Oh No, You Didn't!

I am going to take a slight detour from my Fiji adventure stories to bring you an everyday one. We do know how addicted to telling stories I am. I was multitasking at the gym, as I like to do to distract myself from the fact that I'm, you know, working out. Also, in a recent effort to save money, I have decided all magazine reading must now be done at the gym, for free. So I was reading up on some notes for a meeting I had later that morning, reading over material for my 480 (mini-thesis paper), and reading a magazine. Now, my opinion might be biased because I had been reading such academic, dense reading prior to it, but I fell in love with this Kiwi magazine, Next. It had articles that were actually about something besides hair and nutrition, but they also kept my attention. They still had some pages dedicated to fashion and home decor, but it had achieved perfect balance. Then, I saw an article that referenced Sex and the City. I was home.

In case you've never met me and never read any of my previous blogs, I love, nay adore, Sex and the City. I can also assure you that no women's interest magazine I have ever seen has discredited the show in any way (ah, foreshadowing). I started reading the article, whose complaint dejour was that there is no singles life in New Zealand. You basically need to be near a cultural, technological center and all those are imbued with young students. There is no NYC of New Zealand. "Amen!" I cried, inwardly. Then it started inquiring about how we understand the "singles scene" as a culture. Then it went into a diatribe of how my favorite show ever demeans women, perpetuating the myth that single life must consist of meaningless one night stands, alcohol-drenched faux pas, and chain smoking. It snidely commented something like, "You don't see that happening on Dharma & Greg or Mad About You... because they happen to be married."

Now, I understand my bias for the show. Still, I must insist that these comments come only from commercials and not from the content of the show as a whole. Honestly, I think the attitudes on S&TC are a bit more honest about life in general. One night stands happen; there are still smokers out there; people do use drinks to socialize and network in the real world. Also, these characters do not imply that their way of life is utterly glamorous and/or desirable. Instead, they flounder through mistakes, hoping to learn from them and from each other. They ask a fundamental question: What constitutes "growing up" if you don't have the typical benchmarks of ring, dress, baby, and mortgage?

Perhaps Next magazine has an issue with the fact that they don't substitute career as their meaning of life. The question of S&TC really is an important one to discuss and I don't think the writers are claiming an answer. But considering the magazine did acknowlege that cultural norms tend to ignore the fact that many young people in the Western world are waiting until their 30s to get married, maybe we should allow more than one voice to answer why.