Out today.

Women up and down the country will be stampeding the cinemas. It's lamentable.

Well I won't be!

Well, I'll be joining the stampede, but then I have to put my hands up to being one of that lamentable breed, known as 'women'.

(And there'll be gay men too, of course!)

Can't wait!

Enjoy!

One that my companion said I'd have to see by myself - I'm trading it against Indian Jones.

Sheila

I won't be seeing that either!

Ironic thing happened. My girlfriend just asked, 'I don't supposed you'd go and see Sex and the City with me?'

I said I'd go to a Reith Lecture tomorrow so a ticket wouldn't go to waste but didn't really see the point of going up to North London when I can catch it on the radio on Tuesday. I've managed to offload it.

I think I'll take advantage and go to 'Sex and the City'. I have a monthly ticket for Cineworld.

I used to watch SATC on HBO in China, so I got used to the characters.There wasn't a big choice of channels. The main character, played by this quite ugly woman, was supposed to write a weekly column to discuss a topical issue, and it was quite cleverly structured, the way she applied the question to how her friends behaved.

You're lucky enough to be out in the world, Jem, but now I'm retired I need to stay au fait with contemporary women's concerns.
Sheila

I heard the character with orange hair, Miranda, saying on the radio she was a lesbian, so that'll wide the audience, too.

Well, I loved the series AND I want to see Indiana Jones.

Jem, does this mean our beautiful friendship is over? Please (sob) let me down gently....

I loved the series too, especially the first one, with the vox pops to camera. I thought it was ground-breaking. I know plenty of men who agree with me.

The main character, played by this quite ugly woman

:0
They had a joke in Family Guy a while ago where they said SJP's face was 'like a foot'.
But I think the cast of SATC are all gorgeous. Ah, well.

I think it demonstrates that with all the right clothes and make-up and surroundings anybody can make themselves gorgeous, at least when they're out. It's just a matter of self-discipline. There seems to be a big element of fantasy - as with all those forties women going to goggle at Ginger Rogers's ball-gowns. Woody Allen does a brilliant pastiche in 'The Purple Rose of Cairo' with Mia Farrow as a cinema-going Bronx housewife fantasising about nightclubs and an escort who doesn't beat her up.

The never-questioned assumption in SATC is the desirablity of consumption.You must get money to buy all this stuff. Was it a question Carrie ever put to her readers?

I looked in my diary and saw I'd noted a talk at SOAS called 'Kunqu and The Peony Pavilion'. SATC may have to wait.I think it'll be on for a while.

Sheila

Well, we're going on Saturday. Someone just said they went and the audience was 90% women, with a few subjugated males who were led into the cinema by their noses.

Perhaps I'll write a review on here. Completely unbiased, of course.

Ha! That's what you get for scoffing, Rainstop. I dare you to have a good time!

I loved the series too, and also thought it was groundbreaking - not least because it portrayed the lives of single women as fun and cool, rather than pathetic.

Conspicuous consumption was a big part of it, and I think it was addressed sometimes - Carrie, for example, had a huge collection of designer clothes and shoes, but couldn't afford to buy her apartment. Partly the point was that these were single women, they earned their own money and they could spend it on whatever the hell they wanted - as in one of my favourite episodes 'A Woman's Right to Shoes'.

Sheila, have you read Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs - Women & the Rise of Raunch Culture? She discusses the consumerism in SATC, as well as other aspects of the show. It's a great book anyway, one I'd heartily recommend.

I'll look out for the book. I read her column in the Guardian sometimes, I think,or am I mixing her up with the author of 'We've got to talk about Kevin?' Maybe it's the same.

I love books about popular culture. I'll have a browse in the ICA bookshop next time I'm there.

The one who plays Miranda was asked on Radio 4 how Carrie could afford her lifestyle and she said 'Well, a lot of it comes from Big's business.'

I wish London were a rent-culture city, like Paris. Or like it was in the early 70s when I first came here.

Sheila