A Socio-Economic Criticism of Sex in the City

The scale and organization of early 21st century liberal-capitalism has created a socio-economic infrastructure, in which the individual has become the core unit of economic production. No where has this structure advanced further than in New York City. Here the capitalist organization has bore fruit and fulfilled the promises of the American Dream. It is a city where the privileged, educated and laborous, live their high lives, and where the manual laborers are able to earn a decent living due to the high spendature of the higher classes. This localized success however comes with a strange dualism of the sexes. Remarkably many young women in New York City are successful, hot and … single while not seldomly desperate.

This remarkable flaw in the emancipation of young American women, is largely due to the schisma between economic and social emancipation. Where the economic organization and emancipation of American society has advanced beyond any other in the world, there social emancipation has lacked behind dramatically. Sexism, traditional role patterns between sexes, self-perception, emotional male and female maturity, all these core indicators of social emancipation, social equality and independence of women have been dramatically lacking behind the economic development of the 60s until now. The consequence is that many young independent women in modern America, go through enormous trouble finding a partner that meets their qualifications according to similar patterns as their male contraparts, but they find themselves in a relational market where their offer is highly undervaluated and the male good highly overvaluated. Many young women are only able to meet a partner after many failed experiences and often at the cost of settling for embarrassing compromises.

American women have been required to not only expand their roles in social life with full labor participation outside their family role and homes, but in addition were never awarded an equal socio-psychological reward for their increased emancipation. That this denial of compensation was retaliated with humor is in the face of the hopeless expectations of young, successful women no longer a surprise. The TV series ‘Sex in the City’ in between the lines therefor is as much of a social criticism as it is a silly entertainment program for mainstream TV addicted America.

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