Miranda & 2nd Wave Feminism

    I feel that Miranda can be viewed as a positive model in a certain light in terms of the second wave feminist ideals of a woman’s economic independence and freedom from the typical “stay-at-home-mom” lifestyle.  While I had always viewed this independence as somewhat admirable because Miranda is able to care for her child, support herself, and remain committed to her successful career without feeling the need to cling to a man with whom she does not believe she is in love (Steve, the father of her child), Father Poorman had a different view.  He observed that Miranda treated the care of her child as more of a “hobby” than a calling, while her true focus remained on her career.  Father Poorman viewed this skewed balance of these two aspects of her life as tragic.  This was an interesting perspective to me, as it seems that this balance of career and family life with an emphasis on career rather than raising children has been an accepted practice of men, maybe even an expected practice, for centuries. 

    The idea that a woman’s life cannot be full without complete devotion to her children and husband seems like the very idea that Wollstonecraft and generations of feminists who followed in her footsteps tried to combat.  Miranda’s partnership with Steve in raising Brady seems to me very similar to the partnership mapped out by Wollstonecraft in her reflections of an ideal marriage and family.  It is actually interesting that Wollstonecraft and Godwin lived separately just as Steve and Miranda do in the beginning of Brady’s childhood.

    There are clearly many faults to be found in the women of Sex and the City who live extravagant lives and seem to have nothing better to do with their time but complain about trivial problems that many women struggling against poverty, disease, abusive spouses, arranged marriages, etc., would kill to have.  For example, Carrie relentlessly complains when her $485 shoes go missing—oh, the horror!  However, I do believe that the characters of Sex and the City offer an alternative, almost positive view of independent, single life for a generation of young women who occasionally envy the glamorous bachelor life that supposedly awaits their male counterparts.  This ideal, over-the-top single life for men seems so available and acceptable, but for women is still viewed as, in the words of Father Poorman, “deeply sad.”  The double standard is still pervasive that while a man can look forward to being an “eligible bachelor” a woman must be aware that her “clock is ticking” and constantly fear becoming an “old spinster.”

    Sex and the City may not offer the most virtuous role models for young women, but it definitely has something to say about female empowerment and the rejection of standards that have kept women weak and dependent since the time when Mary Wollstonecraft wrote her Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and for centuries before her time as well.  Miranda is neither a perfect mother nor a perfect person and her family life does not reflect an ideal situation, but I still can’t help but admire her strength.  She insists that a woman is more than just the person that is supposed to care for a man’s child, and feel that Father Poorman might benefit from watching a few more episodes, walking a mile or two in a young woman’s overpriced shoes, and giving Miranda another chance.

~Courtney Sullivan