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“And Just Like That” Is Just Embarrassing
The new “Sex and the City” reboot misses just about everything, and it’s awkward for everyone.
I was only 13 when Sex and the City ended, but I had sneakily watched every single episode. In the years that followed, I watched the shows over and over again, studying them as if they were teaching the only acceptable, or at least aspirational ways of being a sexual woman. Suffice it to say, I think the messages I internalized from this show contributed more than a little turmoil as I struggled with coming out as queer and non-binary.
A lot has changed in the last 17 years, and at some point, my admiration for the ladies of SATC was transmuted into annoyance, and eventually, disgust. When I attempted to watch an episode in the last five years, I happened to turn on the one where Samantha gets into a fight with some transgender Black women who had been living and hanging out in the area she gentrifies. She refers to them as “trannies” and assaults them (but of course wins them over because she is white cis woman, hear her roar!). Everything came together; this show was outdated and pretty objectively fucked up.
When the news hit that And Just Like That would be airing (sans Samantha), I was astounded. By 2021, most people could understand that yes, SATC was radical…
