F the New Sex and the City Movie

Why is everyone so excited about this movie? I caught part of an old episode of Sex and the City the other night and was reminded how much I don't like any of the characters very much, especially Carrie Bradshaw with her fake coyness, expensive shoes, and not so interesting voice over narration. The show I saw was one where Carrie visits her Barishnikov in Paris and she's wearing this ridiculous dress and a tiny little straw hat perched jauntily on her intentionally messy curls. Mary Beth told me recently about a friend of hers who wrote a paper claiming Golden Girls was actually a more progressive, feminist television show than Sex and the City ever was. I don't remember anything in particular about GG, but I have to agree that SATC never struck me as particularly ground-breaking. And yet I confess the we watched it almost every week at Julie Vedder's, the only grad student we knew who had cable.

Most of the shows center around the women lamenting the state of their relationships and wondering why they can't find a man or why they can't love the man they're with or why they can't help but buy yet another pair of $300 shoes. And then the whole thing wraps up with Carrie finally capturing the guy who has treated her with the most disinterest--the caddiest of cads. To be fair, I guess the elusive male is attractive to lots of women, but I prefer the Mr. Darcy kind--the man who is secretly madly in love with you and only appears aloof b/c his heart is pounding every time you're in the room wearing that low-cut, empire-waist gown and he gets tongue-tied and stupid until he eventually can't stand it and must kiss you. Not someone who's checking his Blackberry seconds after hopping out of bed or who appears only every once in a while to see if you'll still let him in your pants. Though I guess I did like those kind of guys when I was in high school and college. And when I lived in Chicago. And in State College. And...But I'm a total adult now and do not fall for that sort of rapscallion any longer.

Have been sending a bunch of some e-cards out today and I have decided that I want to work for them. They have one that's something like, "Your lack of interest in me is compelling." I saw a group of Downs Syndrome kids at Target the other day and everyone was giving them side-long glances like, Look! Retarded people! Hope they don't do anything weird! I wondered if it would be inappropriate to give the kids t-shirt that read, "I Have Downs Syndrome. What's Your Excuse?"