Candace Bushnell (born December 1 1958) is an American author and columnist based in New York City. She is best known for writing a sex column that was turned into a book, Sex and the City, which became the basis of the TV series, Sex and the City.
Set in New York City, the show’s focus is on four female characters, stereotypcally defined as Carrie the shopaholic, Miranda the cynic workaholic, Charlotte the hopeless romantic and Samantha the sexaholic. John Big, the male lead is the emotionally unavailable male afraid of commitment.
The show tackled socially relevant issues, often specifically dealing with well-to-do professional women in society in the late 1990s, and how changing roles and definitions for women affected the characters.
Well-to-do professional women constitute the trope of strong and independent women, connected to third-wave feminism. If one considers strong and independent women in history one arrives at Lilith, Joan of Arc, Catherine the Great, courtesans and George Sand. To encompass it all are women’s rights throughout history and in the 20th century: feminism. In the late 20th century there are Riot Grrrls and Girl Power.
On The Simpsons, Sex and the City was parodied as “Nookie in New York” with Marge’s sister saying “It’s a show about four straight women who act like gay men”.
“Lilith”…. a very strange book by George MacDonald, she is the first wife of Adam and also a female vampire, it is reviewed on “Groovy age of Horror”, (as is another book “Lilith’s Cave” a book of Jewish folktales).
The MacDonald book can also be read online, check out chapters 18,19,20 where the narrator finds the corpse of a woman and decides to warm it up… The fact that MacDonald was a Minister makes all this necro wierdness even better!
It was republished as part of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in 1969.
….oops, weirdness…
“Lilith’s Cave” Jewish Tales of the Supernatural, selected by Howard Schwartz, is a great collection, full of Succubi and men seduced by female demons. The Lilith legend may have given birth to the vampire myth.
Thanks Paul, always glad to see your comments, I’ve included both on the wiki.