There are certain things that I have been able to count on: Jay Z and Beyonce refusing to answer questions about their relationship, Tupac releasing top charting albums postmortem; and Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte. Even after Sex and the City came to a celebrated end on HBO five years ago the ladies lived on in DVD, syndication, and the internet. These four fabulous girlfriends guided woman around the world through issues of love, loss, and labels. Even though my DVDs never disappoint, imagine my excitement when earlier this year New Line Cinema released that there would be a Sex and the City Movie!
Immediately the count down went on my Myspace page and I went into heavy study. Hours were spent at the tube watching and re-watching the girls go through the trials of single life in the city. I applauded triumphs and supported flaws, all the while becoming giddy at the idea of a sensational ending for Sex and the City (and therefore Womenkind) materializing on the big screen! Mazeltoph!
Finally, on May 31st I, six girlfriends and 200 other fantastically dressed fans crowded into the movie theatre. The second the theme music began we erupted in applause. It was the Super Bowl of Fabulosity and I had 50-yard-line tickets.
The entire first scene was like attending a Fashionista Festival with Carrie as the main event dripping in Vintage and fabulously flashing back on her life! Then came Samantha, Miranda, Charlotte, oh my! My heart was actually racing from excitement.Everything was going great until Carrie presented the suit that she would be wearing to marry Mr. Big. Excuse me, a plain St. John-esque white suit? Not that there is anything wrong with St. John, as a matter of fact St. John is a staple amongst the ladies who lunch, it’s just that’s not Carrie! It’s like when Big got her the jeweled bird Judith Lieber bag (Season2-Ep. 22), cute, but not Carrie! I cringed. Then faux pas number 2: Carrie hesitates when Vogue asks her to represent 40 something brides. Not the Carrie I know whose religion is fashion, God is Gucci and bible is Vogue.
Finally someone slapped some sense into my girl when she decided to do the photo shoot and accept a glorious dress from uber-designer Vivienne Westwood. She even wore a whimsical little bird on her perfectly coiffed little head, Carrie to the C!
We all know what happens next, Big leaves Carrie at the alter like a little pussy and she spirals into depression for a year. Meanwhile My Steve cheats on My Miranda, My Samantha allows herself to waste away in Los Angeles, and My Charlotte gets pregnant and spends an hour thanking God that her life wasn’t as screwed up as her friends. What is happening? This isn’t the racy-romantic-sassy-sexfest-fashion-friendly-fairytale that I imagined. And where the hell is Carries CARRIE necklace! She can’t live without it, it personifies her (Season 6 episode 94 and 95!) Quick, get me a pair of Louboutins, I need to stand up!
I left the movie with mixed emotions. I wasn’t quite sure if my girls would truly be okay (especially after Carrie did actually marry Big in the St. John-esque-sin.) Somebody hum a spiritual, this situation needs a revival!
Then, the most interesting thing happened to me. I had a conversation with a girlfriend of mine. She’s smart, beautiful and sweet, but about five years behind me in maturity. The things that were important to her were boring the hell out of me, though I remembered at one time being just as interested in those catty dramas as she is now. I couldn’t get out of the conversation quick enough… boy have I grown. Then it donned on me, so had my girls.
All of my studying and excitement for the movie, I hadn’t left room for my girls to be at a space in there life that I didn’t agree with. I wanted them to be the same confused single women stumbling through life in sensational shoes and beautiful bags.
Yes, Carrie is still the fearless fashionista, but fashion is not her life. Her fashion now accessorizes her personality, not defines it. This could be why, after 10 years, she chose to retire the CARRIE necklace, no longer needing an object to remind her of who she is.And Steve is a wonderful man, not a perfect one. It is possible that he and Miranda's life does have it’s own situations that need to be handled in an adult way, as apposed to an on-going joke (Miranda has chlymidia Season 3 episode 36; Steve has one ball season 4 Episode 58.)
If Samantha represents every woman’s inner she-roe, it is great to show that sometimes the best way to save yourself is to try what is right for everyone else, and then be brave enough to say that it’s wrong for you.
And what the hell is so wrong with Charlotte finally finding the happiness that she has been searching for for so long! (Trey is impotent season 3 episode 42, Charlotte has 25% chance of getting pregnant season 4 episode 59, Charlotte gets a divorce season 4 episode 62, Original birth parents from Charlotte, South Carolina decided not to give baby up for adoption season 6 episode 94. Charlotte has a baby Sex and the City- The movie, YAY!)
So though it didn’t end like I would have written it, it did end, and along with it an era. But I can’t write the lives of our Sex and the City sirens any more than they can write mine. So in honor of the Fabulous Ladies of Sex and the City, this week's Cause Fabulous is to honor your girlfriends, sisters, mothers, aunts, and all of the fabulous she-roes in your own life stepping out in style in Manolos and Military Boots, fighting and winning our own battles of personal growth and self-acceptance, and writing our own fairytale endings.
And if you are still uncomfortable with the end of Sex and the City…Rest assured that Tupac still has a hit in him, and Beyonce and Jay-Z will probably never release the pictures of that wedding dress.
