Today’s Internet Movie Database carried a weekend box office report showing SEX AND THE CITY in the top spot world wide.
Meanwhile, now that Hillary Clinton has withdrawn her bid for the presidency, the media seems more willing to acknowledge sexist attacks during her campaign & see their parallel in attacks on SATC. Says Ramin Setoodeh in this week’s issue of NEWSWEEK: “it’s tempting to draw the parallel between the “Sex” haters and the Hillary haters.” And in SLATE, Timothy Noah asks: “Is Sex and the City our culture’s consolation prize to Hillary Clinton’s supporters?”
D’uh? Ya think?!?!?
Now I’m in a very difficult position here: I’m a fervent lifelong Democrat. (My first campaign was in 1960. My Dad was a precinct captain in Newark, NJ, & young as I was, I vividly remember stuffing JFK flyers under every door on the block.) I wore a saxophone pin as a member of Bill Clinton’s Rapid Response team in ’92, & I started sending money to HILLPAK as soon as the First Lady became Senator Clinton. But we are also residents of Chicago & my husband is one of Michelle Obama’s UCMC colleagues, so we were early supporters when BHO began his run for the Senate. What a quandary!!!
Furthermore, as a Jewish-American activist, I have empathized deeply with my African-American sisters. Am I a Jew first or a feminist first? Well, that depends: am I talking to Adolph Hitler or Don Imus??? I’m both & I don’t like being forced to choose!!!
But in the current context, I think we must be absolutely clear about one thing: the Liberal establishment abhors racism, & whenever they are forced to chose, the powers that be will ignore sexism every time. As Professor Martha Lauzen told Patrick Goldstein of the LA TIMES last month: “Hollywood is far more embarrassed about being labeled racist than sexist.” She told me the very same thing when I interviewed her way back in 2002. In fact, my conversation with her was one of the key inspirations for the creation of WITASWAN.
So, women: this is OUR fight, & we MUST keep fighting!!!
