Sex and the City Paper

Jeffrey Zide

11/04/09

English 313/Pop Culture

Sex and the City Paper: Embed Video Clip

Sex and the City is a show about four women in New York City who are struggling to find romance in a city of many intricacies and paradoxes in both its culture and its construction of space of being a city centered on island that has bureaus surrounding an island. In this video clip it is evident that place is a social construction and that conceptions of space, time and place are constantly changing within socially defined interactions that decide what is “right” and what is “wrong” at a certain destination in time, space and place.

It is clear throughout this clip, that the main character, Lexi(which was all I could make out of her name from the clip) that she is seemingly out of place in this fancy ritzy upper-class apartment made up of older intellectuals because she is smoking and snorting cocaine while using the F-word more times than I could count. But what does out of place really mean? Well, Chapter 12 in Urban Space and Cultural Space by Chris Barker makes a definitive statement about space (especially social space like a fancy party) that entails five basic concepts. These 5 basic concepts are that 1.space is essentially a social construct and 2.that the “social is spatially constructed”, 3.that social space is dynamic not static meaning that is always changing as social relations change, 4. Space creates and defines questions of symbolism and power which can be physically shown (known as “power-geometry” of space) and that social space passively asserts that social space is in fact expressed in “a simultaneous multiplicity of spaces: cross-cutting, intersecting, aligning with one another, or existing in relations of paradox or antagonism”. Throughout this clip, these five concepts are well illustrated.

All throughout this clip, there are strong signs of a power struggle for the social space. This space is constructed very carefully as quiet party with no drugs but tons of philosophical conversations of older rich elites and intellectuals who are placed in the center of the room lining around the inner walls with comfortable couches while those who seem not to belong are standing either by the walls or mixed in broad daylight which is contrasting with Carrie Bradshaw the main character of the whole show standing along the wall while Lexie the main character of the scene is standing in the dead center of the room to show her power in controlling the space yet she is not comfortable and in some ways is hiding in the center of the room. This obviously shows the paradoxical relations in that the quiet people are the ones with the power and although Lexie’s booming voice and presence seems to command the center she is in fact pushed along the walls and faces many obstacles even with getting into the party into the place as she expresses her frustration with “pulling strings to get into this piece of shit party”. It is also interesting how quickly the camera angle changes from being dead center on Carrie to facing Lexie from a distance. It also to interesting to see the paradox of how everyone pulls away from her as she rants about New York no longer being any fun and how she in fact gains the power-geometry and is forced into the center of the room while others pull-away towards the side but how in fact this power is so superficial when consider the end of the clip..” It is clear that the hostess despises her behavior and even says “how did she get in here” which shows a power struggle for the domination of the center of the social space which is officially dominated by Lexi it seems yet in reality, the hostess pulls all the strings and Lexi in fact is booted out of the space by her own doing. This paradox of power shows the elasticity of space and how the relationship change with Lexie in the very beginning taking a back set to Carrie to the end of the clip with her commanding the space with “Power-Geometry” but in the end it reverts back to the guests as she falls out the window with her ironic statement: “I’m so bored I could die” and then she does which shows the symbolism of the construction of space when she does “New York is over” but then she is over and out the window which parodies the concepts while bringing light to how space is defined by the social.

This also conveys Giddens sense of “front” and “back” space with bedrooms being into intimate back spaces while dining rooms would be considered front spaces for “onstage public performance.”(p. 374) This clip radical in the way it interchanges as Lexie in the very beginning is pulled from a back space in the center of a dining room which plays on the paradox of it not being a bedroom to her being placed in the corner back space in the upstairs bathroom while she snorts cocaine and to the end of the clip while she is the front space as she falls out the window to her death. She makes no distinction between the space that is defined for her to be in the back but as she pulls to the front-space it is evident how absurd the struggle as she constructs the space even after she is falls out the window and ends the party in more ways than one.