Sex And The City Movie Review: Do Lesbians Secretly Love It?

June 16, 2008

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I decided to go see Sex and the City by myself on a hot, New York City afternoon. I would probably have preferred to go see it with friends and recreate our own New York female friendship while watching. It would have been very meta. And comforting. But unfortunately, my friends scoffed at the idea. I wasn’t surprised at the lack of men (one, in a couple), although I would have thought there would have been a couple of gay dudes in attendance. I mean that is the accepted demographic: gay men and straight women, right? Another strange thing, the audience was far from white-washed. I was in Brooklyn after all but this seems like another departure from the ladies’ core audience. But most surprising was looking around and seeing quite a few obvious lesbians in the audience. I’m not trying to be stereotypical about lesbians or SATC fans, but it is a little weird.

So why the lesbians? Has Cynthia Nixon’s coming out dragged in a covert, lesbian fan-base? Or has there been a secret Sapphic fan base all along?

Anyhow, my attention was dragged away from peering back at the audience and onto the previews, a couple of which are worth mentioning. There was a Saving Grace spot, with Holly Hunter smoking in the desert, replete with bourbon, rattlesnakes and ass-hugging jeans. Hot.

There were three previews vying to be even more women-centric than the movie I was about to see. The Women was one. It looked like a snorefest. Except for Jada Pinkett, who is awesome, always. He’s Just Not That Into You which seems chock-full of annoying heterosexual relationships. But also Wilson Cruz (Ricky from My So Called Life) who we still like all these years later. And Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. Which looks like Sex and The City for younger girls interested in profoundity. Ugh. At least SATC doesn't try to be more than it is.

Anyhow, on to the film at hand. I was pleased that there was a gay kiss about 60 seconds in. I, as a gay girl, like watching two dudes kiss. Could this be part of the secret lesbian allure to SATC? In fact, there are lots of gay male things going on. You have Malcolm Gets (Adam and Steve) as a realtor. Anthony Marentino and Stanford Blatch return to help out their fag hags. Plus a Judy Garland, Meet Me In St. Louis, cameo.

There are actually a few more overtly lesbian moments as well. On Valentine’s Day, Miranda and Carrie go out to dinner and the waitress mistakes them for lovers. There are some anti-fur activists that look pretty gay. Oh and then there’s Candice Bergen, Carrie’s hardassed Vogue editor Enid Frick, who talks about “Diane Arbus subtext.” We lesbians, remember that she played gay once: “The Group” (1966).

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