Sex and the City...A Threat to Masculinity?

Listening to NPR on Thursday, I caught a somewhat surprising discussion on the show Talk of the Nation. The particular segment of the show was focusing on how men can get out of watching the upcoming movie Sex and the City. For the next 10 - 15 minutes I sat flabbergasted at the conversation that took place that seemingly was a phallic but threatened display of heterosexual masculinity. From calling the characters in the show whores and spend-thrifts to inferring that any man that sees the movie as "weak" or needing to see a psychiatrist, this became a display of the discursive practices employed to maintain a hegemonic masculinity.

Unfortunately this wasn't the only conversation I had observed concerning this matter. Other stations, television shows, and personal discussions all revealed the same feelings from men towards the movie. What is it about this movie that seems to threaten men so much that collectively they have risen up to degrade the movie so badly? How has this movie become a threat to masculinity?

Is it the characters of the movie? Think about it, and move beyond some of the stereotypical views of the show (we all know that Samantha gets around and Carrie buys expensive shoes). The show is focused on and driven by four single-ish, extremely professional and successful women in their middle-ages. For the typical caveman this goes against the gender roles that most of us have been socialized into. Men are the breadwinners, the providers and women should find one of these breadwinners to marry them, take care of them, and provide them with children. And of course, this all has to be done before the woman is 30 right? So the women in Sex and the City defy and disrupt the gendered expectations we have for men and women. They are independent. They compete successfully in a masculine-capitalist society. They are socially aggressive and they are as sexually assertive as men.

But maybe it's something else. I mean, it's just a fictional show and the characters are simply manifestations of the author's desires, right? How about the idea that millions of women have been galvanized to see this movie? I think the idea of masses of women moving together collectively to support something makes some men nervous. If women can be organized in such a way for a movie, what else could they be organized for? What other causes can they be galvanized for? Maybe next time it won't be to support Carrie's wedding but to work to disrupt a patriarchal order? But maybe I'm making to much of this. It is just a movie right? And the characters in the movie still self-discipline to follow a gender script that eventually leads them to look for a man to sweep them off their feet (i.e. Mr. Big, Steve, Harry).

Either way, the movie has definitely brought much fear and insecurity to men across the country and it's interesting to watch men discipline themselves to remain true to some static notion of heterosexual masculinity. "I won't be watching no chick flick. I'm going to be barbecuing beef and pork all weekend" said one of the NPR callers. It's almost like I could see him beating his chest and wrestling a bear to prove his manhood. The movie itself has already become a blockbuster. When was the last time a female driven movie was deemed a blockbuster (especially since the concept of movie blockbusters are inherently masculine - think Independence Day, Transformers, Star Wars, I Am Legend...all male driven masculine movies)?

To be honest, if you really paid attention to the show you would probably recognize that these characters are not all that unfamiliar, as the complexity of their identities really just mirror the complexities of everyday life for women and men alike. But that's just my take.