Reader #62 wrote: I was disappointed in Sex & The City tonight. They aired an episode called "Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl" which at outset promised to be quite edgy. It started off in Charlotte's art gallery with a drag king exhibit. After initial doubts the girls generally agree that the exhibit is cool, and Charlotte even winds up posing for a new painting and embracing her inner male. So far, so good.
While Samantha's storyline was rather small, and Miranda's struggle with letting Steve move in with her was touching, Carrie's plotline was the one that's bugging me. She had recently started dating a guy who, while younger, was fun and quite sexy. Carrie balks, however, when she finds out that Sean is bisexual. When chatting about her "problem" with the girls early on in the episode, each one responds in a stereotypical way. Samantha approves, claiming she herself is "trysexual" and willing to do anything once. Carrie expresses doubts that bisexuality even exists, stating that it's really just a stop on the way to "Gaytown". Charlotte agrees, saying people should just make up their minds, and Miranda hauls out the good old standby that bisexuals are "just being greedy [and] 'double dipping'".
Now, these are all things that I've heard before a million times, so I was hoping that the writers were doing a setup to break down the conventional discussion on bisexuality. If the girls could accept drag kings so easily, why not this? Alas, it was not to be. While Carrie winds up being kissed by a playful Alanis Morrisette in a game of spin the bottle, she decides that she's too "old fashioned" to accept Sean's sexuality. Ok, to each their own. What's not so innocent was the depiction of bisexuals as solely younger, promiscuous, confused and drunken individuals who just hadn't grown up yet. For a show that generally tries to push the envelope about embracing female sexuality, this was a disappointment. I know that later on Samantha actually has a relationship with a woman, and as I recall it was more realistic, but this episode still put a significant damper on the enjoyment of my late night TV. Grade: C+
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