignored him-as many TV shows with similar plot lines, such as Friends, have-but has consistently incorporated the child, as well as the complications he represents, into the various episodes.
Many of the topics that Sex and the City's detractors have found problematic have involved choices. One early segment that riled the critics had Charlotte wrestling with how to respond to her boyfriend's request to have anal sex with her. This was the first time in the history of television that this particular issue had been raised, and many commentators denounced the segment as being aired solely for the shock value. Yes, the topic may have been introduced partly because of the titillation factor-Sex and the City is, after all, part of entertainment television. But, at the same time, anyone familiar with today's sexual terrain has to admit that the practice, and therefore the decision that Charlotte had to make, is not an unrealistic one. And even more significant than the topic itself, I would argue, is the process that the character went through to resolve her quandary. Charlotte had to weigh her extremely positive feelings for the guy-plus the fact that she desperately wanted to get married-against her instinctively negative feelings toward the particular sex act he had in mind. Faced with these conflicting forces, she sought the counsel of a panel of experts: Her three best friends. This step resulted in another of the major pluses of literally dozens of Sex and the City episodes, as a range of viewpoints then unfolds. Samantha encourages Charlotte to "go for it," saying that she, personally, enjoyed the unconventional sex act. Miranda, on the other hand, advises "not on your life," saying a woman forfeits her power in a relationship if her boyfriend makes her an "up-the-butt girl." After listening to her friends and thinking about the pros and cons, Charlotte ultimately tells the guy, directly and firmly: "No." The message: When it comes to sex, a person has to decide for herself or himself which activities are acceptable, and which are not. What does the guy do?
He shrugs his shoulders and asks if they can still have "regular sex," prompting Charlotte to smile sweetly and say, "Yes, please."
Sex and the City has depicted the four women making choices about any number of other sexual activities as well, from providing oral sex to participating in a threesome to faking an orgasm to having sex with another woman. Yes, the topics are provocative. But they are also realistic-as are the processes that the women go through to make their choices. Speaking of provocative, anyone familiar with the program's characters is probably, at this point, reacting to my dubbing Sex and the City an example of educational television with a comment such as: But what about Samantha! The most talked about of the four characters is the public relations executive who has been depicted as moving into a new man's bed-not to mention the occasional leather sling-virtually every episode for six years. At first glance, it is difficult for even the most liberated of observers to condone Samantha's sexual behavior, much less hold her up as a model for young viewers. On closer examination, though, this free-wheeling hedonist also sends some messages regarding sex and the media that are worth noting. With regard to sex, Samantha is living life on her own terms. She is no submissive appendage to a man but is an independent woman-sexually and otherwise-who makes her own decisions, right or wrong, and then deals with the consequences, good or bad. With regard to the media, Samantha is a wonderful example of the kind of over-the-top character that many successful television shows rely on to draw and hold an audience-and to keep viewers talking long after the last line of dialogue has been spoken. In short: It's entertainment! And so, just as young viewers have to learn that they should not imitate Spider-Man walking up the side of a building, they also have to learn that they should not emulate Samantha's promiscuity. Indeed, one Sex and the City episode spoke directly to this point. In the segment, Samantha is hired to handle the public relations for the bat mitzvah of a wealthy thirteen-year-old girl who dresses and acts like she's twenty-one. Samantha is initially jealous that a mere child is traveling in a limousine and wearing designer clothes as expensive as her own. But then she overhears Jenny telling her girlfriends that she plans to have sex with at least three of the band members playing at her party. "Ladies," Samantha says to the girls, "aren't you a little young for that kind of talk?" Jenny pooh-poohs the comment, saying, "I've been giving blow jobs since I was twelve." Samantha is appalled. "You have your whole lives to do that sort of thing," she says, in a much more serious tone than she typically uses. "You should enjoy being children." I can't imagine a more credible character to deliver this important message than the bed-hopping Samantha. Rodger Streitmatter, Ph.D. is a member of the School of Communication faculty at American University in Washington, D.C. His latest book, Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America has recently been published by Columbia University Press. He is also the author of Unspeakable: The Rise of the Gay & Lesbian Press in America (Faber & Faber, 1995) and Raising Her Voice: African American Women Journalists Who Changed History (The University Press of Kentucky, 1994) |
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Sarah Jessica Parker leads the exploits of the cast of Sex in the City
The women of Sex in the City: Charlotte (Kristin Davis), Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) 
Samantha confers with her gay gaypal, Stanford