SEXUAL CONSENT

Remember in season three when Carrie dated a politician who wants her to pee on him? I didn’t, so I was intrigued to see what she would do next. After a lot of soul-searching, Carrie declined. However, she did offer up some alternatives: “Maybe you could close your eyes and I could dribble warm tea on you. That might feel good. Or maybe you might think it’s fun to hear the sound of running water when we have sex. And, if things got really serious between us, I could maybe even leave the bathroom door open sometime.”

This was a great example of adults talking about consensual sex – but there are many less-than-stellar examples. Samantha thinks that it’s her job to swallow “funky spunk”. Charlotte swears off dating after a guy “raped” her face. And Carrie quietly, uncomfortably endures sex with Berger that she clearly isn’t into and leaves her physically injured afterwards; it could legitimately qualify as sexual assault.

It’s no wonder, then, that Sarah Jessica Parker has been forced to reconcile herself to the fact that SATC absolutely has not stood the test of time in this area, particularly in light of #MeToo and Time’s Up, and new complaints about the misogynistic and potentially triggering language used in some of the show’s sex scenes.

“I think it would be a different show nowadays,” she acknowledged, speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival in May this year. “I think Carrie Bradshaw is very much a product of her generation and I think her conversations about sexual politics and intimacy spoke to the years.”

Verdict:

A controversial two cosmopolitans. Yes, there are lots of women enjoying sex, but there are plenty of worryingly ‘grey area’ moments around consent, too.

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