If you hate Sex and the City…

Catherine Redfern·
Film & TV

…and you think it’s all about consumerism and shopping… then the lyrics of the film’s theme song “Labels or Love” by Fergie won’t do much to change your mind. May I present the full hideousness for your delectation:

(lyrics copied from one of those dodgy lyric sites, may not be 100% accurate)

Shopping for labels, shopping for love

Manolo and Louis, it’s all I’m thinking of

Shopping for labels, shopping for love

1,2,1,2,3,4 (?)

I already know what my addiction is

I be looking for labels, I ain’t looking for love

I shop for purses while I walk out the door

Don’t cry, buy a bag and then get over it

And, I’m not concerned with all the politics (?)

It’s a lot of men I know I could find another one.

Oughta know that I’m always happy when I walk out the store, store

I’m guessing Supercalifragi-sexy, nothing to be playing with

I love him, hate him, kiss him, just I’m trying to walk a mile in my kicks

(Chorus)

Love’s like a runway but which one do I love more

No emotional baggage, just replace it with Dior

Love’s like a runway, so what’s all the fussing for

Let’s stop chasing them boys and shop some more

1,2,1,2,3,4 (?)

I know I might come off as negative

I be looking for labels, I ain’t looking for love

Relationships are often so hard to tame

A Prada dress has never broken my heart before

And, ________

I’mma do the damn thing, watch me do the damn thing

Cause I know that my credit card will help me put out the flames

I’m guessing Supercalifragi-sexy, nothing to be playing with

I love him, hate him, kiss him, just I’m trying to walk a mile in my kicks

[Chorus]

Gucci, Fendi, Prada purses, purchasing them finer things

Men they come a dime a dozen, just give me them diamond rings

I’m into a lot of bling, Cadallic, Chanel and Coach

Fellas boast but they can’t really handle my female approach

Buying things is hard to say

Rocking Christian Audigier, Manolo, Polo, taking photos in my Cartier

So we can’t go all the way, I know you might hate it but

I’m a shop for labels while them ladies lay and wait for love

What can I say? Just… awful! Wrong, so very wrong on so many levels. Let’s all embrace our shopping addictions, yeah, that’s feminist, right!

Why is this relevant? Well, the series and the film is being spoken about as if it represents all women everywhere, and this is the sort of thing we’ll be told we (women) are supposed to be into: shopping, shopping, shopping.

Well, I suppose we shouldn’t have expected much more from Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas, who came up with My Humps, which Wikpedia notes was described as “one of the most embarrassing rap performances of the new millennium” and “really bad—transcendentally bad, objectively bad.”

On that note, did you catch Alanis Morrisette’s cover version of My Humps? See it. It’s very, very, good. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone sing as sarcastically as she does here. It’s a brilliant parody of the soullessness of modern pop of this type.

Before I turn myself into The F Word’s Sex and the City correspondent I’ll sign off.

Now get back to the serious stuff – go and take some action on Abortion Rights straight away!

Catherine Redfern
Founder

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11 Responses

  2. I initially thought that those lyrics might be… I don’t know, perhaps ironic, but gradually I realised that they just weren’t… How do these people become famous?

  4. Well we are heading for a recession. Perhaps they are hoping women will be able to spend our way out of the credit crunch. Greed is good people, buy more own more………….! Good grief!

  5. Oh dear. I don’t really like Sex and the City, and I do kind of think it’s all about consumerism rather than feminism, but surely it doesn’t deserve to be represented quite THIS badly?? This song just wipes out any of the positive stuff this show had in it. Oh well. I’ll probably still see the film though, my housemate is obsessed with Sex and the City! Ah, peer pressure ;)

  6. I always hated SATC. Stupid, not only not funny but irritating and often downright depressing. I could be wrong, of course, because my opinion is based on brief snatches I caught before zapping on to something else.

    And Alanis Morisette is a whinger!

    Give me Fergie any day, even with her lyric lapses.

  7. I think Sex and the City can obviously be anti feminist in some ways- every woman likes shopping, and they all seem to be settled down with a man at the end of the series. However, I think it’s good that they are showing women that have sex, aren’t concerned about being judged by it, and actually seek their own sexual pleasure and enjoy it. It shows- shock- women masturbating. Granted, I think a lot of things would need to be changed for this to be a feminist show, but I do think it’s a step in the right direction for showing female sexuality and sexual pleasure on prime time television.

    See http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/women/story/0,,2273785,00.html

  9. I don’t find sex and the city feminist or liberating for women at all. It’s just an x-rated fairy tale; behave and act this way and you’ll find prince charming.

    Everything the “princess” of this modern fairy tale does or wears is to pursue mr right.

    I specially dislike this show because I think that it only perpetuates the modern capitalist stereotype of women. Not only are women expected to be financially independent, but also emotionally detached and sex crazed kittens. In my humble opinion a real woman does not need to sleep around, wear ridiculous highly priced shoes, or be a size 0 to be fulfilled.

    And I do see how it has influenced the younger generation. I work with women in their late teens whose role models seem to be the heroines of this show, I’ve heard more than once from them that they are promiscuous because that’s what men like nowadays, I’ve even had one girl tell that she cannot say no to sex because she thinks she may regret it .. I DO believe that women have the right to be sexually free and enjoy our bodies, however to me it is depressing how it seems like in todays society we have been reduced to only sexual beings.

  11. I resisted watching SATC for years because of the premise, “having sex like men” (as my son said, what the heck does that mean?–that all men screw women over? or screw around all the time?) Anyway, I finally watched some of the episodes and found the writing to be clever. There were always parts of each episode that I thought were empowering but then others that were just not remotely. The worst thing of all, though, and I just recently came across it–a missed episode–is in season 4 (A Vogue Idea) where Carrie tells on of the editors at Vogue (a male) that her father left her and her mother when Carrie was 5 and that she (Carrie) to this day has no idea why he left. What do the writers do with this then? They have Carrie struggle a bit with this (but won’t let her struggle too much because of where that would go or because, I suppose they want to continue to use her)…her acting-out and relationship problems as “normative” after they’ve written in this traumatic event in Carrie’s life. They have Carrie (at the end of this ONE episode) come to the conclusion that father figures really don’t figure too much (and we know that’s total bunk.) Carrie even tells Miranda that Miranda is the mother AND father for Miranda’s baby-to-be. No. Not so. Steve is the father. This was appalling. If I’d seen this episode earlier, I’d never have watched another SATC episode. It made me come to the conclusion that, yes, at least Carrie (and who knows of the others–we aren’t told) is a damaged dysfunctional woman who, of course, is going to have difficulties in relationship, who of course is going to seek out men who dismiss her and jerk her around. And yet, this isn’t dealt with upfront. It’s very bad and insulting to both women and to men, too.

    The movie was in my opinion, horrible and more regressive than the series. All in all, I agree with the posts here…SATC, for all its clever writing, is seductive but at a very high price.

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