‘And Just Like That…’ Is Highlighting How Carrie Bradshaw Has Always Been a Prude
If And Just Like That… has one and maybe only one megafan out there—I’m positive it’s me. I love the show because it so clearly hates itself, and also us for watching. It refuses to do any amount of research in order to ensure it’s keeping its own mythology straight. (Case in point, Charlotte references over 25 years of friendship with Miranda in the latest episode, despite the show’s own lore that they met around 1989, 34 years ago. I guarantee you everyone just shrugged and figured we wouldn’t flag it.) The way it forces Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez) on us, how it keeps bringing back characters no one remembers as if we were clamoring for them (I see you Bitsy!) I could go on and on. It’s not so bad it’s good; it’s so bad that it evokes such strong reactions from everyone, it feels like performance art. I want a new episode every day, what can I say?!
Part of the joy of watching And Just Like That… is watching the show light fire to its own history. However, it has gotten one thing right: Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) has always been a prude when it comes to sex, and the notable absence of Samantha from the reboot is highlighting it front and center.
Keep in mind, Carrie is supposed to be a sex columnist (you know, putting the sex in Sex and the City). But in reality, she is judgmental, inflexible, and downright squeamish when the topic of sex comes up.
For example, in the season 4 episode of Sex and the City titles Politically Erect, she decides to out a politician (John Slattery) for asking her to pee on him in the bedroom via her column knowing full well it’s the outing type of “hey, look at this a-hole” instead of “golden showers can be fun, let me tell you how!”
Let’s also not forget about the time she dated a bisexual man in season 3, declaring:
“I’m not even sure bisexuality exists. I think it’s just a layover on the way to Gaytown.”
Excuse me, ma’am, you are a sex columnist, even if you now deny that fact in And Just Like That…. How can you be so close-minded about something that doesn’t even affect you? If you don’t want to explore the other side of the Kinsey scale, don’t! Leave people to their fun, though, Carrie!
Would it surprise you to know Carrie is definitely anti-rim job? Of course not, you’ve seen the show! In season 4, she lamented:
“How does this happen? How do they get the message that the ass is now on the menu?”
Look, I am by no means an anthropologist or a sex columnist, but I’m pretty sure butt stuff was on the menu well before 2001 when that episode aired. Call it a hunch.
This leads me to the Carrie of today in And Just Like That…, she’s downright moronic in her attitude towards sex. My favorite example of this is when Charlotte calls her in a panic looking for condoms, and Carrie snottily tells her she would have no need for condoms because she can’t get pregnant anymore as if STIs don’t exist post-menopause! We just saw her hooking up with her hot producer in a previous episode. Are you an idiot Carrie?! You broke up with him because he wanted to move from something casual into a relationship! Does the show mean to tell me Ms. Bradshaw was not having safe, casual sex with that man?! Samantha Jones would never!
Let’s also explore how she thinks of Miranda’s (Cynthia Nixon) sexuality in terms of binary, instead of fluidity. In the latest episode, Miranda wanted to explore dating again and Carrie assumed she would want to date a woman because Miranda left Steve (David Eigenberg) for Che, who is non-binary, as Miranda pointed out. But this is Carrie we’re talking about so she can’t wrap her head around that, either. Carrie is rightfully called out on the assumption, but this is a character who thought bisexuality was a phase until someone fully transitioned to gay, so are we really surprised?
Finally, in the second episode of the current season, we can’t forget how she refused to talk about her vagina in a commercial for her podcast. A podcast that was called “Sex and The City.” Emphasis on was because the entire podcast network had to shut down partially because Carrie refused to make the commercial. Look, obviously, she can refuse to talk about her body parts for commercial gain, but look at the title of the show! Is she speaking in euphemisms when talking about sex? “Well, the bajingo was stimulated by last night’s shu-shu.” (I’m assuming she would insist on talking about sex, the act of it at least, in euphemisms too.) I cannot wrap my head around the fact she has a podcast called “Sex and the City”, yet she’ll be offended if you call her a sex writer, and she won’t talk about sex organs for commercial gain, but she will happily talk about sex? Obviously, the missing component here is money. Carrie Bradshaw inherited f-you money when Big died, and as a rich white lady, she gets to have her cake and eat it too and drive us all a little bonkers in the process with the hypocrisy.
Carrie has always been a prude, but she usually had Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) next to her to set her straight when she got too judgmental, especially when Carrie was being judgmental towards Samantha. Case in point, when Carrie walked in on Samantha giving a mailman oral sex and was snotty about it. Samantha did not take her B.S., telling her:
“I will not be judged by you or society. I will wear whatever and blow whomever I want as long as I can breathe—and kneel.”
If you’ve been watching And Just Like That… you feel Samantha’s absence acutely. There’s no one who can balance out Carrie’s prudish attitude, and it shows. Personally, I can’t wait to see how Carrie will infuriate me next. May this show never be canceled, and never get good. It is my favorite hate-watch, and it gives me so much enjoyment from how infuriating it is every week.
(Featured Image: Max)
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