Paris, March 7, 2005


Dear Eric:

Thank you for the information about "9 Songs" [article to be posted here shortly].  I keep up with movies, yet had not heard about this one.  
 
I thought I would e-mail to gently let you know that the main character, Carrie Bradshaw played by Sarah Jessica Parker, was not stated as having married Mr. Big.  In fact, she did finally end up with him, but only after she claimed herself.  Let me see if I can explain this.  
 
By the end of the TV series, Carrie had become a well-known writer.  She became involved with an extremely famous and rich painter, Aleksandr played by Mikhal Baryshnikov.  She gave up the life she knew in New York, her friends, her newspaper column, to go to live in Paris with Aleksandr.  So she was giving up her freedom, her boundaries, to have a life of security with a man she thought treated her very well.  While there she discovered he was extremely occupied with his art and not with her.  She attempted to be there for him but he was not there for her.  She realized she had lost what mattered to her, her writing, what made her an individual, so she left him.  
 
It was interesting to listen to the director's commentary for the last episode (I saw it on DVD).  He talks about how important it was to show that it was Carrie's choice to leave, and her choice to get a room on her own, to show that she was now strong enough to rely on herself.  He did have her run into Mr. Big, but only after it was shown that Carrie was in charge of her life.  At the end she is back with Big, not shown as being married, but on her own terms, as herself.  She keeps her own apartment, and returns to her own style, which had somewhat become muted during her relationship with Aleksandr.
 
I also wanted to mention that Sex and the City may have shown negative sides of relationships and sex, but often to point out what made the characters unhappy, that life is not perfect.  The show also had the character of Samantha, played by Kim Cattrell, a woman very much in charge of her sex life and enjoying it.  The show was revolutionary in that it focused on women having sex, as opposed to everything else that focuses on men having sex, if that makes sense.  I will agree the show had its flaws, such as an obsessive focus on fashion, shopping and that happiness only occurs when you find Mr. Right.  But they did show life from a different perspective, which may be why it was so popular.  It helped women become a bit more comfortable with discussing their lives and sexuality, and also helps point out cultural flaws and biases that our media is so steeped in.

The show did have an interesting take on things, and at times did comment on the same issues you brought up in the 3/4/05 horoscope.  I found your commentary especially interesting in reflection that US Senator Ted Stevens is trying to push regulations that would put cable under the same censorship as broadcast TV.  I have noticed a lot more attention lately to how sex is shown in the media and to women's rights.  I would like to think that it is a good thing, sort of a kick in the pants to get people aware how repressed society really is.  We have such a funny media double standard here; Janet's nipple is too bad to show on TV yet they cannot stop talking about it on the news.  Seems sex is only okay in the media when it is used to sell something.
 
Once again, thank you for all your good works and keeping it real,
 
Julie H.