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by Golda Poretsky, H.H.C.
www.bodylovewellness.com

To say that Sex and The City 2 is an horrendous, dull, emotionless, and bizarre movie, is really an understatement.  It is all of those things and more.

I didn’t sit down at my computer today with the intent to write a post about SATC 2, but, as I’m still working out why it’s so bad and why women all over the country are going to watch it anyway, I figured I’d write about it.

I never really watched the series until early 2002, when, on a trip to Seattle to visit a friend, we found ourselves kind of broke.  So for a good chunk of that trip, we rented all of the then extant SATC seasons, and watched them, one after an other, until every frame of reference other than SATC died away.  Nearly all that I remember of that trip was drinking cup after cup of iced coffee and waxing rhapsodic about what we would do if we were dating someone and had an affair with an ex, or what it might feel like when all our friends are married and we (possibly) aren’t.  As NYC women in our early to mid- 20’s, we could kind of relate to the storylines.  We did spend a good deal of our free time drinking a little too much and sleeping with sometimes inappropriate men, and it was kind of fun to see a hyperbolic version of our lives in these characters.

Of course, SATC was always a fantasy, a more modern soap opera for “more modern” women.  SATC’s NYC wasn’t really my NYC, nor anyone else’s that I knew.  I didn’t know anyone who owned Jimmy Choo’s, or even aspired to.  I might not have even heard of them if it weren’t for the show.

Okay, so why am I telling you all of this?  Good question!  Because I’ve been thinking about SATC and fat, why else!

SORT OF SPOILER ALERT (this film is already rank, but perhaps there is another level of spoilation possible).

There’s a moment in the new film where a group of Muslim women in traditional dress help the SATC women to escape a group of irate men.  Once they’re in a secluded locale, the Muslim women remove their abayas to reveal that they’re wearing the latest runway collections from a bunch of designers that I can’t remember.  (I know, I know.  There are so many problems with this scenario.) Because I have fatdar, my eye instantly went to the one Muslim woman who seemed kind of plus-sized.  I wanted to see if she too was wearing designer clothes, given that most of these high end designers don’t seem to make clothes above a size 12.  Of course, I couldn’t really tell, but it did seem like her outfit was something one could find off the rack at Macy’s.

And herein lies this problem with aspirational fluff pieces like SATC 2.  If you’re not extremely thin, not extremely wealthy, need to work for a living, have an actual problem now and again, don’t have live in help for your kids, don’t have other live-in servants, don’t have an extra apartment that you can run to when you’re having relationship issues, and on and on and on, then there’s a point when movies like this will remind you of that fact, particularly if no one bothered to write any dialogue or think of a plot point or develop a real conflict that a real person can relate to.  Without any depth to the characters or the story, it’s just a bunch of mannequins wearing bizarre clothes and trotting around a foreign locale.

At the very least, SATC 2 reminded me that fake drama is really, really boring.  So for this week, my tip to you is to consider where petty conflicts often show up in your life.  If you find yourself getting annoyed with someone again and again, see if you can let it go for this week.  See if your new “live and let live” attitude has any effect.

And as for me, no more SATC.  I’m waiting for FATC, where four fat friends wear fabulous clothes and get laid a lot.  Until then, I’m so over it.

(I know, that’s so Miranda of me.)

And for a palate cleanser, here’s a clip of the Absolutely Fabulous’s Marrakesh episode, which also features drunken women wearing bizarre outfits in Morocco, but contains actual humor.

The Absolutely Fabulous Marrakesh episode:

What’s your take on SATC and petty dramas? Let me know in the comments below!

Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. To learn more about Golda and her work, click here.