Sex and the City: There Is a Time and Space/Place for Everything

The show Sex and the City has become popular in recent times because of its sexual context. While the show focuses on the lives of the women characters it emphasizes their sexual adventures. In this particular clip, one of the characters, Charlotte is conversing with the other women about what she did the previous night.

Charlotte tells her friends that she had sex with Alexander, whom she had began dating. Charlotte confesses that Alexander called her a "whore" and made her wonder why he would do such a thing. The other women imply that she is a whore because she had sex with a man that she had barely met. This scene from Sex and the City exemplifies the idea that place and space are social constructions (Barker 377). 

According to Chris Barker, in Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice, space and place share an "absence-presence" relationship,space is the absence while place is the presence, (Barker 376). In this clip from Sex and the City, the place is the cafeteria where the women are eating and the space is the physical absence of a male character. Barker states that "the social construction of space will be gendered... [and that] gender relations vary over space: spaces are symbolically gendered and some spaces are marked by the physical exclusion of particular sexes" (Barker 377). In other words, the cafeteria becomes gendered as a feminine space simply because of the absence of men. Furthermore, the gendering of space also creates a division between private and public places. In this case both Charlotte's home and the cafeteria become gendered places. The house where the sex occurs is the private place while the cafeteria becomes the public space. The home is usually the feminine space whereas the cafeteria would traditionally be considered the masculine space because it is related to the workplace (Barker 377). However, in this scene, the private and the public space are both feminine places. 

Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice Third Edition. Sage Publications Ltd, Thousand Oaks, CA 2000.

Response Paper

Popular Culture, Materialism and The Rules of Attraction

Popular culture and social influences such as materialism are the main contributors to the definition and construction of love. Since love cannot be fully defined by a single person because of subjectivity, materialism and popular culture dictate the meaning of love that society considers conventional. One can have an idea and a notion of what love is, but as a society we try to broaden the concept of love. In a society, like America, where materialism is present in people's everyday lives, a construction of reality that agrees with the mainstream ideas, morals and behaviors are created. In Sex Isn't Everything (But It Can Be Anything): The Symbolic Function of Extremity in Modernism, Joyce Piell Wexler discusses extremity and symbols which can serve as an explanation of the characters' ideals of love in The Rules of Attraction. Extremity in this instance is the furthest point or the limit, of love, which is accepted by society. Therefore, based on popular culture and materialism, society shapes the satisfactory meaning and paradigm of love.

Every generation of American culture has had specific established values and norms, and morals, which include ideals on love and sex. In the 1950's, speaking of the pleasures of sex was unheard of, that is until the Kinsey reports were published. In the 60's sex became a form to express love for each other and for humanity as a whole. With each passing generation the meanings of love and sex changed to adapt to the context that it was part of. According to Chris Barker's Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice, "popular culture can be regarded as the meanings and practices produced by popular audiences at the moment of consumption. Thus the study of popular culture becomes centered on the uses to which the commodities are put" (Barker 52). In the 1980's, when the book, The Rules of Attraction is set, sex becomes a commodity for the three main characters Sean, Lauren, and Paul.



 The Rules of Attraction focuses on Sean, Paul, and Lauren who become involved in a love triangle while searching for love. All three characters attend Camden, a college that is overflowing with wealthy students. These three characters try to attain love by engaging in casual sex with as many people as they can in their microcosm of a hyper-sexualized and materialistic society. The characters in The Rules of Attraction are all similar in that they have a radical idea of what love is. It is normal for them to have meaningless sex, do drugs and, not to be concerned with their studies. Lauren, Paul and Sean all construct ideas of what their ideal partners should be, but they never truly find that ideal partner because their ideals are constructed based on desire which is dictated by their society through popular culture. Sex is a commodity for these characters and they only use each other to satisfy a need. The characters never form actual bonds or relationships when they become sexually involved with each other. The way that The Rules of Attraction represents love is by showing an extreme ideal of love that would otherwise be considered a transgression. In Sex Isn't Everything (But It Can Be Anything): The Symbolic Function of Extremity in Modernism, Joyce Piell Wexler states “extremity pushes the reader beyond the empirical referent: 'Something that smacks of revolt, of promised freedom, of the coming of age of a different law, slips easily into this discourse on sexual oppression...Foucault indicates the range of meanings transgression can evoke.' When the extreme becomes the norm, however, this proliferation of non-empirical meanings stops” (Wexler 167).  In other words, the characters in The Rules of Attraction have extreme interpretations of love that become the norm and ultimately, part of popular culture. When Sean tries to convince Lauren that he indeed loves her he says "I want to know you" and Lauren responds, "know me? What does that even mean? No one will ever know anybody" (Ellis 252). Later in the book, Sean responds with the same line When Paul tries to tell Sean that he has feelings for him. Sean, Paul and Lauren have all constructed their own ideas of love based on previous partners, but most importantly based on popular culture.

Materialism can serve as an oppressor and as an influential factor in people’s ideas, norms and values. In The Rules of Attraction, materialism is the reason why most of the characters are nihilists; they see life as being virtually pointless. Lauren, Paul and Sean all come from wealthy families and do not appreciate the value of money. According to Wassily Kandinsky, an expressionist painter, “our minds, which are even now only just awakening after years of materialism, are infected with the despair of unbelief, of lack of purpose and ideal” (Wexler 169). It can be said that the characters Sean, Lauren and Paul are victimized by materialism and it has shaped their idea of love and the lack of purpose in life. According to Barker, "commidification is the process associated with capitalism by which objects, qualities and signs are turned into commodities. The surface appearance of goods sold in the marketplace obscures the origins of those commodities in an exploitative relationship, a process called commodity fetishism" (Barker 13). That is, materialism allows for the characters of The Rules of Attraction to view each other as sexual objects, commodities, which allows them to exploit each other for sex. The characters in the book also construct their ideas of love through symbols.

In Sex Isn't Everything (But It Can Be Anything): The Symbolic Function of Extremity in Modernism, Wexler believes that symbols are a product of extremity. She states that "symbols were indeterminate and non-empirical as a result of the linguistic structure of the symbol and the rhetorical effect of extremity" (Wexler 166). Much like Ferdinand de Saussure, Wexler tries to explain language can be ambiguous because of the sign, the signified and the signifier. Saussure states, in Course of General Linguistics that "[language] assumes that ready-made ideas exist before words" (Saussure 78). So both Wexler and Saussure argue that since language serves as a way of using symbols for ideas that people will always have their own perception of such symbols. Jacques Derrida's Differance also addresses how the ambiguity of words causes the meaning of words to be subjective because there never is a final definition of a word. Therefore, love can have many different meanings because of the ambiguity of words and the use of symbols and signs in language.

The Rules of Attraction might be considered an extreme or a radical depiction of love and sex in terms of the conventional meanings of the words. Since, the definition of love is ambigious and subjective, people will have different ideas of what love is. Just like in the book, the definition of love is particular to the time and the context that people are part of. Therefore since love cannot be defined by one person we resort to the dominant idea of love that is dictated by our society through popular culture and materialism. 
 
Works cited

Derrida Jacques. Differance

Ellis, Bret Easton. The Rules of Attraction. Vintage Contemporaries, New York. June 1998

Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality.


Wexler, Joyce Piell. Sex Isn't Everything (But It Can Be Anything): The Symbolic Function of Extremity in Modernism. College Literature, Vol. 31, No. 2              (Spring,2004), pp. 164-183
            


 

Ethnography of C.R.A.N.K Mob

(Video is from an earlier C.R.A.N.K Mob, not from September 19, 2009)

C.R.A.N.K Mob is a monthly bike ride, which has become the Mecca of cyclist in Los Angeles. On September 19, 2009 the last C.R.A.N.K Mob took place and it was a party on wheels much like every other month. The first time that I went to this event was exactly one year ago. Of all of the group bike rides that I have been on, C.R.A.N.K Mob is always the largest and wildest. This time however, I would be riding and at the same time observing people and looking for instances of radical romance and culture.

As I sat amidst the madness that is C.R.A.N.K Mob, I began to observe different groups of

 people and their behavior. Group bike rides such as this one alw

ays have breaks in between. My observations are from th

e first stop, an empty parking lot in Downtown, LA, one block away from the Staples Center. There were easily 250- 300 cyclist present so I only observed a few people. There was an overflow of young adults and teenagers with fixed gear bicycles (a type of single speed bicycle which involves endless pedaling). The first group that I noticed was a clique of Latino teens, three males and one female. A vast majority of the teens that go to group bike rides own flashy and extremely expensive bikes, and this group was no exception. Two of the males had bright blue bikes, the other had a white bike and the female had a hot pink bike. Bright frames with thick, matching rims and tires are the most desirable bicycle parts for teenagers nowadays. The three males wore similar cl

othing, tight fitting jeans as well as fitted T-shirts. One of them was wearing Nike SB's another was wearing Vans and the other had on some type of slip-on shoes. The girl was also wearing tight jeans and Vans and a white shirt. Like many other teenage cyclist, this girl had a unique haircut. She had a variation of a mohawk with designs cut into the sides of her head. As I observed this group of kids I noticed that they started to drink alcohol (of the 40 oz. variety) and also smoking marijuana.

C.R.A.N.K Mob has become almost sacred to a lot of cyclist and they show their love and respect for the ride by dressing up in costumes. Since this was the two-year anniversary of C.R.A.N.K Mob people dressed as they would for Christmas because this month' s theme was C.R.A.N.K-mas. The people that were dressed in costumes were the easiest to pick out of the enormous crowd so I observed them. There were numerous males

 and females wearing Santa clause hats. Others

 wore more attention grabbing costumes such as these guys (it's easier to show them than try to describe them). There was also a guy who had a full body suit that seemed was made out of blue spandex. These three guys seemed to be the more popular riders as they were surrounded by more people. They dressed in a way that would cause attention and they certainly received tons of attention. For most of the time that I watched them they seemed to be talking to groups of people. They occasionally drank from their beers while they were conversing with their friends/ acquaintances.

Bicycle culture is influenced by numerous factors and the people that are 

part of this culture follow what is considered to be normal just as in other cultures. "Culture is s

een as having its own specific meanings, rules and practices which are not reducible to, or explainable solely in terms of, another category or level of a social formation," (Barker 9). Bicycles have grown in popularity in the past year and are becoming 'cool'. As Jacques Derrida argues in "Differance", the meanings of words have several meanings and never have a final definition, so what is cool to one

 person might not be cool for another person. So

 there are other reasons as to why the popularity of bicycles has grown. Materialism and capitalism are at work in bicycle culture, in Los Angeles, now more than

 ever. Owning a bicycle was once just a personal preference, but now it is becoming a norm and a commodity because of materialism and capitalism. As Karl Marx believed, "commoditizat

ion is the process associated with capitalism by which objects are turned into commodities. The surface appearance of goods sold in the marketplace obscures the origins of those commodities in an exploitative relationship," (Barker 13). That is,

 bikes can now be easily sold therefore becoming easily exploited for profit in a capitalist system. Since bicycles are now in mainstream popular culture, materialism is responsible for people's desire to own the most expensive, and flashiest bicycle.

The trends that most cyclist follow or try not to follow are dictated by popular culture. Prior to the rise in popularity of bikes, cyclists were part of an underground culture. This culture was also once considered counter-cultural, but now it has become a dominant culture. I decided to focus more on people's appearances and the type of bicycle that they rode because it is more characteristic of popular culture as well as materialism and capitalism. Since most of the cyclist that showed up to C.R.A.N.K Mob showed up with friends rather than lovers, I did not focus on much on romantic relationships. However, from my observations, I realized that many of the riders were with close friends. The meaning of love is ambiguous, so friendships are considered a form of loving relationships. Though friendship is not the same as love between two people it can still be part of radical romance. There were outgoing people as well as laid back and quiet people that got along well. Friendships do not rely on love, but people still feel love for their friends.

Works Cited
Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice Third Edition. Sage Publications Ltd, Thousand Oaks, CA 2000.
Derrida, Jacques. "Differance"