“It's really hard to walk in a single woman's shoes -- that's why you sometimes need really special shoes!”

If there's one thing that is hitting the fashion world right now (at least the fashion world of 20-something college students), it is the arrival of the much anticipated Sex and the City 2. The influence the HBO series and subsequent movies reaches far beyond fashion, however. I would venture to say that Sex and the City can be discussed through the lens of almost any topic Those Girls addresses (with the exception of cooking, but I, myself take a page from the Carrie Bradshaw book of domesticity- take out all the way). Since three of our writers are out of the country- Colette, Penelope, and Camille will be studying in South America until early July. I thought I would take a more holistic approach to this post. Looking beyond the fashion. Why do we watch endless reruns of the series? Why do we go to see the movies (even when they are prefaced with terrible reviews)? We know it isn't logical, but we love it anyway.

We have grown up under the fashion, relationship, and lifestyle influence of Sex and the City. While women in their thirties and forties look to the much beloved series as a validation of their generation's version of the "single woman" (who ironically spends a lot of time attached), women our age look at the Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte models as less than revolutionary and more the norm- what is expected. Albeit highly fictionalized, we have grown up identifying ourselves as one of the four. Every group of friends has their token "Samantha," "Charlotte," and so forth. In the same way a 1950's Good Housekeeping told women to be June Cleaver, the 2000's told us to be a Sex and the City character. I must say it is an improvement. While compartmentalizing women in to one of four categories is obviously not healthy, most women can identify with aspects of all four women. Or at least a few of them. There's not too many dead-ringer Carries running around, even in Manhattan. Personally, I'm a Miranda with Carrie tendencies and a hint of Charlotte. I, however, contain zero Samantha. As much as I love her antics, it is just not who I am. But thats not what's important- I could be a Samantha, I am friends with Samanthas. Society says its okay to "date like a man" and I am great with that. In addition to the personal archetypes, any girl with a good group of friends can appreciate and admire the camaraderie that the women share. We meet for drinks. We discuss and criticize each other's relationships. We support each other's dreams while keeping everyone level-headed. We are our sister's keeper. For many, watching the show is like visiting old friends. There are obviously a downfalls with all of this identification. The most logical objection would be that the perfect lives of these women are absolutely impossible to attain. Freelance writers have beautiful apartments, spend their nights at trendy clubs, date millionaires, and have a closet full of Manolo's? PUH-leease. Also, they are all pretty annoying- let's be honest. Their dating habits alone are enough to make your head spin. And in spite of this we love them, we watch, we pay- perhaps it is because we can impossibly identify with the characters who led lives we will never live.

Or maybe it's just because they have killer clothes.