Carrie Bradshaw and the Disease of the “Modern Woman”
My cousin has a Sex and the City quote application on her Facebook page. It gives her a different pearl of wisdom straight from the illustrious pen of Carrie Bradshaw each day of the week. The passage that is currently on her page says something about relationships living in glass houses and people refusing to settle for anything less than “BUTTERFLIES,” followed by an ellipsis.
While I love her very much and am all for not settling, “I can’t help but wonder” whether my cousin is my least favorite kind of New Yorker—the one suffering from the Golightly/Bradshaw syndrome.
After reading an inspired book review of Sam Wasson’s Fifth Avenue, 5 a.m., “I got to thinking” about a large group of women’s fascination with the “single, fabulous, promiscuous” type and how the false promise of a whimsy, sexy New York life attracts people like my cousin to this city.
Young girls and older girls flock to tours offering pre-paid cosmos and squeeze their way into crazy shoes in the show’s name. They have passion parties and swear by little black dresses. The truth is Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a sad novella. Sex in the city is a problem. Cosmos make you fat.
These fictional women are probably more hollow (and insensitive) than their social stature and taste suggest. Their actions have few or no repercussions. No matter how independent and interesting they might claim to be, they need a man’s validation. Also, “in a city like New York,” Carrie Bradshaw’s writing skills would never be celebrated.
It’s time for a new kind of heroine. Preferably one whose only achievement is not going to the deli in a bra.