In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, fast-approaching, let’s take a dive into perhaps the most iconic rom-com series ever: Sex and the City. While this show most certainly fails the Bechdel test, it never fails to entertain us with its characters’ witty repertoire, eclectic yet classic fashion, and poignant insights into life. Here, let’s consider Carrie Bradshaw, the show’s leading lady and sex columnist. Great hair, and great shoes, but arguably, a pretty unlikeable character and a plain bad person. I’m sorry, Carrie fans, but it has to be done: here’s a character takedown of the curly-haired heroine that I love to hate, but whose fashion we love to emulate.
1) She Constantly Tore Her Friends Down
If there’s one thing about Carrie, it’s that she needs to be the star of the universe. This need for attention made Carrie one of her friends’ biggest haters. Just consider when she insulted Charlotte’s birthday dress in Atlantic City, and became extremely irritated at a party when people were laughing at Miranda’s jokes and telling Carrie how much they loved her. Carrie truly hated to see anyone shining brighter than her, and these are just a few examples of the many times she tore her friends down.Â
2) She Ditched her Friends for a Guy
Time and time again, Carrie Bradshaw would ditch her friends of YEARS for the newest guy of the month. She abandoned her and Miranda’s dinner plans because Big was making her veal, she ditched a lunch date with the girls because she was “curled up with the Russian” and it was too cold, and she skipped dinner in Abu Dhabi after seeing Aidan for barely a few minutes. See the pattern here? Carrie would abandon her friends, who constantly showed her unconditional love, support, and respect, for guys who couldn’t even give her the bare minimum. And she never truly apologized, because she did it, again and again, with no regard for her friends’ feelings, and all the regard for the man’s.Â
3) She LOVED Infidelity
Carrie, Carrie, Carrie…she did NOT know a good thing when she had it. Aidan was arguably the best man Carrie dated throughout the show’s run time, yet she cheated on him with…..Big. And even worse, after reconciling with Aidan, she invited Big to his cabin, the one place where he could receive a bit of solace from the emotional pain of being cheated on by the woman he loved. Additionally, Carrie showed blatant disrespect for Natasha and Big’s marriage, even going so far as to help herself to Natasha’s food, in Natasha’s apartment, and stalking her nearly twenty years later. This might just be the most unforgivable thing Carrie did throughout the entire series: knowingly hurting others, with no regard for their feelings, as long as she got her way.
4) She took no responsibility for her actions
Carrie Bradshaw’s character was many things: fashionable, flirty, fun…but responsible was not one of them. Not only did Carrie never take responsibility for her hurtful actions, but for her wildly poor financial decisions as well. When, after fifteen years of splurging on Manolo Blahniks and seemingly never cooking a meal at home, Carrie is deeply in debt, she becomes furious with Charlotte for refusing to pay her bills. Carrie, a woman in her mid-40s, constantly expected everyone else to bail her out of the sinking ship she created for herself. She spent much of the series gallivanting like a teenager, never really accepting adult responsibilities.Â
To any Carrie lovers reading this, I apologize, but I cannot get through even one Sex and the City episode without cringing at her, at times, insufferable character. Nevertheless, no one is perfect, so maybe my next article will be about how we should all be a bit more like Carrie on her good days!
Read the other side here: https://www.hercampus.com/school/holy-cross/manolos-mistakes-and-manhattan-the-real-carrie-bradshaw/