Question 10; 3 Texts, Critical Media and Cultural Studies

The “Sex and the City 2” movie trailer can be applied to Radway’s “Women Read the Romance: The Interaction of Text and Context,” Schor’s “The New Politics of Consumption: Why Americans Want So Much More Than They Need,” and Ghosh’s “Con-fusing’ Exotica: Producing India in U.S. Advertising,” as they relate to and build on one another to give insight regarding critical media and cultural studies. Radway talks about how women feel the need to “escape” everyday pressures and tensions, and do so through reading romance novels, which typically entail the perfect heroine, the ideal masculine character, and a happy ending. In "Sex and the City 2" the four main women also feel the need to get away—due to the stress of being in a serious relationship, being a mother, or just being a middle-aged working woman. From a different approach, women who watch Sex and the City 2 also feel the need for a vacation and seek to “construct a fantasy world” in which they live vicariously through the characters in the movie in the same way that Radway claims readers live vicariously through the lives of the characters in romance novels (Radway, 71).

Schor’s article on consumption explains why women feel entitled to such luxuries. She explains that America is dominated by a consumer culture, and how consumption and social standing go hand in hand. Thus, because the women in Sex and the City can afford nice clothes, shoes, and vacations, it is implied that they have a higher-than-average status. Going back to the viewers perspective, Schor discusses how the “lifestyles of the upper middle class and the rich have become a more salient point of reference for people throughout the income distribution” (Schor, 185). She then explains how television shows and movies, such as "Sex and the City 2," help create this reference point by often depicting the lifestyles of upper middle class, thus inflating the viewer’s perceptions of what others have.

Ghosh’s reading on exotica in America is depicted in the movie when the women go to Abu Dhabi. Ghosh argues that foreign culture is misrepresented in America. For example, the women are shown riding camels—a signifier of the “primitivism” of that culture. From the viewer’s perspective, much of Abu Dhabi’s true culture is left out, which supports Ghosh’s argument that our perception of foreign culture is largely constructed based on the absence of that culture in America. What aspects of culture we have acknowledged, for example the elaborate, floor length clothing styles, have often been Americanized and thus do not truly represent that country’s true identity. Thus, movies such as "Sex and the City 2" do not accurately capture Abu Dhabi’s culture, however thought-provoking they may be.