Sex and the City created a phenomenon for most young women in their early 20’s. Carrie Bradshaw’s character specifically created a certain hype. I think many females relate to Carrie to the fact that she doesn’t fit a certain mold as the “all-around good girl”(Charlotte), the “career-minded, jaded New Yorker” (Miranda), or the “liberating sexually confident” character (oh, Samantha). She is successful and well rounded, with insight to the struggles of her relationships and the battle between her head and her heart– a common fight we can all relate to.
However, despite the small voice in every girl’s head that Bradshaw’s life isn’t actually real life, especially the real life of a New Yorker, when you go to school in the city there is usually some hope that you and your best friends can run NYC like the Sex and the City clan.
If Carrie were to live like us college girls, she would be in for a rude awakening, and would probably sheepishly stick her poofie pink skirt to the way back of her dresser.
1) The expectation to afford daily brunch with your friends is unachievable.
Carrie and friends would quickly find that their everyday brunch is not only unattainable financially, but with everyone’s differing schedules and a life of procrastinated work, the afternoon is usually spent desperately printing out papers in the O’Malley Library. God forbid one girl in the friend group is an engineer major… free time? What is that?
2) Freshman 15.
Carrie and her friends/dates drink every night. They go out to eat multiple times throughout the day. She happily gets street hot dogs without remorse, and doesn’t seem to be hitting the gym really. Where does that indulging weight go? No where. Yes she walks around the city, but we walk to Leo many days of the week, which seems like a workout as is. Scientifically and with statistical evidence, if a college kid lived like Carrie Bradshaw, they would gain the freshman 15.
3) Her ridiculous outfits wouldn’t be accepted
Being that everyone comes from different places, they want to fit in, and we all accustom ourselves to our “campus norm”. Certain things are accepted, even in a varied-style school. There are still things that are considered “not cool” and some of Carrie’s outfits wouldn’t have been trend-setting or welcomed without side comment. There have been so many accounts of these bizarre outfits, that Buzzfeed compiled a list that includes (but isn’t limited to) her curiously thought-out closet choices.
4) Walking around in high heeled shoes all the time… no
Never mind the OV stairs, but if walking in the cold is tempting enough for a gypsy cab ride just to Fens, then its already predicted Carrie wouldn’t be able to make it around. Her funds to save her aching feet would take up all of her savings. (Ha)
5) The inability to save money is the main unhappiness of a college student
Speaking of her saving, there hasn’t been a time of her life that the New Yorker had kept future finances and budgeting in mind. She had impulsively spent $40,000 on a pair of shoes like a lunatic, and she proudly exclaimed, “I like to see my money… hanging in my closet.” * eye roll *
Being that most every college student is a broke college student, I don’t see how she could live through her semester if she ran out of her Dominoes or JDel funds.
She would not get to enjoy the life she did on Sex and the City, especially considering her magic living conditions of owning an Upper East Side apartment with income from one newspaper column. Even perfectly and promptly working Horan elevators don’t beat that deal.
6) Her Sex and the City life held a plethora of interesting men to date
Here, in the real world, the cute ones end up being douchey, and the sweet ones are just friend-zoned. And where do they all come from? Our small little school means that you see the same people out and on your route to class.
Also with these rich, gorgeous men that the girls meet… they actually went on dates. Carrie would be shocked at the new hookup culture and her first received text of the day coming around 9 pm to ask about your friends’ Fens or Riv City plans.
7) There is no such thing as “writer’s block” in this fantasy-land that she sits in
She just plops down and writes for her column, and whatever she comes up with ends up being seen as gold.
If she was anything like the average college-goer, it would take her a handful of hours to write her English paper, with most of those hours Imessaging her friend across the table about the cute guy in the library.
8) Her invested time in the man-finding life
When boys are constantly trying to get girls they are “thirsty”. When girls are “boy-crazy” they are annoyingly dependent and… well… boy-crazy. However, even our most “boy crazy” friends aren’t 100% devoted to men. Being in college, everyone is at least a little forced to balance things. Carrie is constantly looking for love: in her job, her conversations with the girls, clothing choice and hairstyles, and it is an impossible weight to carry. If Carrie was a real life college student in New York, I would wish her the best of luck to try and balance friends, boys, school, mental and physical health, etc.
While Carrie is a catch, any other female who is only defined by the boys she has been with, doesn’t have anything to bring to a guy who doesn’t want to define you at all.
Her relationship with her on and off boyfriend, Mr. Big, is an accurate representation of an unhealthy college relationship; and while it is harder to separate your heart from your head in the situation, it isn’t an exciting or romantic life to live with that stress and struggle. If there are red flags, and especially that painful conversation filled with reasons why you two shouldn’t or can’t be together, there should be a voice in your head saying get out, and be available for someone in your future to come along that is right and ready for you.
No matter how much you two want to be together, a lot of that reason is for the comfort you two have created from growing and letting each other in, but that comes with every person in your life.
Remember going through a breakup with your first relationship/love, and you thought there would be no one else and life would be over? Well, here you are. Fully alive, better grown, and better off without them.
9) Sex and the City Breakups
While Manhattan College in the Bronx is a little house with Manhattan being our big backyard, Carrie would have a hard time adjusting.
The beauty of the show, as well as a lot of other shows, is how these fictional characters have fictional breakup-feelings. These girls go through breakups with nodded heads and understanding that they’re better off. Being in the big city, they don’t run into their exes and they don’t seem to have any missing-you feelings at all.
In college, things are different. You go through a break up with someone, and you have a desire to text them the night of when you are stirring at night. You see them out and you strike up conversation and most likely go home with them. There are days of Facebook stalking and more time invested into your morning routine to look extra pretty on the days you know you pass by them on your way to class.
While the willpower of these women are admiring, the detached feelings are unnatural.
However, despite all of Carrie Bradshaw’s questionable relationship decisions, one of the smartest things she has ever said about the matter would successfully carry her through her college years, and it is advice that we should all learn from:
“Being single used to mean that nobody wanted you. Now it means you’re pretty sexy and you’re taking your time deciding how you want your life to be and who you want to spend it with.”