Name your favourite television and film. Explain how the film could shape a person's identity.
Apart from daily interactions with people and institutions, we gain knowledge and understood culture or its representations through the popular mediums of television and cinema. They have a great influence as most people globally have access to television or cinema theatre. As the ultimate source of information and entertainment, it unconsciously influence's ones personality, actions and identity.
For the purpose of this week's lecture question, I have chosen the sensational HBO hit TV series “Sex and the City” and explains how it could mold a person's identity.
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| Sex and the City, the American TV comedy-drama series |
As a woman and avid fan of Sex and the City, I believe it appeals to women because the television series deals with a taboo subject matter, 'SEX'. The series featured four main characters, Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte in the Big Apple, New York, dealing with relationship problems and modern social and sex related issues (Akass & Mccabe, 2006). The sensitive and controversial subjects were expressed in witty humour and steamy sex scenes. Before Sex and the City, embarrassing sex problems and issues were awkward and unfavourable subjects of discussion. However the tv show defies the practices and norms of culturally based conservative identities where “what happens in the bedroom, stays in the bedroom,”. The television series empower women to openly discuss sex problems and sex health issues and this represents freedom of expression for women (Whelehan, 2005)
One of my favourite scenes from Sex and the City. Samantha hilariously tell her girlfriends about a lover's 'funky tasting spunk' (semen).
The Sex and the City TV series also portrays four middle-aged single and successful women in a male dominated world of New York City. The show revolutionized the representations of women on television (Lotz, 2007) and reflects women taking charge of their lives. The show was also celebrated by women worldwide for demonstrating women liberation and mens' inferiority as far as sex is concerned. The men were also reflected as the weaker or minor sex in the show and sex issues and problems were based on female perspective . Sex and the City is also an example of modern femininity who is not dependent on men for financial stability which illustrates that it achieve equal status with men. We also live in a society where heterosexual marriage is the bedrock and an important social institution. We as members of the society are expected to tie the knot sometime in our adult life, because it is considered the traditional union and the natural cycle of life. However the TV show depicts that it is normal to be single, independent and self-sufficient which had not been pictured on television in the 90's and 2000s (D'Acci, 1994).
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| An Austrian Electrolux advertisement, portraying women as submissive homemakers |
Apart from female liberation, Sex and the City TV series also revolutionized the body type in the fashion industry. In the show, the women were not 'stick-thin' but attractive and healthy middle-aged women who are often shown going out and eating. Occasionally, they talk about their weight and physical insecurities which displays that they are like us but still successful in the big city. This further delivers a positive message of female confidence and make them feel good.
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| The Sex and the City ladies having lunch |
Despite the empowering message, Sex and the City TV series has also been criticized for painting unrealistic lifestyle in the Big Apple. The women obsession with designer shoes, bags and clothing line as part of the show's product placement drove women to associate designer labels with lifestyle. It is apparent that TV shows and movies have play a major role for shaping and influencing our identities. Since the media also created stereotypes, we begin to make generalisation about other people as it provides us with a common identity. In the case of Sex and the City, a new identity for women was created. Women were no longer viewed as homemaker, but could have a successful career just as men would.
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| Carrie walking around Manhattan in her Blahnik heels. Sex and the City made Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo household names |
References:
Akass, K. & Mccabe, J. (2006). Reading sex & the city. London : I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd.
Lotz, A. (2007). The television will be revolutionized. USA:New York University Press.
Whelehan, I. (2005). The feminist Bestseller: From Sex and The City to Sex and the Single Girl. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
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