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The fact Sex And The City is winning over new younger fans is proof we all love to see female characters who are allowed to have flaws – just like us
SEX AND THE CITY has landed on Netflix US. This has been cause for a little discomfort among Millennials, like me, who have loved the show for a long time. Surely, we thought, this means Gen Z is going to start watching it in their millions. And they would be unlikely to look kindly on our four girls, burdened as they are with outdated anxieties and views.
Obviously, Gen Z could have seen the show elsewhere before now. But its arrival on Netflix US has inevitably sparked a new round of memes. It’s also dredged up that old question about one of the most polarising characters in pop culture: is Carrie Bradshaw the worst person on earth?
I watched SATC at 17, again in my mid-twenties and am watching it now in my early-thirties with my straight male housemate (which is fascinating; if you can find a man to do this with, do it). I am freshly exasperated by Carrie. She’s fragile, flaky, delusional. The ‘Big is moving to Paris’ meme exemplifies her at her self-absorbed worst.
This is the root of all Carrie’s mistakes over the six series (let’s ignore the films). The affair with Big. Her poor navigation of being friends with him in the aftermath and how that affected her then-boyfriend Aidan. Her hounding of Big’s ex-wife Natasha so she can give her an apology that Natasha clearly doesn’t want to hear. Failing to be there for her friends when they need her most in order to see a man. We’ve all dissected the greatest hits of Carrie fails before.
But, despite all this, a new generation of viewers is enjoying SATC. The Observer ran a piece about why Gen Z has fallen in love with the show. On Reddit, a thread about what Gen Z is making of it has reams of comments from people born in the noughties who are fans. Good! Generational divides over culture like this can often feel confected. I’m glad that Gen Z can look beyond the cringe and embrace this keystone of Millennial and Gen X culture.
Maybe it’s because, whatever anyone thinks of Carrie, it’s hard not to find her compelling. Every time I rewatch, I love her not in spite of her flaws, but for them. She stinks of smoke, spends money she doesn’t have, judges her friends for their sex lives even though she is literally a sex columnist. But would I keep coming back to her if she were angelic? I don’t think so. Maybe younger viewers are more primed to accept a badly behaved female lead, having grown up in a post-Fleabag world. To be likeable is no longer such a hang-up for female characters on screen. Carrie was the original anti-hero.
