Sex And The Stupid

Sex And The City. Sex And The City.Sex And The City.Sex And The City.Sex And The City. Sex And The City.Sex And The City.Sex And The City. Sex And The City. Sex And The City.Sex And The City.Sex And The City.Sex And The City. Sex And The City.Sex And The City.Sex And The City.

Sick of it, yet? According to its fans it's a liberating account of the independent, assertive woman, unashamed to hide her female charms to get what she wants. It's a brutal, headlong escapist monologue of the modern American middle aged female. It's a theraputic thought experiment in how to be happy and to not settle for anything less than bagging a rich white male. Maybe I've got this show mixed up with something else all these years. From what I can make out this has been my experience.

For from a feminist exploration of the life and loves of the independent woman, of friendship, it's a piece of shit that shamelessly revels in its own self-importance and outrageouness. In its execution it comes across as smug, vain and the writing reveals that far from being witty or particularly sexy, it uses aspiration as a mask to justify hedonism, anti-intellectualism and consumerism and undeserved fake prosperity, surely some of the worst human qualities. Even further from the accusation and implication that it's culturally significant and has done much for the modern woman, it actually reinforces the myth of the modern woman as obsessed by shopping and hollow relationships. Far from being a harmless escapist piece of entertainment you can't help feel that the money used to fund this crap would have been better spent on actresses who can deilver stronger performances in a film that actually would be more entertaining, cultural and educational.

It has never been hysterically outrageous. It's always been a self-indulgent, soft targeted, slice of frozen jism.

Is She Normal?

I can't quite put my finger on what it is I hate about Dr Tanya Byron. It's not an irrational hatred. I don't feel in any way intimadted or threatened by her, nor am I particularly envious of the fame she has received, even if it escapes me. Perhaps it's her incompetence and delivery. Perhaps it's her stupidity. (After all one must be stupid if they think that computer games would turn a kid into a serial killer anymore than watching Superman would turn me into a delusional super hero, I mean come on!)

Watching the BBC 2 show 'Am I Normal?' the final episode exploring atttitudes to sex, I was struck, not by her pretend naivety or understated finger wagging, but with her condesending treatment of some of the sexual behaviours featured. It was as if the show's intended audience were the Richard and Judy/Daily Mail clan. It's not as if some of the things she tried to explore were my cup of tea, far from it, in some cases, but for a so called clinician, I expected someone to 'really' engage with the issues rather than take a detahced, theoretical look at it from the confines of her academic text books and training. How can anyone actually, ever understand what motivates doggers, watersports enthusiasts, cottages, New York studettes, when you haven't occasionally dipped your toe in? Maybe I'm wrong, maybe she has swung a few times and has an insider knowledge, but she seemed to dismiss a lot of the material she encountered for a congnitive point of view rather than addressing the instinctive, physical aspect of people's fetishes. I wouldn't condone the Milli Vanilli pedo-clone for a minute but it was all too easy and predicatable for her to look concerned, aided by theatrical pauses and close-up's of her hatred and loathing of this individual. Society is a very complex beast as is the human being and mind, so by what definition is anyone qualified to define what normality is, let alone abnormality? Is it a cases of moving goal posts, a class thing, conventional versus unconventional behaviour, survivial instinct? I don't know the answers but it wouldn't have been too bad if Dr Byron would have asked the questions.
Instead we got a few stunted interviews, an inapproriate conversation with kids about tits and sexuality and lots of shots of her fat arse (not entirely a bad thing). On the basis of this I wouldn't trust her parenting skills.

No, don't like her.