'Sex and The City' has given us all some unreasonable expectations of relationships, I believe.
Not that we didn't have them before Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte minced their way across the small screen - but, I think, perhaps, they've now been institutionalised.
See, in Mills & Boons, if a man treats you badly, dumps you terribly, and disappears with a younger, slimmer (European) version of you...you don't kiss and make up in Season 5.
And you certainly don't become 'just friends'.
(And, when it comes to both SaTC and Mills & Boons - and sad reality TV for that matter - I'm a bit of an expert because, whenever my lovelife goes bung I escape into other people's lovelives. Embarassing to admit, I know, but I'm brave enough to be honest...are you?)
Anway, I spit on the concept of 'just friends' - ptooie!
Who wants second prize - who needs the Troll when you're shooting for the Tiger on the top shelf?
Don't get me wrong...the sane, grown-up part of me knows that one day we're going to be 'just friends'...but right now I'm 'just hurt' and the two terms are indelibly entwined.
If another person tips their head at me and says "at least it's amicable between you two" then I'll leap across the desk and tear their misty-eyed head off because it's a lot harder to be 'just friends' then to 'just fuck off somewhere else and be away from that wanker' - a feeling that, to be fair, is not mine alone.
But back to SaTC's cultural endorsement of dysfunctional relationships.
We all know people cheat and stay together, break up and try again later, or just be mean to each other for 50 years of so-called-happy marriage...who wants to watch THAT on TV?
(Well me, but let's leave me out of it for once.)
By putting it on TV you're making it the norm...you're making it ALL RIGHT!
I can watch that crap through the neighbour's kitchen curtains and be a lot closer to the fridge while I'm at it.
And right now, I don't want to be bogged down with the 'maybes' of real life.
I know about fighting and cheating and lying and avoiding each other and bills and dishes and access to the kids...I want fairytale romances!
Recently, I talked to two of my friends about the key elements of Mills&Boons (and associated romance-type books) and the trend towards widowed or deserted women (never amicably divorced...keep that in mind) with children creeping in as heroines/lead romantic roles.
My friend without partner or children gets impatient with these themes, while my friend with children and a once-complicated-but-happily-married-these-days relationship applauds the kind of love that can survive nappies and looming bankruptcy.
But I'm with Friend Number One - why should literary romances have to be realistic?
I want The Princess Bride, and Cinderella, The Princess Diaries and My Fair Lady.
I want to see unreal situations and uncomplicated solutions.
I want to see insurmountable odds mounted!
(Which, let's face it, you CAN see on SaTC - in fact, there's a lot of mounting going on all over the place.)
And I want my kids to be watching it with me. (But not SaTC, obviously.)
They're going to learn soon enough that life's not that easy...come on, they learnt it this month when Daddy moved out!
The only time I want to see reality on TV is when it's showing someone else's shortcomings...I just luuuurve watching America's Top Model with a bottle of Coke and a family-size block of Cadbury's Chocolate while they tell those little bendy twigs that they're overweight and ugly.
If I'm going to wallow in the ugliness of the real world, let it be someone else's real world...I'm busy trying to escape the ugliness in mine right now.
So bring on the Coke and the Fruit & Nut - I've got my beanbag and my TV Guide and I'm ready to go!
Hey, and if there's no sex going on at my place right now...at least there'll be Sex in The City.
No comments:
Post a Comment