30 Rock and Sex and the City

   The Sex and the City women, famous for their fancy brunches, Manolo Blahniks, and Hamptons trips seem to greatly differ from 30 Rock's Liz Lemon who "shotguns" pizza and loves Star Wars. After reading Andrea Press's article “Gender and Family in Television's Golden Age and Beyond” and Diane Negra's article "Quality Postfeminism?" it seems as though the women of Sex and the City and Liz Lemon aren't so different. 

   30 Rock and Sex and the City feature single career women in their mid 30s living in New York City. These characters do not follow the domestic, wallflower stereotype seen in the Golden Age of television. It is interesting that all of these strong female characters live in New York City. As Negra states, “New York itself serves as an explanatory framework for unusually assertive female behavior”. I agree with Negra because we rarely see the Liz Lemons, Samantha Jones, Carrie Bradshaws, Miranda Hobbes or Charlotte Yorks in suburban America. Their “outlier” behavior is justified through their city environment.

As Press states:

“Postfeminism... stressed the need for women to achieve equality with men in the workplace, the home and the bedroom. Television's representations of women throughout the 1980s and 1990s focused on women making “choices” usually between work and family. The “choice” theme is also limited to women who actually have such choices to make- mostly upper-middle class, educated, white and attractive women.”

The postfeminism that Press speaks about can be found in 30 Rock and Sex And The City. Liz Lemon, of 30 Rock, always battles with achieving workplace equality. As the head writer of The Girlie Show, her writing staff which is mostly male, always tries to belittle her. Additionally, the “choice” theme is apparent in Sex And The City. Miranda Hobbes is a successful lawyer and single mother. Her financial status allows her to not have to make the “choice” between full time mother or full time lawyer. She is able to balance both due to her ability to pay for a nanny. Charlotte York, another character on Sex and the City, makes a different kind of “choice”. After marrying a wealthy doctor, Charlotte makes the choice to stop working. Like Press states, the “choice” theme is found within upper middle class, educated, white and attractive women.

   Liz Lemon, Miranda Hobbes and Samantha Jones all beat to their own drum. They break societal norms and are not married by 28 and mothers by their early 30s. It is wonderful that contemporary culture allows for such characters, but it is also interesting that they are all white, educated, upper middle class New York City residents.