ABC's Good Morning America Exploits Sex… Again
More than half the women in
GMA used the premiere of the much anticipated film to explore how the show changed the culture. Diane Sawyer introduced the story with, “It was the world premiere of Sex and the City, The Movie. For some reason in
Canning boiled down the impact of the HBO series' six year run to shoes, booze and sex.
CANNING: Can you believe it's been ten years since the ladies introduced us to hot spots like Tao here in
SAMANTHA (in clip from show): It's a physical expression that the body was designed to experience. P.S., It's fabulous.
Two fans of the show, one male and one female, voiced their opinions of the cultural impact Sex and the City had.
ALEX MILLON: I think it opened up a lot of taboo subjects. Women are much more comfortable talking about all these issues out in the open. Frankly, I think it makes things easier.
JESSICA SCHOLL: It was like seeing a whole different side of things, career women, women who are independent, rather than a mother who maybe got married when she was in her early 20s and had kids and did that lifestyle.
So opening up taboo subjects is a good thing, but married moms with kids is Dullsville. Thanks GMA, surely all the moms who were watching your show while they were getting their kids ready for school appreciated that, almost as much as they appreciated having this story air so early in the morning.
After informing viewers that there are now more single women than married women in
CANNING: On the show, Samantha's knack for catching handsome young men in a fierce dating world was considered impressive. Today she'd be called a cougar.
MAN: Can I tell you a secret?
SAMANTHA: You're 12?
After this clip Canning reported that all of the SATC women are now over 40 and “more fabulous than ever.” She used that to give a nod to Hillary Clinton, of all people.
CANNING: Proof that women of all ages aren't what they used to be or who they used to be. When the show started president Bill Clinton was in office. Today Hillary is running for office.
Movie premiere? Culture story? Women's sexuality? Women's changing roles? Politics? Canning tried to have it all in a story that was disjointed and obviously exploitative. Further, the producers' decision to air this in the first hour of the program while many families were sitting at the breakfast table shows a lack of sensitivity to their core audience.
Kristen Fyfe is senior writer at the Culture and Media Institute, a division of the
