Is "Sex and the City 2" Politically Incorrect?
I don't know, I haven't seen it yet. It comes out this week and I hope to see it soon. However, I read the first review of the new Sex and the City 2 movie at The Hollywood Reporter 
and found their take interesting: "Bottom Line: Overlong sequel scores some choice, politically incorrect laughs." According to the reviewer, the movie is politically incorrect due to the following:
I have a few questions. Are liberal feminists always pro-Muslim? Does multi-culturalism trump feminism for liberals? If so, how can any of them defend their position? Or is it that anti-Americanism trumps feminism for many liberals? Or does the following comment at the review site reflect how some liberals feel?:
After reading this review, I really look forward to watching the movie. It would be refreshing to see some political incorrectness coming out of Hollywood at the moment.
and found their take interesting: "Bottom Line: Overlong sequel scores some choice, politically incorrect laughs." According to the reviewer, the movie is politically incorrect due to the following:First of all, Carrie encounters her old flame, Aidan (John Corbett), at the spice market, but even more importantly, she and her friends run up against the puritanical and misogynistic culture of the Middle East. The rather scathing portrayal of Muslim society no doubt will stir controversy, especially in a frothy summer entertainment, but there's something bracing about the film's saucy political incorrectness. Or is it politically correct? "SATC 2" is at once proudly feminist and blatantly anti-Muslim, which means that it might confound liberal viewers.
Indicative of the film's contradictory stance is a scene in which the ladies perform a karaoke version of Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" in an Abu Dhabi nightclub. An equally outrageous moment comes when the interlopers are rescued by a bunch of Muslim women who strip off their black robes to reveal the stylish Western outfits they are concealing beneath their discreet garb. These endearingly loopy scenes exhibit the tasteless humor that enlivened the TV series on its best nights.
I have a few questions. Are liberal feminists always pro-Muslim? Does multi-culturalism trump feminism for liberals? If so, how can any of them defend their position? Or is it that anti-Americanism trumps feminism for many liberals? Or does the following comment at the review site reflect how some liberals feel?:
sohorob comments:
May 24, 2010
I dont get this reviewers point about possibly offending liberals. Most liberals (like myself) think the muslim anti-gay, anti-women beliefs are in strong need of being defamed. Bravo to Darren Star for not being afraid of their pathetic religion.
After reading this review, I really look forward to watching the movie. It would be refreshing to see some political incorrectness coming out of Hollywood at the moment.
posted by Helen at 6:38 PM
37 Comments:
""SATC 2" is at once proudly feminist and blatantly anti-Muslim, which means that it might confound liberal viewers."
American feminism is so dainty and politically craven - they will flip cowpats about innocuous suburban husbands who want a little more sex from their wives, but say absolutely nothing about female circumcision and honor killings.
George Carlin ripped American feminism thusly (slight paraphrase): "I just see a lot of middle-upper class women worried about 'reproductive freedoms' and their pocketbooks."
I want to ask Helen honestly, what is attractive about this film that makes you want to see it? Most women I know watch the show; I have wracked my brain to find something more redeeming in it than cougar fantasies and glorifying a materialistic, oversexed lifestyle. And I should get along with SJP's character, I used to be a columnist myself.
That being said, some of my friends watch it with an understanding of the fantasy aspect, so they are simply entertained.
The height of irony for me is watching young women go to these movies dressed up as characters from the show...women who would NEVER give even a first look let alone a second one to men who dressed up for Star Trek conventions or the new Star Wars movies.
Am I off base here?
Topher,
I watch movies and tv that I find entertaining and make me laugh. SATC does that. I'm not sure why. It's just kind of dumb, but funny. I wish I could break it down for you in more psychological detail, but that's about it.
Helen,
No problem. I was afraid I would get "the women in this movie are SO FABULOUS! I wish I was like them!!!"
For my part, if the film really does have some good swipes at the sex crimes of radical Islamic society, I will go to the movie myself, possibly with a Mohammed cartoon taped to my jacket.
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I had enough sex and the city yesterday. I don't think I need to see the movie. ;)
Dr Sanity on the socalist food chain
"From the perspective of the socialist utopian, what matters more than Women's rights or Gay Righs are the rights of a designated culture. The dogma of multiculturalism trumps the dogma of women's superiority. This is probably because for the socialist utopian, might makes right and the needs of the many always outweigh the needs of the few--and the few better remember that fact, or else. In the socialist utopia, there is no room for individuality or personal preference; or tolerance for differences. You always must subsume yourself to the collective; and the bigger the collective, the more p-o-w-e-r- victimization can be exploited."
i am so sure that the movie is going to be at the top and no questions i have with this creation. only thing i do see that it was bit more passion than the before ones as i read and saw in few days of time.
source
http://blog.80millionmoviesfree.com/in-theaters/sex-and-the-city-2-new-tv-spot-videos-released
Well, now that a Democrat is in the White House, being anti-Muslim is acceptable.
But seriously, the people who make Sex and the City are brilliant. The women who take it seriously as a manual on how to live a life, are stupid.
Much like the creators of pro-wrestling are brilliant - profiting for 30 years from a stupid audience.
But there are actual women who feel 'empowered' by watching SATC. A grown woman feeling empowered by SATC would be like a grown man feeling empowered by watching a James Bond film.
That is why women are far less capable of separating television from reality than men are.
Is it anti-Christian to say that the landed gentry in Virginia three hundred years ago were sexists and chauvinists?
The Hollywood Reporter is saying that all Muslims are misogynists.
By calling this movie "anti-Muslim," the journalist actually is anti-Muslim.
I saw a trailer and was physically repelled by an obviously middle aged SJP and friends acting like..what?...it would be an insult to teenage girls who have the advantage of being GENUINELY silly. Like middle age men getting all gooey over the prospect of paying a dominatrix to humiliate them? There that's closer. But if it makes you laugh then there is something ov value there. For myself as an old man shows like Home Improvement - or better the Canadian Red Green show engaged me despite their predictable stupidity. Enjoy!
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i had a post over at my "everyone draw mohammed blog." I think its worth a look because someone has a very funny Sex and the City related Mohammed "cartoon" there (using the term "cartoon" loosely). http://everyonedrawmohammed.blogspot.com/2010/05/fatwah-on-sex-and-city-2.html
As i say over there, you know this is percisely the same thing that got Theo Van Gogh killed, so you have to credit these people in hollywood for actually saying something truly brave for once. Good for them.
My only caveat is that i can't tell you how many times i have found reviews to be completely misleading, so that is my only big reservation.
Btw, if you are inclined to draw mohammed, still, well at my site we haven't stopped either. As long as i keep getting cartons, I will keep publishing them.
If SATC-2 manages to piss off the muzzies, I will gladly see it in the theaters 10 to 15 times.
Will that be before or after the studio apologizes to the international Muslim community for offending them, oh and please don't chop our heads off?
You know, give liberals a break. it is hard to keep track of the hierarchy of where favored groups go when compared with one another. Who can remember if Muslims are more politically correct than women or gays at any given moment?
Not particularly interested in seeing the movie, but I admire their courage in mocking a group that seriously dislikes being mocked. For that same reason, were I personally close to any of these ladies, I would fear for their safety.
My take is that what the author meant is that criticism of Muslim culture is politically incorrect. You can dislike them, it's just not said.
Think of it as the "don't ask, don't tell," of liberalism.
Does multi-culturalism trump feminism for liberals?
In 2000, a gang of Lebanese-Australian Moslems committed a series of horrific gang rapes.
The perpetrators were brought to justice and sentenced to long prison terms, despite a savage campaign of abuse and intimidation against Crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen by their families and cronies.
In 2003, Ms. Cunneen addressed a conference on the prevention of violence against women - where a group of attendees denounced her for "racist prosecutions".
So I guess the answer is yes.
i`m in the middle of reading londonistan by melanie phillips. it describes the usurping british law by human rights commissions and liberal judges and the fall-out of these on-going acts on british society.
multiculturalism is destroying britain, rolling along nicely in canada and pretty soon obama will be turning the senate into a human rights committee.
sex and the city? a blip on the muzzie radar.
that`s why gwb used the term crusade. he realised it was a moral war...and it will continue.
sex in the city merely preaches to the narcissistic choir who wish they could swan about in silk and bang studs.
and i never really liked james bond. i watched dr.no the other night and was embarrassed for the strange bloke strutting around jamaica in his saville row suit.
two minutes in the sun in htat get-up and he would have been soaked through.....
On the other hand confounding liberal viewers isn't that big of a deal. If they weren't easy to confound, they wouldn't be liberal.
Radical feminism, multiculturalism and anti-Americanism are all forms of the meta-project of the "West" post-Kant: the destruction of the "masculine." The intellectual project of Western Civilization, namely the use of the rational faculties to discover the "real," or truth, was discredited after Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. In mythic language, this polarity of the human mind was associated with the "masculine." In addition to the masculine not being able to deliver knowledge of the real, it was exposed as having committed unnecessary and dissociative repression of the "feminine," with which was associated emotion, intuition, Nature, wilderness and finally, "The Planet." As the masculine was shown to be imperfect, many rushed to now privilege the feminine, now seen not just as the counterpart of the masculine, but as the new "real." The masculine baby was happily tossed with its bathwater, and the feminine was (and is) in. The minor drawbacks of old feminine-based cultures, like Stone Age culture, human sacrifice, blood cults and so on, were forgotten as the New Age of the feminine swept through Western society.
Males, of course, were associated with the masculine, and males in our culture are now represented as babies, bumblers, misogynists and so on, as regularly commented upon by Dr. Helen. But so are Northern cultures, Western cultures, capitalism, industry and the entirety of human agency, all of which are now demonized by the ascendant feminine.
The feminine is associated with Southern and Eastern cultures and anything "not" the masculine. America is the masculine and therefore illegitimate, unreal. Anti-Americanism is therefore feminine and "real." As are jungles, rain forests, "anarchists," artists, rebels of every stripe, children (listen to the children, "it's for the children,") freedom fighters (fighting for freedom from the tyrannical masculine) and so on.
But why isn't the, er really tyrannical masculine of Islam seen as the tyrannical masculine? Because the Western feminine is too busy killing off its familiar representations in our culture and besotted with any culture that appears to be it ally in that cause. The reason no one feels the need for intellectual consistency in supporting American feminism and the Taliban, say, is that intellectual consistency is a masculine thing.
This is about killing Daddy. By any means necessary.
I must say I haven't found the SATC franchise to be "proudly feminist." It's a long-wound tale of four women living a high roller lifestyle.
The things that go on in the show aren't inextricably linked to feminism. Go to any college, a lot of women who wouldn't dream of calling themselves feminists are splashing in the kiddie pool of free-sex frat parties. Women who would never care about the intricacies of Freidan vs Steinam vs Paglia love fashion, friendship, gossip and dating attractive men.
The protagonist of SATC is a columnist and author - is that feminist? That sounds like just having a job.
If it truly was hardcore feminist, I have a hard time believing someone like Dr Helen could be entertained by it. Besides, feminism has no sense of humor unless the laughs were about destroying men.
"This is about killing Daddy. By any means necessary."
All brands of Marxism, feminism included, are fundamentally adolescent. They seek clean breaks with the past, they ignore the advice of their parents, and think they know better. Sometimes the activists wake up from their dreams and realize how foolish they were to think they had all the answers.
And don't forget that all collectivist ideologies start from a premise that man is inherently good but is so wounded by capitalism that he acts bad. Freed from the shackles of the free market, they believe that people will act out of benevolence.
This is why they hate Christianity which holds the belief that people are selfish. Because even a cursory evaluation of humanity, say starting with the socialists and communists, will show humanity to be selfish, all collectivist ideologies are puffery and unicorns.
They are doomed to failure by a fundamental and crucial misunderstanding of human nature. So their leaders always stopp to lies and coercion.
Always.
Trey
Is admitting the fact that George Huguely is a sociopath man-bashing?
"Is admitting the fact that George Huguely is a sociopath man-bashing?"
Not at all.
And therein lies the difference.
I have no interest in this film, nor the tv show--isn't it for women mostly?--but some readers might enjoy this huge batch of photos from the film just out:
http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/42962/sex-and-the-city-2-nyc-premiere?xid=newsletter
Those who do not embrace absolutes, or truth as it is commonly referred to, will invariably at some point be at odds with one another.
Truth is immutable and eternal. Lies however are static and can be contradictory. That is why you see the "Left" in such qaundaries. Within their own agenda are conflicting falsehoods. Unfortunately the mainstream media is always there to smooth over or just plan ignore these inconsistancies.
Personally, I would find the cataloging and reporting of such ideological paradoxes exhausting.
Thank God for core beliefs and eternal truths.
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I have no interest in this film, nor the tv show...
Once again, in a blue moon, fred and I agree whole heartedly on something. Sara Jessica Parker lost her appeal a long time ago.
A must-read review of the film:
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/burkas-and-birkins/Content?oid=4132715
"Sex and the City 2 makes Phyllis Schlafly look like Andrea Dworkin. Or that super-masculine version of Cynthia Nixon that Cynthia Nixon dates."
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core beliefs and eternal truths...yeah baby!
could you ever imagine a show where guys acted like the women in sex in the city?
the closest i can imagine was where the aliens were picking people off in the jungle.
predator i think it was called.
These girls get many, many multiples of the money that emergency room physicians, firemen and cancer researchers get.
And rightly so! They do outrageous things that all women want to do. They wear glamorous clothes and do glamorous stuff in glamorous locations with glamorous men!
Oh, boy!
They are worth all the money that the visiting women will pay out.
Or, in some cases, that the husbands of the visiting women will pay out in reality. For the visiting women who don't have jobs.
I found SATC2 surprisingly anti-gay as well. They go to the trouble of attempting to make a positive statement on gay marriage... and then tell us that the characters are allowed to "cheat". So obviously they are saying that gays and monogamy just don't go together. Well done Sex and the City.
www.athingcalledjoe.com
Joe,
Didn't see the film, but my understanding was that one of the straight characters (Carrie) cheated as well.
Not to mention TWO whining "kept women" whining about how boring their lives are.
Then there was a typical be-careful-what-you-wish-for situation that most women get in to when trying to change their man. Carrie chased Mr Big and wanted him to commit and all the rest of it...drove him away by trying to throw an out-of-control wedding he didn't want. Finally she got her way - Mr Big "committed," betatized himself in marriage by staying in all the time and watching old movies, and she hated him for it.
Lots of women want to be in the center of important things - to be glamorous and among lots of important people, especially important men who are going to sweep them off their feet and pay for their whole lives. Forever and ever. But in any case, they are IMPORTANT, and right in the middle of IMPORTANT, GLAMOROUS STUFF.
So it's kind of pornography for women, but I guess everyone wants some kind of escapism.
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