‘Sex and the City’: Cynthia Nixon Thinks Lena Dunham’s ‘Girls’ Is Better Than SATC
Sex and the City defined a generation. Watching Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte navigate careers, relationships and break-ups, aging, and — most importantly — female friendship together gave many of us dreams of what life as an adult woman could look like.
Because of the four friends, fans dreamed of picking up their lives and moving to New York City on a whim. Realistic or not, the four women lived in beautiful apartments, dated beautiful men, and — for better or for worse — they did it all in style. One of the things that so many fans love about the show is getting to see the beautiful fashion pieces that the characters choose, especially the shoes.
Sex and the City was groundbreaking in many ways, but the 90s were a different time in which women were expected to look perfect. One of Sex and the City‘s stars is speaking out now on some of the more problematic parts of the show, and praising a more modern TV series featuring strong women in the city that she thinks is way better.
‘Sex and the City’ has become a legend
Sex and the City premiered on HBO in 1998 and ran for six seasons, becoming one of the world’s most recognizable series today. The protagonists all have different personalities and values, showcasing the wide spectrum of what “being a woman” means.
For example, Charlotte has always dreamed of getting married and having a family, but Miranda, on the other hand, is focused almost entirely on her career as an attorney and has no time for relationships. The show has received incredible acclaim and has won an impressive amount of awards, including at the Golden Globes, The Emmys, and the Screen Actors Guild.
Cynthia Nixon thinks Girls is better than Sex and the City
A more modern HBO show about women in New York City, Girls, was created by actress Lena Dunham in 2012, eight years after the last episode of Sex and the City aired on the network. Girls differs from Sex and the City in that it’s more unapologetic in its feminism. It follows millennial women in New York City as they navigate life, and has received praise for its authenticity in showing female characters that aren’t always perfectly put together, beautiful, or even likable.
The actress who plays Miranda Hobbes in Sex and the City, Cynthia Nixon, praised Girls for this quality and compared it to her own show, which was considered feminist in its time. She recalled how much pressure female actors were still under when she starred on Sex and the City: pressure to fit into a look that was considered ideal.
“In Sex and the City we had to be thin and look great all the time; in Girls they have permission to be more real and less airbrushed,” she declared.
What’s next for Nixon’s acting career?
Nixon recently turned 50, and she shared that this frees her from some of the stereotypical roles that are written for women in their childbearing years. She told other actresses in a discussion for Net-a-Porter’s magazine, The Edit, that she looks forward to the complex and interesting roles that she’s being offered now that she’s out of the “mom” zone, although she really is a mom to a young son in real life.
“If I’m still in the mommy area, it’s really important that I’m basically benevolent,” she stated.
There are also rumors of another Sex and the City movie, and all evidence points to the fact that Nixon would be willing to reprise her role as lovable Miranda. Fans everywhere are crossing their fingers!
