Sex and the City: fairy tale of NY

I object to financial bailouts.

During the week I explained why Bridget Jones was a fairy tale. Today I explain how the iconic and feminist Sex and the City also has elements of the fantastic about it, including the fantastic ending for Charlotte York and Carrie Bradshaw.

I have watched Sex and the City more times than I care to admit. Sex and the City was groundbreaking, lots of fun, lots of fashion and had superb writing. I know the story arc of all the characters which I will not explain here. Therefore if you are not familiar with SATC you will not understand this blog.

On reflection and having rewatched some episodes a few months back, I do take issue with the final chapters handed to Charlotte York and indeed Carrie Bradshaw.

First, Charlotte. Charlotte is was an Episcopalian princess and traditional romantic who was hunting for a high net husband. Therefore, I make allowances for that. However there is a difference between marrying a high net individual, which Charlotte does and being handed millions of dollars for free. Not even Cinderella got that.

Charlotte bagged her man – the heart surgeon Trey MacDougal - who came from a wealthy family. However, things didn’t work out and the couple were unable to have a baby, which was something Charlotte didn’t want to give up. Although he had his faults, Trey agreed to divorce Charlotte in a dignified matter. When the marriage finally falls apart he tells her “you can have the apartment.” This is an apartment with lavish space on Park Avenue.

This does not happen ever, in any reality. Husbands don’t just hand over millions of pounds worth of real estate to wives they are going to divorce. Unsurprisingly Trey’s mother, the interfering Bunny, tries to fight it but all is settled at the negotiating table by a communication from Trey. Trey tells his mother to give Charlotte ‘everything she wants.’ And that’s that. To rub salt into my wounds Carrie’s voiceover has the nerve to say ‘Charlotte realised there is no such things as the fairy-tale divorce.’ There sure is – it’s the one where you end up with the Park Avenue apartment after a few years of marriage. Give me strength.

Again this is just nonsense, right up there with a prince rescuing a beautiful maiden with flowing golden hair from a tower.

Charlotte’s divorce is indeed a fairy tale: there is no bitterness, no humiliating splitting of the assets, no explanation that all the wealth was brought into the marriage by the husband. Indeed, Charlotte worked in an art gallery before the marriage and gave her job up before she even got pregnant. So by the time she is divorcing Trey, she is unemployed. Yet, she ends up winning the lottery – go straight to your Park Avenue apartment. This is what is depicted in the “feminist” SATC. A fantasy, lie piled upon feminist lie.

If I grew up watching this and believing it then perhaps I too would be part of the young people taking time out from work for stress. The Times reporting, “Almost a third of young employees were signed off work with stress last year, survey data has revealed. One in three workers aged 18 to 24 needed time off last year due to poor mental health, compared with one in ten workers aged 55 and above.” The Times

And the women are more fragile. “Women were 13 per cent more likely than men to report experiencing high levels of stress “always’ or “often”. If only there were more Treys to go around and none of us would need to work.

What I always object to in films or TV dramas are financial bailouts. This is where the character has serious financial problems and then magically, someone comes along to bail them out. This person is not described a fairy godmother, but that is exactly what they are. This is not what happens in real life and it is dangerous to suggest that it can.

Photo by Alice Alinari on Unsplash

In Charlotte’s case the bailout occurred twice: the unemployed divorcee is gifted a Park Avenue apartment worth millions. And, just to be sure, she marries an very high earning divorce lawyer, who represented her in the most ridiculous divorce settlement known to man. Charlotte and Harry Goldenblatt live happily ever after in the apartment along with Snow White and the 7 dwarves.

Then there is Carrie. Carrie Bradshaw manages to have a fabulous lifestyle in New York on the salary that comes from writing one column a week. This I was willing to let go. It is not a documentary after all. It is escapist. But like Charlotte I do seriously object to Carrie’s financial bailout.

The first comes from Charlotte after her own financial windfall. After the traumatic break up with Aidan, Carrie needs to find $30,000 to buy out his share of her apartment. She doesn’t have it because, as the financially self-sufficient Miranda points out, Carrie spent it all on shoes, Manolo Blahniks to be precise. (Manolo Blahnik is a Spanish designer who knows how to get women to part with their hard earned cash, or indeed their husband’s hard earned cash.)

After a bit of humdinger Charlotte loans Carrie her engagement ring for downpayment. And like Old Mother Hubbard who got lost in her cupboard Carries manages to buy her the apartment with Charlotte’s help. Nice.

The final financial windfall comes of course in the shape of Mr Big. Like Bridget Jones, the female audience is indulged in the fantasy that two men end up fighting over Carrie – in this case a Russian artist Aleksandr Petrovsky and Mr Big. Despite having two divorces of his own Mr Big is filthy rich from doing something with money. We are never told exactly what it is, but we know he can afford to have his driver Raul, drive him around New York in a big fancy car.

The end of the series concludes with Carrie bagging her man – the extremely wealthy Mr Big. We can only assume that she can pay Charlotte back the cost of the engagement ring.

And there we have – financial bailouts galore. Windfalls, loans of engagement rings, divorce settlement that end up giving the unemployed wife everything because that’s how life works. Like I said, watch the series and enjoy it if you wish. Goodness knows I did. But remember – it’s a fairy tale of New York. It is very unlikely anyone is going to come along and financially rescue you.

You can take that to the bank.