密
级：
学校代码：10075
分类号：
学
号：20120645
文学硕士学位论文
《欲望都市》中的消费文化研究
学位申请人： 杨洋洋
指导教师：
张金霞 教授
学位类别：
文学硕士
学科专业：
英语语言文学
授予单位：
河北大学
答辩日期：
二〇一五年五月
Classified Index:
CODE: 10075
U. D. C:
NO: 20120645
A Dissertation for the Degree of M. Arts
A Study of the Consumer Culture in Sex
and the City
Candidate: Yang Yangyang
Supervisor: Pro. Zhang Jinxia
Academic Degree Applied for: Master of Arts
Specialty: English Language and Literature
University: Hebei University
Date of Oral Examination: May, 2015
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Abstract
Abstract
Consumer culture penetrates every corner of the world under the influence of globalization,
making our era have the unique characteristics and problems of consumer society. The second
half of the twentieth century is a crazy consumption period for many American middle-class
families. The Americans’ expenditure on entertainment and leisure activities has been doubled
since 1980s, and many rich Americans have put conspicuous consumption to a new climax.
However, American people during this period are not happy and they are pessimistic about the
future of consumption.
The story of TV series Sex and the City is based on the novel with same name written by
Candace Bushess, which is a collection of her personal paper column articles. It has received
accomplishment widely since 1998 when it was firstly broadcast and caused a crazy love for the
show in the whole world. Many scholars both in China and abroad have done a lot of researches
on it from different perspectives. This thesis aims to analyze Sex and the City from the unique
perspective of consumer culture under the guidance of Jean Baudrillard’s consumer society
theory. In his book Consumer Society, Baudrillard argues that everything in life can be viewed as
commodity, and the meaning of consumption has been shifted from material to culture and spirit.
The American consumption style in Sex and the City obviously manifests this feature. It conveys
the idea that one’s success can be manifested by consumption. The characters in Sex and the City
display their values and lifestyles through a lot of consume behaviors, which obviously reflects
consumer culture.
This thesis consists of three parts. The first part is the introduction, which presents the
concept of consumer culture and consumer society, and summarizes previous studies on Sex and
the City. The second part is the main body of this thesis, which includes three chapters, each
chapter analyzes the consumer culture elements embodied in Sex and the City from material layer,
institutional layer and ideological layer separately. The third part is the conclusion. In consumer
society, consumer culture emphasizes material consumption and hopes that people can get a sense
of satisfaction through the possession of materials. It completely weakens the traditional thrift
moral standard. At the same time, it is also the materialization of lifestyle, which lures people to
I
Abstract
conspicuous consumption and displays their purchase ability of extravagant commodities. In the
process of chasing fortune, the whole America has become a “winner takes all” world. People are
addicted to the fashionable clothing, fabulous apartments, automobiles, clubs and other various
conspicuous consumption.
Key words
Sex and the City consumer culture conspicuous consumption
II
hedonism
摘
要
摘
要
在全球化背景下,消费文化渗透到世界的各个角落,并使我们的时代产生了独特的消费
社会的特征与问题。20 世纪后半叶是美国中产阶级家庭疯狂消费的年代，20 世纪八十年
代以来美国人的娱乐休闲消费支出增加了一倍多,美国富人把炫耀式消费推向了新的高潮。
然而,这个时期的美国人并不感到幸福,许多人对消费前途感到悲观。
电视剧《欲望都市》内容框架是是根据坎蒂丝·布希奈儿所写的一本同名书籍为基底
而拍摄。此剧自从搬上荧幕以来,受到广泛赞誉。在世界范围内刮起了一阵《欲望都市》的
狂风,国内外的学者也对此部作品做了很多相关研究。本文在消费社会理论的帮助下，从消
费文化的视角对《欲望都市》作一番解读。让·鲍德里亚德在其著作《消费社会》中提出
生活中的一切都是消费品，消费的意义从物质渗透到文化和精神上。而《欲望都市》中的
美式消费明显体现这一特征，它所灌输的消费理念是个人的成功通过金钱上的花费来实现，
财富是通过购买商品来体现的，剧中的人物用大量消费行为来展现自己的价值观和生活方
式，明显体现了消费文化。
本文由三部分组成。第一部分：导论。这部分首先对消费文化和消费社会进行简要介
绍,界定现代消费文化的范畴,并就国内外学者对电视剧《欲望都市》的研究进行总结,然后
引出本文主题,即分析《欲望都市》中的消费文化。第二部分为正文,包括三个章节，分别
从消费文化的物质层面,制度层面和思想层面进行解析消费文化在欲望都市中的体现。第三
部分为结论, 在消费社会中,消费文化强调物质消费并希望通过物质的占有来使人们得到
心理上的满足,它完全削弱了勤俭节约的传统道德标准。同时,它也是一种生活方式的物化,
它鼓励消费至上,诱导人们炫耀性的消费，从而展示人们对奢侈消费品和消费的购买能力。
在疯狂追求财富的过程中,整个美国变成了弱肉强食的世界,人们充满了对时尚服装,豪宅,
轿车,高档酒吧等各种炫耀性消费方式的无尽欲望。
关键词
欲望都市 消费文化
炫耀式消费
III
享乐主义
Contents
Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction·················································································· 1
1.1 An Introduction to Sex and the City··································································· 1
1.2 An Introduction to Consumer Culture and Consumer Society···································· 3
1.3 Literature Review························································································ 6
1.4 The Significance of the Study·········································································· 7
Chapter 2 Commodities with Sign Value in Sex and the City ·································· 9
2.1 Clothing-Sign of Identity·············································································· 10
2.2 Automobile and Apartment-Sign of Social Status················································· 16
2.3 Body-Sign of Beauty··················································································· 20
Chapter 3 Conspicuous Consumption in Sex and the City······································ 25
3.1 Luxurious Consumption
············································································ 25
3.2 Extravagant Consumption············································································· 30
Chapter 4 Hedonism in Sex and the City····························································34
4.1 Self-Indulgence························································································· 37
4.2 Pleasure-Seeking························································································40
Chapter 5 Conclusion···················································································43
Works Cited·································································································45
Bibliography································································································ 47
Acknowledgements························································································ 50
IV
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Introduction
Introduction
1.1 An Introduction to Sex and the City
TV series Sex and the City is a famous American television romantic sitcom based on
Candace Bushnell’s provocative bestselling book and directed by Michael Patrick King and
produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 to 2004, the original run of the show includes 94
episodes. Throughout its six-year run, the show receives contributions from audiences, critics,
producers, writers and directors.
The show follows the lives of a group of four women: three in their mid-thirties and one
in her forties. They are attractive, fashion-obsessed and successful in their careers. They are
depicted as well-paid, well-dressed and sexually gratified in the show. Despite their different
natures and ever-changing sex lives, they remain inseparable and confide in each other and
experience their joys and sorrows in the pursuit of love in the desire city--New York. Carrie
Bradshaw is the backbone of the TV series, and also the narrator of the show. Each episode is
structured around her train of thought while writing her weekly column “Sex and the City” for
the fictitious newspaper the New York Star[1]. She is dating different types of men in pursuit
of her Mr. Right and wondering whether marriage is her ultimate destination. Samantha Jones
is an independent businesswoman with a career in public relations. She is confident, strong,
beautiful, outspoken and the oldest and most sexually confident of the foursome. She is
described as the one who does not believe in the Republic Party or the Democratic Party, but
just believes in parties, a particularly enthusiastic advocate of hedonism. Charlotte York, a
classic over-achiever and perfectionist, is hopelessly romantic and a believer in true love and
soul mates. Miranda Hobbes is a career-minded lawyer with cynical views on relationships
and men, who believes the idea that career women can live a life what they want to be without
men’s involvement. The four main characters talk about many bold social issues such as
sexuality, safe sex, promiscuity, and femininity while experiencing the differences between
friendships and romantic relationships. The series receives both commend and criticism for its
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
subjects and characters. Sex and the City draws people’s attention to fashion trends,
discussion on sex and sexuality. Moreover, if randomly go over any entertainment magazines
or clip any entertainment channels, people will find that the mass media is sparing no effort to
discuss all the fashionable items appears in Sex and the City. Obviously, it has become a rare
cultural phenomenon of America. Indeed, Sex and the City enjoys a great fame since it has
made its debut. Over the six seasons, its viewers throughout the whole world in Asia,
Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Canada. Few TV series have had such an impact on our
contemporary culture as Sex and the City.
Although the show has been aired for continuous six years, the producers have high and
strict requirements for the show. The investment of the show is enormous, being illustrated by
an example of clothing--the expenditure for the costumes of four characters is more than ten
million and this never happens in the United States television history. The protagonists date,
dump, go shopping and work with so many high-rank outstanding guys, constantly lingering
among different carnivals and fashion shows. Numerous clothing, shoes and bags lead a
powerful fashion trend all over the world after the show broadcast. The show introduces a lot
of extravagant brands such as Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, Birkin, Prada, Chanel, Jimmy
Choo, Christian Dior etc. to audiences. In addition to that, the show also makes many
unknown brands famous overnight, such as Manolo Blahnik, which is a famous shoes brand
in Italy currently. The New York Times makes a comment that the United States women are
crazy to chase the luxury goods in Sex and the City, it has become the standard fashion wind
of the city. Many American women will be confused about the current fashion trend if they
have not seen Sex and the City. To some extent, it is a show about the Manhattan’s elite life
and their consumption attitude to the whole of American life. The producers attach great
importance to the script, audience rating and audience response. They keep the frequency of
one episode per week so that they have plenty time to reckon the audience response and
conceive interesting plot to make sure that each episode is attractive. The show was followed
and discussed both at home and abroad under its strong cultural diffusion. Just type “Sex and
the City” in Google, one will find more than 60,000,000 items. News of the World comments
2
Chapter 1
Introduction
that Sex and the City is a show that worth exploring; BBC says we were boomed by the
extravagant brands in the show; UK Daily Post reminds audience that while simulating the
characters in Sex and the City, please check the space of your wardrobe and the limit of your
credit card; USA Today says that on the surface it is about sex and deep down it is about
feelings, Chicago Tribune says it is a romantic fairy tale story about the pursuit of love in the
desire-driven city; Los Angeles says the smart women in Sex and the City are not afraid of
facing the feminine characters and embracing their desires; Detroit Free Press says that smart
women have the right to enjoy fun; The New York Times comments that there is plot, soul,
fashion and food..., what else are you looking for. [2]P8-9
The four main characters in Sex and the City all hold the opinion that they can get a
sense of self-satisfaction through consumption, and conspicuous consumption is one of the
most important standards to manifest their existence value. Their consume behaviors have the
characteristics of irrational and passivity, such as Carrie would spend 40,000 dollars on shoes
and does not have deposit for an apartment. This distortion of consumption urges them
continue to pursue new consumer products to satisfy their desires. Behind the transient
pleasure brought about by consumption lies the spiritual emptiness and people still face the
threat of being materialized in consumer society. The TV series is set in the 1990s with
consumer society as its background, during which people enjoy a lot of modern convenience
in their daily life. They go shopping nearly everyday, and everything is the object that can be
consumed in consumer society. The loss of traditional value and the prevalence of hedonism
makes people live in a spiritual wasteland. This thesis makes a study of the consumer culture
in Sex and the City from the perspective of Jean Baudrillarde’s consumer society theory is a
currently trendy point of view.
1.2 An Introduction to Consumer Society and Consumer Culture
The modern American economy is built on the basis of consumption. From this point, we
can say that American culture is the culture of consumption. In America, the formation of
consumer society is accompanied with the appearance of mass production of capitalist
industry and commerce, which is characterized by the prevalence of Fordism.[3]P53-55 It is
3
河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
universally acknowledged that America has long been labeled as a consumer society. In
American history, consumption has been constantly practiced and encouraged. Hence it has
become the defining component of American national character. However, researches of
American consumer society, whether books or articles about this subject are diverse, and
there is no universally agreement about this topic.
In Consumer Society in American History: A Reader, Glickman defines that it is “a
rather stale view of the history of America’s consumer society: it appeared briefly in most text
books as a phenomenon emerging alongside mass production in the 1920s; it then reappeared
in the same texts as part of the discussion of post-World War II affluence[4]P7 Some scholars
agree that when the first of Henry Ford’s Model T Automobiles was produced through the
way of the assembly line, the moment of consumer society started, and soon the era of mass
consumption came in the wake of mass production. Then it was in the 1960s that a new type
of mature consumer society came into being--people consumed for the purpose of keeping up
with the Joneses and used their possessions for the announcement that they are “somebody”,
hence they are more likely to make comparisons with those celebrities and stars. Since 1970s,
America enters a new stage of consumer culture, in which people consume commodities that
would embody their individuality, social status, personal taste and personality. As a matter of
fact, people establish an individual identity through consumption and create a unique image
through what they wear and what they own. “Spending becomes you” is a popular saying
among the American middle class.
The earliest discussion about consumer culture is supposed to trace back to Thorstein B.
Veblen’s theory of conspicuous consumption. In the book On the Leisure Class published in
1899, Veblen explains “conspicuous consumption” like this: “ in order to come to prestige in
the society, the leisure class not only consumes the costly articles in a conspicuous way, but
also sends valuable gifts out and holds grand banquets as well as parties to prove how wealthy
he is.” [5]P20Veblen also points out in any class, such kind of conspicuous consumption would
be popular among the public as long as there is a fear of being discriminated by what he
consumes happening. Furthermore, Veblen also explains the reason why the conspicuous
4
Chapter 1
Introduction
consumption has the power to bring fame to consumers is that such consumption fashion is
involved in luxurious and extravagant element that displays the economic position of the
consumers. The major purpose of consumption lays not in the practical and survival demand
as well as pleasure, but in showing off their treasure, status and identity. In this way, the
symbolic meaning of consumption surpasses its practical meaning.
Due to the restriction of production of commodities and the Protestant ethic, consumers
mainly purchase goods to meet their physiological and basic survival needs before the 19th
century. By the turn of the 19th century and the 20th century, the expansion of capitalist
production that is supported by the widespread embrace of scientific management and
“Fordism” make the social goods abundant and turn the mass to consumers through
advertisement and other media. The First World War breaks out in 1914 and lasts to 1919,
resulting the unbalanced economic and political development in the capitalist world. After the
war, the world structure is re-divided by the capitalist countries. People’s way of life has
changed from then on. They begin to hail the new shopping and consuming modes of
installment and credit purchase, which is the milestone of new consumption age, not only in
the United States but also around the whole world. In 1970, Jean Baudrillard, a French
philosopher, cultural theorist and sociologist writes The Consumer Society: Myths and
Structure, which is one of the first comprehensive studies on the process and meaning of
consumption in contemporary culture. He holds the opinion that it is the consumption that
drives the development of consumer society. Jean Baudrillard connects social alienation with
signs and consumption, arguing that in connecting the masses with numerous luring signs, the
new consumer society creates an insatiable desire for goods. Consumers are actually
consuming signs while buying good. The consumer society creates a far more sophisticated
system to control and manage consumers through the shifting from the consumption of
commodities to the consumption of signs.
According to Jean Baudrillard’s consumerism theory, modern life is manipulated by
consumption. Consumption is not for pleasure, but for production; not of individual but of
collective. Once people are involved in consumption, it can no longer be an isolated behavior.
5
河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
Then people enter into a comprehensive productive exchange system that put cultural value
into commodities, where all the consumers try to identity themselves through consumption
and inevitably relate to each other. The value dominates the society so strongly that no one
could escape from it, of which people are harder to get rid than the previous age.
Most economists agree that the United States is a consumer society. A significant part of
consumer culture is an emphasis on lifestyle and using material goods to attain happiness and
satisfaction. Consumer culture can help drive the economy by encouraging people to spend
money. In consumer-oriented culture, people view consumption as necessary needs for
happiness, and during times of economic recession, this perceived need can encourage
consumers to spend. Nevertheless, consumer society offers us convenience, prestige and
prosperity, while it also has negative influences that makes people feel frustrated, helpless,
and anxious at the same time.
With the rapid development of the economy, consumer culture has become the
mainstream culture in American society regardless of individual’s income. Americans are
struggling to maintain the most decent life, which is also called consumerism advocated by a
lot of manufacturers, advertisers and the mass media under the guidance of "American dream".
Goods is not only used to meet the needs of the public’s daily necessities, but also becomes a
kind of social symbol. It represents the consumer's identity and status. And the main consume
value of the American individual has been shifted from advocating thrift and diligence of
Puritan thought to promote fashion, extravagant and luxurious goods.
1.3 Literature Review
Sex and the City has caused significant cultural phenomenon, and has aroused various
cultural studies about the show. Sex and the City has been researched from various
perspectives since its publication. The research covers the feminism, women’s talk, female
images, female friendship, textual criticism and so on. However, there has no systematic
study about the consumer culture reflected in the show.
Foreign articles and books about the study of Sex and the City can be traced back to 1996.
Because the show involving a wide range of topics, the study of Sex and the City exists in
6
Chapter 1
Introduction
various fields. The study fields various from urbanology to medical science, from sociology to
economics, from media studies to linguistics studies. Cultural studies of Sex and the City are
emerging constantly. The main study directions can be summarized as follows:
The first type mainly from the perspective of feminist comments, it speaks highly of Sex
and the City and confirms its effort to the expression and practice of feminism doctrine, such
as Meaning-making Strategics of Young Women Watching Sex and the City written by Marta
Axner in 2006[6] ; Third Wave Feminism written by Naomi Rockler[7]; Women’s Liberation :
Looking back, Looking forward written by Carol Rockier and so on[8]. These articles view Sex
and the City as a successful TV show that reflects the feminism proposals and emphasizes the
value of free choice of female in modern society.
The second type is also from the perspective of feminism. However, it holds a negative
attitude towards the feminism and the gender politics that Sex and the City advocates. The
critics argue that the show does not reflect the consciousness of feminism and it even
acknowledges the patriarchy-centered rules, such as the paper named Sex and the City: a Sign
of Women’s Liberation written by Virginia Brown in 2008[9]; It’s still Sexism written by Ariel
Levy[10]; Classism and Sexism in Sex and the City written by Cenny Pink[11]. They criticize
that the show weakens the social gender conflicts and avoids social problems intentionally,
such as gender oppression, domestics violence that females are still faced with, male and
female income gap and other problems.
The third type is from the perspective of gender and receptional aesthetics to discuss the
resistance and dissatisfaction that male hegemony holds, such as Sexism and the City written
by Ramin Seroodeh[12]. These articles argue that Sex and the City apparently aims at men, and
the male characters are described as either indifferent to amorous feelings or a total jerk in the
show. There is also the study of gay culture in Sex and the City from the gender analysis
perspective.[2] P11-14 However, the study about the consumer culture in Sex and the City is not
so much and there is still much space to explore.
1.4 The Significance of the Study
From the literature review above, it is obvious to notice that with the development of
7
河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
literature criticism, Sex and the City should be restudied in a new way. Culture influence
should not be ignored, especially the typical of the consumer culture in the show. The
background of the show is a period that the whole country’s mania for materials and
consumption breaks out with the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization. Sex
and the City reflects and records this phenomenon. Thus, consumer culture should be adopted
correspondingly to analyze the show to guide people establish rational consume behaviors.
Female characters in Sex and the City view the acquisition of self-satisfaction by consuming
as one of the most important standards to express their personal existence. It is through
consumption that they define their feminine temperament. Extravagance, luxury and fashion,
to a great extent, is more outstanding, prominent, noticeable and attractive than the four single
protagonists’ stories in the TV show.
The significance of the thesis is that it can be considered as the first thesis of Master of
Arts studying Sex and the City as well as the first one to study it from the perspective of the
consumer culture. Analyzing Sex and the City from the perspective of consumer culture is of
great importance to have a general understanding of the tendency of modern consumer culture
in China and its sound development. There is still a long way to go to deepen the study and it
will serve as a guide to people today in China.
8
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Commodities with Sign Value in Sex and the City
Commodities with Sigh Value in Sex and the City
People attach individual identity, social status, wealth, prestige and other abstract status
symbols to various concrete commodities in consumer society. People’s consumption of
goods gradually evolves to the consumption of images or signs that commodities possessed.
In the process of consumption, consumers put so many emotions and feelings to the goods,
which makes the consume behaviors become an emotional experience and have cultural
associations. Baudrillard is the founder of the consumer society theory. He describes western
consumer society as follows:
There is all around us today a kind of fantastic conspicuousness of consumption and
abundance, constituted by the multiplication of objects, services and material goods,
and this represents something of a fundamental mutation in the ecology of the human
species. Strictly speaking, the humans of the age of affluence are surrounded not so
much by other human begins, as they were in all previous ages, but by objects.[13]P25
He points out that, except that the use value and exchange value that commodities
possessed, they also have the sign value, which is formed by advertisements, packages of
product, brand images and other broadcasting tools. Sign value is an expression and mark of
specific cultural meaning, such as one’s style, prestige, luxury, power, etc. Unlike
commodities which carry exchange value, for Baudrillard, objects in the modern cultural
system carry sign value as well. Baudrilliard defines sign value as the meaning connected
with the commodity or service instead of the actual item. As far as he concerns, the goods that
consumed have a cultural significance that go beyond their utilitarian character or commercial
values. The commonplace of sign value becomes an indispensable constituent of goods. This
significance consists largely in their ability to carry and communicate cultural meaning. In
capitalist society, consumption is a process in which only the signs attached to goods are
actually consumed. Hence commodities are valued and understood as processing a meaning
that is determined by their position in a self-referential system of signifiers. As Baudrillard
argues, individuals seek various commodities as signs of social prestige, position, and so on.
9
河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
In consumer society, people’s consumption toward commodities more and more intending to
the consumption of sign value or images of goods. For example, the buyer of a Rolls-Royce
limousine might partly value the automobile as transport, yet might also value it as a sign that
signifies his or her wealth to a particular community and to society in general. The
automobile’s transport-function is primary, from which arises its use-value, whilst the social
prestige function is secondary, from which arises its sign-value.
Consumption is a cultural universal, a necessary aspect of human existence, a practice
that has constituted a prominent part of social life in all societies throughout human history. It
is universally acknowledged that consumer society comes into being during the second
industrial revolution, which frees labor force from heavy physical work to efficient mental
work. With the mass produce of goods and influence of advertising propaganda, consumer
culture exists in every corner of the world. Thus making the consumer culture prevalent in Sex
and the City. People’s lifestyle is manifested by their economic force and purchasing ability
in consumer society, or in other words, their consume of commodities. The author of this
paper only chooses the most representative items in Sex and the City to analyze the
characteristics of consumer culture.
2.1 Clothing -Sign of Identity
There are many episodes in Sex and the City showing that the protagonists regard
consumption as a way to assert their existence. Many phenomena in Sex and the City embody
the characteristics of American consumer culture. Plenty of plots and setups in the TV series
can prove that women’s living condition and working status have been changing
tremendously after the 1970s. The four heroines, who have their own jobs and represent a
large number of American middle-class women, can be viewed as the most appropriate
example for the analysis of consumer culture. It is a common scene in the show that the
protagonists frequently sit in an upscale restaurant to dine and chat, go shopping, go to clubs,
travel or relax in a beauty salon after work. It is no exaggeration to say that the characters
view shopping for fabulous outfit and throw some much-needed money to malls as their
patriotic duty that they have to finish this obligation. Shopping makes them feel expensive.
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We can even say that “They shop, therefore, they exist”. Recognizing these general facts, it
leads us to conclude that consumption is transformed from a functional activity of women
into a form of leisure.
At first, the function of clothing is simple, people use it to meet their basic need of
covering bodies. Gradually, as consumption culture emerging and expanding, people’s
choices of clothing are associated with cultural meaning and clothing exist as a significant
way of decoration to display people’s identity and individual preferences, especially these
luxury and extravagant ones. As Marx points, the practical applicability of the commodity has
cast off and substituted with the connotation of identity, prestige and so on. In today’s
consume-oriented society, advertisements or product manufactures do their best to encourage
people to purchase luxurious goods and services in ever-greater amount. As Thorstein Veblen
points out in his book The Theory of the Leisure Class that:
It is true of dress in even a higher degree than of most other item of consumption, that
people will undergo a very considerable degree of privation in the comforts or the
necessaries of life in order to afford what is considered a decent amount of wasteful
consumption: so that it is by no means an uncommon occurrence, in an inclement
climate, for people to go ill clad in order to appear well dressed. [5]P102
The above content describes a common phenomenon that in order to maintain his or her
social status or draw others’ attention, he or she would spend much money on unnecessary
commodities, for instance, expensive and fancy clothes. In Sex and the City, there are many
scenes about characters wearing fabulous clothing to attend various extravagant parties or just
to draw male’s attention. It is a prevalent phenomenon in consumer culture that clothing has
become a window through which a person’s background can be seen or inferred by what he
wears. From this perspective, it is reasonable that people put so much emphasis on the
consumption of clothing, and the minute one gets money or gets promoted or in a bad mood,
one would probably turn to purchase new beautiful clothing. Women’s clothing, of course,
except implying social status, usually has the function of displaying a sense of elegance,
charm and beauty. In Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw makes every endeavor to buy the
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most fabulous clothing even when she was in a difficult economic situation that unable to
make ends meet. So do her friends. Women with this consumption attitude can be easily
found in America. These women work very hard for the purpose of earning more money,
buy more fashionable and expensive clothing and show off their identities, so as to escalate
the social status and integrate into the upper society. The enjoyment brought about by
consumption has become the mainstream in people's lives, of which their happiness and
satisfaction are mainly embodied in possession of materials. Sarah Jessica Parker, the one
who acts as Carrie in the show, once terms fashion “the fifth character” in the series. Patricia
Field, Costume Designer of the TV series for Sex and the City, has once remarked the formula
she uses is an equidistant triangle. One point of the triangle is the actor, another is the
character, and the third is the wardrobe. Each of these points caters to the script.
In Sex and the City, the director presents to audience a vivid and genuine American
consumer society. Every individual in the show is deeply influenced by consumer culture
that they even take consumption as a personal therapy. In the episode of the The Perfect
Present, Carrie is having a stable relationship with her boyfriend Jack Berger, whom she loves
very much and intends to take a further step. Carrie points out that in every relationship, there
comes a time people would take the next important step. The following is the dialogue
between the two:
Berger: Do I look all right?
Carrie: Do not worry, they will love you.
Berger: I just want to make the right impression.
Carrier: They’ll love you, because I love you.[14]
When the audiences see this scene, normally, they would think that Carrie is bring her
boyfriend to meet her parents or friends. However, out of imagination, she brings him to a
Prada store and says that the next important step is meeting Prada. Carrie is familiar with
every staff in the store, so we can sense that she is a regular customer to this extravagant shop.
It reflects the truth that in the consumer society, people pay more attention to the sign value of
the commodities than the utilization themselves. Brand image is the typical exhibition of
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product’s sign value for it is no longer just the name of a product, but has become a special
sign to express the certain characteristics that a product possessed. It has both satisfied the
consumers’ material and spiritual needs. As a sign, famous brand will ensure high quality and
show the class and credibility of the products, hence bringing a sense of compliment, even
envy from other people and becoming a sign of identity to define who you are and which
class you belong to. Here Prada represents success. Furthermore, we can say that it has
become an expression of Carrie’s spiritual needs, a kind of lifestyle, life attitude and part of
her life part. Clothing is no longer designed and purchased for warmth or its other
fundamental usages. On the contrary, it is a symbol of social status and identification.
In the episode of The Real Me, when Carrie comes across her old friend Lynne Cameron,
who is a much sort of after-fashion show producer and invites Carrie to a fashion show that
she is doing currently. The show is about a mix of models and New York people with style,
and Lynne thinks no one is more New York or has more style than Carrie. At first, Carrie
refuses her suggestion due to the reason that she is a writer and thinks that she does not
belong to a runway and cannot stand people’s judgmental eyes. Then she calls Lynne and
turns the invitation down. Lynne says that “And as much as I would like to think, Carrie,
you’re in or you’re out, I don’t have time for this. I'm sure Dolce & Gabbana can find
someone else to dress.” The moment Carrie hears Dolce & Gabbana, her eyes sparkles and
accepts the offer immediately as long as she can keep the outfit. Carrie wears these fabulous
clothing, such as Channel, Gucci, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana etc., to express her taste or even
lifestyle. In the episode of Evolution, Carrie is falling in love with Mr. Big, who breaks her
heart many times in the show. It is the first time that she has experienced the heavenly
pleasure of love. When Mr. Big gives Carrie an exquisite purse as a gift, she slips out the three
words “I love you”, and she expects to hear the same sentence from him. However, Mr Big
reacts stunned for a moment, pretends he did not hear it and says “You’re welcome”, which
makes Carrie furious, and her relationship is at a standstill. If Mr. Big doesn’t say “I love
you”back, she has to break up with him. Under this circumstance, she decides to go shopping
and evolves her look by purchasing many extravagant clothes. However, under these beautiful
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
clothes, it is not difficult to find her inner frustrations hidden behind the thrill of material
pleasure. To Carrie, it seems that her best option to escape from the desperate emotions is to
step into the paradise of material desires. It is through the possession of the materials that
Carrie achieves a sense of fulfillment and spiritual comfort unavailable in emotional life. The
behavior of consumption helps her to run away from the dissatisfied reality and the uncertain
future. The truth is that she can never find emotional comfort and internal satisfaction by
escaping the truth and looking for false need.
Carrie’s self-esteem inflated wearing these superior quality dresses. Carrie’s experience
tells us that individuals resort to dressing for evidence of their existence and self-identity in
the consumer society. Plus, she is not the only person who finds her self-identity in dressing
fabulous clothing. These clothing bring her a sense of replenishment, a sense of well-being,
security and contentment. This kind of consumer culture has certainly invades the individual
mind, creating a sense of unsatisfied needs.
Besides the clothing, Carrie also spends most of her income on the shoes. Carrie once
says to her friends during a normal chat that if she dies alone when she is old and in her tomb
she would write “Here lies Carrie, she had two lovers, and lots of shoes,’’ Even though it is a
joke, we can still draw the conclusion that Carrie is crazy about shoes and she cannot resist
the impulse to buy them. It would be a torture for her if she takes a fancy to a perfect pair of
shoes and cannot own it. We can even describe Carrie as “ a shoe mania” in the show.
In one episode when Carrie’s fiancé Aidan lives together with her, due to the apartment is
a little small, Carrie has to make some room for Aidan’s stuff. Aidan suggests re-organizing
Carrie’s wardrobe. In the process of organization, Carrie keeps telling her boyfriend to be
careful with the shoes and says that “I have laid out clean towel on the floor in the bathroom.
Gentle places the shoes and boxes on them.” Even though she has already brought those shoes
for a long period, she still views them as apples of her eye. Aidan asks “How many pairs of
shoes one person need?” Carrie answers, “That is not the way to get out of this life.”
Apparently, no matter how many shoes Carrie possess, the regularly ones she wear are totally
limited. Her shoes have become her soul-mate, which bring her confidence and
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self-identification. As for shoes, her favorite brand is Manolo Blahnik.
There is a classic scene reflects Carrie’s crazy about Manolo Blahnik. In the episode of
What Goes Around Comes Around, when Carrie on her way to shopping, she gets mugged by
a robber who not only takes her bag, but also loots her Manolo Blahnik shoes. In the
beginning, she does everything what the robber says and gives him everything he requires.
Then he requests Carrie to take off her shoes and hand them over. Carrie says “What? No,
please, sir, they are my favorite pair. I got them half price at a sample sale.” Carrie would
rather hurt by a robber than sacrifice her Manolo Blahnik. The shoes have become her spirit
guide. Carrie also says that shoes are always more important than bread. She once says: “a
pair of 10 center meters high heel shoes are insurmountable temptations! I can live without an
apartment, but I can not survive without shoes.”Once Carrie wears high heels, she never
expects to take them off during her lifetime. “Standing on high heels, I can see the whole
world”, shoes have much deeper meaning for Carrie and make her more confident. Therefore,
consumers are more inclined to buy things that can display their individual preferences and
state their identity.
In the episode of Bells of the Balls, Carrie gets her new job in one of the most relevant
and provocative magazines on the newsstands today, at least to her--Vogue. After Carrie
finishes printing her first article in Vogue, her editor Julian asks how she would like to
celebrate:
Julian: How do you celebrate?
Carrie: By buying shoes and purses.
Julian: In that case, have you ever heard of the Vogue accessories closet?
(then Julian take her to the accessories closet, where various famous brands of clothing
and shoes are displayed)
Carrie: Oh, my God! It’s too good! I'm sorry, but it’s....it’s too good!
Julian: You’re just like a kid in a couture candy store.
Carrie: This is too much! How can this be? (in an extremely exciting voice)
Oh, my God! Do you know what these are? Manolo Blahnik, Mary Janes. I
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
thought these were an urban shoe myth. These are authentic patent leather. And
if they don't fit, so help me, I'm gonna wear them anyway. [14]
Carrie acts like a little kid who is in a candy store the moment she sees this magic and
powerful wardrobe. She enjoys the pleasure of wearing those shoes, even though they do not
belong to her. She would spend hundreds of dollars just for a pair of shoes; however, she had
to borrow money from her friend in order to pay the deposit of her apartment. She would
admit that she knows little about men, but she would never agree that she know nothing about
shoes. For her, a fancy pair of shoes would erase the all the unpleasant feelings and bring her
a sense of confidence, which reflect her identity.
2.2 Automobile and Apartment-Sign of Social Status
Automobile brings great changes to our life. It's more than something happens to the
transportation industry, which provides facilitates to people’s lives, but also causes a
revolutionary reform in economy. The mass production of automobile lowers its unit price,
making it affordable for the average consumer, which in the end develops into a significant
part in American business and commerce. Automobile has become one of the America’s most
enduring consumer products. Although Fordism is a method used to improve productivity in
the automotive industry, it also widely applied to any kind of manufacturing process, and
changes the course of capitalism. The establishment of the consumer culture is a result of
excessive productions produced by manufacturing and free allocated salaries, plus the
appearance of credit card and installment also contribute to it. Automobile industry is the best
example to illustrate consumer culture and plays an important role in its formation.
The usual transportation vehicles are carriages and city-trains during the early 1900s.
Lifestyle of the public in America experiences a world-shaking change since the appearance
of Fordism. The manufacture of automobiles, the newly-applied installment, the common
spread of credit card and the propaganda of advertisement make automobiles no longer
restricting to the higher class, but reachable to common people. The possession of an
automobile becomes an achievable dream to most Americans. Automobile, standing for
freedom, power, equality is promoted in a famous Chevrolet advertisement, attracts every
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potential customers, especially females. However, due to the strong and persuasive
advertisement and the high price, luxury cars, such as Cadillac, Rolls-Royce, become a
symbol of social status.
In the show, Carrie is entangled with Mr. Big, whose name is eventually revealed to be
John James Preston, in a tumultuous, on-and-off-again relationship. He is the reason for many
of Carrie's breakdowns as he never seems ready to fully commit to her. He is once-divorced
by the time the series opens and is a prominent businessman and an aficionado of jazz and
cigars. At the end of first episode of the TV series, Carrie intends to walk home at first since
she cannot get a taxi in the middle of the night. However, Mr. Big appears in his fabulous
automobile with his private driver. Through this scene, we can have a brief understanding
about his social status. Automobiles not only used to facilitate people’s daily life, but also
have much deeper meaning with social status.
In the episode of The Big Time, when Samantha moves to her newly purchased
apartment and meets her new neighbor Len, who is much older than her, has a huge crash on
her. Normally, Samantha would ignore this type of man, but Len is a rich man with certain
social status. During dinner time, Len asks Samantha whether she has been in a Cadillac
Eldorado, then he starts to show off his car. “Those babies are smooth. They have buttons for
everything, there is even a button to adjust my lumbar”. For Len, Cadillac is more than an
automobile. The car represents himself and brings him a sense of confidence and security.
The luxurious car makes him proud. It is naturally to draw a conclusion that the conspicuous
consumption of automobile is more than a daily necessity but an expression of one’s social
status.
American consumer culture has the power to reflect individuals’ identity and social
status. To some extent, it even reflects the morality and integrity of a community. This could
be sensed through various consumption behaviors, ranging from something dazzling such as
automobile to usual and common apartment.
Just as automobiles, apartments have close connection with one’s living condition, which
is especially significant in consumer culture than in other culture. Where and how you are
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
living not only signify who you are, but also show how people will judge and treat you. The
location, decoration and size of the apartment can reflect people’s social status to some extent.
Apartment, as a place where people lives and carry on daily activities, provids people not only
with a shelter, but also a sense of belonging and warmth. It can distinguish one’s character
from anyone else’s. The decoration of the apartment can tell others about the owner’s taste,
his family background, the social class. Apartments are objective witnesses of history, in
which human desires are displayed.
After having her baby, Miranda intends to buy a larger apartment for the purpose of
creating a better environment for the baby to grow up, but she cannot afford a bigger one in
Manhattan district where she currently lives. Then her husband Steve suggests that they could
buy a villa in Brooklyn District.
Steve: Listen to his one, in our price range, “Three bedroom”.
Miranda: I am putting my shoes on.
Steve: “Outdoor space”
Miranda: I’m getting my bag.
Steve: “Finished basement.”
Miranda: it’s a house?
Steve: In Brooklyn.
Miranda: Okay, shoes are off. Steve, we’re not moving to Brooklyn. I am a Manhattan
girl. I don’t like anything not Manhattan. Brooklyn, I can’t even say it, let
alone live in it. My friend would not visit me if I live in Brooklyn, besides,
even cabs don’t go to Brooklyn.[14]
The moment Miranda hears Steve’s suggestion of moving to Brooklyn, she thinks Steve
must out of his mind. She lives in Upper East Side of Manhattan, where is notable for having
the most expensive residence. On the contrary, Brooklyn is home to many homeless people
and notorious for the bad public order. If Miranda could keep the location of her apartment in
Manhattan, she would still have the strong belief that she belongs to the upper class. To
Miranda, an apartment in Manhattan is not just a house to live, but speaks for who she is and
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which social class she belongs to.
In the episode of All or Nothing, Samantha invites Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda to her
newly purchased apartment for a house-warming. Samantha and her friends talk about the
meaning of life and which kind of lifestyle they should choose: the traditional one or the
pleasure-seeking oriented one.
Samantha: Ladies, we have it all, great apartments, jobs, friends, and sex...We can have
quiche delivered and eat it too .At my age, my mother had three kids and a
drunk husband.
Carrie: You just have three drunk friends.
Samantha: My choice.
Charlotte: Having it all really means having someone special to share it with.
Samantha: Please. That’s so barney.
Charlotte: I'm sorry. My life wasn’t complete until I met Trey.
Samantha:Do you see us, Manhattan? We have it all. [14]
As far as Samantha is concerned, whether a person success or not based on how much
material things he or she possess. To Samantha, the fact that she can afford her own apartment
in Manhattan instead of renting one means she is a successful woman. Her two greatest loves
in life are sex and real estate. Here, the apartment itself has two dual nature: apartment itself
and symbolic meaning. When Samantha buys the apartment, she is overwhelmed by the
symbols of success. And the sign value of the apartment is all Samantha looks for. The sad
truth is that apartment itself doesn’t succeed in producing fulfillment, which just shows
Samantha’s spirit emptiness and loneliness. It is in this same episode that Samantha lives in
her own fabulous house and catches a cold. She is in desperate need of a man to fix the
broken curtain rod in her apartment. The irony is that she almost calls everyone in her black
book and no one shows up. Samantha discovers that it is easier to find a guy to screw her than
one who'd screw in her curtain rod. It is at this moment that Samantha feels a sense of
loneliness and says to her friend Carrie that “I should have got married. Then at least I'd have
a curtain that closes. Oh, Carrie, it doesn't matter how much you have. If you don't have a guy
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who cares about you, it all means shit.” Samantha realizes her spiritual void cannot be
compensated through meaningless sex and material possessions.
Samantha and her friends boast leisure and carefree time to experience all the
entertainments they could have. The series details them so much through the high society in
New York, mingling with wealthy socialites and dating powerful investment bankers or
corporate executives. In a typical episode, they will shop at upscale boutiques, dine in fancy
restaurants, sip expensive wines, and receive dazzling gifts. However, as a matter of fact, they
do not benefit from the various consumption and still feel emptiness and loneliness.
2.3 Body-Sign of Beauty
As America has entered the consumer society, women’s social roles has changed
accordingly. They could not only compete with men for the same post, but also win higher
social position accordingly. The females frequently attend social activities, attach importance
to their social status and identity, which can be sensed by their consuming powers and
activities at the new age. It is an age that women have the same equal rights as men. Women
begin to fight for their unprecedented freedom. Without doubt, this freedom also consists of
the release of the sexual desire they had been oppressed for a long time. It is more obvious
that the more men around, the more attractive a woman is. As a result, women pay much
attention to their looks.
According to Jean Baudrillard in Consumer Society, “in the consumer package, there is
one object finer, more precious and more dazzling than any other --and even more laden with
connotations than the automobile, in spite of the fact that that encapsulates them all. That
object is BODY.[7]P130From this point, we can conclude that in a consumer society, one’s body,
can be sold or traded as a commodity, which can not only satisfy one’s natural sex desire, but
also symbolize one’s beauty, social status and power. This can be illustrated in one scene in
Episode5, Season1, when Carrie is shopping in a famous Italian shoes store Dolce & Gabbana.
Nevertheless, she cannot afford it due to the extremely high price, just at that time, her friend
Amalita shows, and insists on buying the shoes as a gift for Carrie, Amalita says that, “You
can pay me back never, besides it is on Carol, his family owns this gigantic ranch in
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Argentina”, Carol is the man she is dating. Amalita is depicted as Euro-trash in the series.
However, her life was a blur of rich men, designer clothes and glamorous resorts. She does
not actually work for a living, yet possesses a dazzling sexual power that she exploits to her
full advantage. By selling her body to wealthy men and trading for money and extravagant
lifestyle, Amalita earns much better material life than those conventional women. As
Baudrillard points in Consumer Society, “ body becomes the most beautiful among all the
consumer goods, so everyone takes care of their bodies so as to manipulate their bodies as the
signifiers of their social status.”[14]P132
In Sex and the City, women’s roles as the consumer goods are demonstrated more
directly and obviously. In the show, one of the main characters Samantha’s unending pursuit
of consumption is no longer limited to traditional things, such as clothing, jewelry, apartment,
expensive restaurant, or club. Far beyond material things, it also includes things which are
deemed as the sign of beauty or the personal wealth such as sexuality by American Culture. In
today’s society, sexuality is not only connected with everything offered for consumption, but
it has also become a kind of consumption. From Samantha’s casual and meaningless sex in
every episode, it is highly evident that sexuality has also been commodified.
The four women characters in Sex and the City all regard the satisfaction of sex as the
main component part of their life, among which Samantha is the most representative one. She
is in pursuit of the freedom of enjoying her body at every moment. Even one of her best
friends Charlotte describes her vagina as “the only forever open place in Manhattan”,
Samantha keeps dating different men and for her, there is only one purpose of all the
filtering--the satisfaction of sexual desires. She views her one night stand as the necessary
three meals a day. Samantha never ashamed of talking about her sexual desires. In her opinion,
“this is the first time in the history of Manhattan that women have had as much money and
power as men, plus the equal luxury of treating men like sex objects.” In one scene, after
Charlotte finishes her date with a guy she meets in a restaurant. Even though she adores the
man very much, she refuses to spend the night in his house and thinks it would be an insult to
her pure love. The irony is that the man says to Charlotte in the end that: “Look, l understand
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
where you're coming from and I totally respect it. But l really need to have sex tonight.” And
that night, that man goes home with his sex partner-Samantha.
Samantha never talks about love or feelings once she gets involved in a relationship, and
all she demands is amazing sex. “If anyone understands the importance of sex, it is me.”
Samantha never relies mentally on man who wants to stay with her. Among all the men she
has dated, Richard Wright is a special one. Richard is a successful businessman. In fact, he is
so rich that he almost can get anything he wants. If the mood strikes him, he will fly to Rio
with somebody, have dinner on the jet, wake up in Brazil and spend the weekend in his
five-star hotel. He and Samantha have something in common, that is they both like to sleep
around and never consider settling down for someone special. At first, their relationship is all
about sex. As the series develops, they start to care about each other and become emotionally
attached. However, Richard cheats on her once and this makes Samantha feel anxious. From
then on, she has the trust issues and cannot believe him any more. At last, Samantha breaks up
with Richard out of the fear that he might make her heart broken again and she will spend the
rest of life worrying whether he is betray her or not. Sex is no longer the symbol that connects
the pure relationship between man and woman in Sex and the City. On the contrary, it has
become a commodified item in the consumption-oriented society. When Carrie sleeps with a
dreamy French architect then he leaves a thousand dollars in her bed, she consults her friends.
“Money is power. Sex is power,” Samantha argues. “Therefore, getting money for sex is
simply an exchange of power.” Samantha believes that sex can be purchased by money and
one’s beauty is one’s most important capital.
Moreover, in this modern consumer society, women’s body as a consumer product is
mostly presented in media, advertisements and fashion shows. In order to attract attentions
from customers, many advertisements spare no energy to create “perfect images” and
broadcast it as far as the mass media can reach. Beautician every woman has become being
the counterpart of the designer and stylist in the business sphere. And those who are not in
conformance with such perfect image, feel like they have been abandoned by the society and
were treated as the abnormal ones. Women do their best to adjust the shape of their faces,
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spend large amount of money on makeup to care their skin, adopt to surgery to enlarge their
bosom and lose weight in order to achieve the perfect image, even resort to extremely
methods to make their legs slim and straight.
Charlotte: In some cultures, heavy women with moustaches are considered beautiful.
Miranda: We should just admit that we’re living in a culture that promotes impossible
standards of beauty.
Carrie: Yeah, except men think they’re possible!
Carrie: I just know no matter how good I feel about myself, if I see Christy Turlington,
I just want to give up.
Charlotte: Eh....I hate my thighs. I can’t even open a magazine without thinking
“Tights,tights, tights.”
Carrie: I’ll take your chin and raise you a.....(point to Samantha’s nose)
Samantha: What? I happen to love the way I look.
Miranda: You should. You’ve paid enough for it. [14]
The scene of the above dialogue is that the four characters having a heated discussion on
the standard of beauty in which each one intends to express their own views respectively.
Miranda hits the nail on the head about the unsatisfactory truth that women are live in an age
that promotes impossible standards of beauty which was set by men, which implies that in
order to meet these so called “standards”, women have to undergo countless cosmetic
surgeries. To these ladies, beauty is nothing more than the sign material being exchanged. It
functions as sign value. Charlotte comes from a well-to-do family and is equipped with
graceful manners and etiquette. In most male’s opinion, Charlotte is beautiful and sexy.
However, she still not satisfies with her body. In fact, she hates her tights so much that she
would not even show them in the public bathroom. Samantha is the oldest one among the
foursome, which sometimes makes her anxious. In one scene, when Samantha sees a woman
whom at her age but looks much younger than her, this make her freaks out. She immediately
makes an appointment with a cosmetician. In order to fresh up her face and make the skin
look smoother, Samantha would use Botoxto, which is a substance that is injected into the
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
face, and suffer the danger of being disfigured. Her anxiety comes from the fear that she
might lose her sexual glamour. For Samantha, beauty has become an absolute, religious
imperative. Being beautiful is no longer an effect or a supplement to moral qualities. It is the
basic, imperative quality with she takes the same care of her faces and figures as she does of
her soul. We can conclude that in today’s consumer society, beauty is still a very important
characteristic for female from the above analysis. As a result, modern women are occupied in
shaping a perfect beautiful body as best as they can to draw male’s attraction.
In conclusion, commodities are composed of dual nature: material composition and sign
value. The basic nature of material composition is formed when commodities are being
produced, but once again sign value takes shape in the process of remove goods from the
market and integrate them into people’s daily. When Carrie Bradshaw and her friends
purchase these expensive and extravagant clothing and shoes, they also buy the added value
of the commodities, which is the social status and identity those commodities represented.
The sign value of commodities drives people into trying to rebuild their identity and social
stratum through consumption, and they accept the new consumption attitudes which
advocates desire, social status, fame and hedonism. In Sex and the City, the female characters
rush to equip themselves with fabulous clothing, extravagant automobile, expensive shoes.
We can sense from the TV series that consumerism is so prevalent that it manipulates every
aspect of our life. People often resort to shopping to define their social status, identity and
existence, such as the purchase of fabulous clothes, shoes, fancy automobiles and apartments.
The theory that commodities are possessed with sign value not only adds cultural means to
the products, but also means the purchase of commodities is not based on a necessary need
but on desires. In other words, only under the circumstances that people view the products as
something offering the probability of meeting their desires, can the consumer goods possess
the so call “sign value” potential. By doing this, consumers accomplish the process of
self-identification and self-expression.
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Chapter 3
Conspicuous Consumption in Sex and the City
Conspicuous Consumption in Sex and the City
As has been mentioned in chapter one, the term conspicuous consumption was
introduced by the economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen, in the book The Theory of the
Leisure Class: An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions in the 19th century, to
describe the behavioral characteristics of the new rich social class who emerged as a result of
the accumulation of capital wealth during the Second Industrial Revolution. It is then
narrowly applied to describe the men, women, and families of the upper class who use their
abundant wealth as a means of publicly manifesting their social power and prestige. The
economic growth brings about changes in tastes and preferences, thus changes people’s
consumption attitude. Moreover, urbanization has resulted in shifting consumption pattern
away from traditional food commodities to processed and high value commodities. The
heroines in Sex and the City choose the conspicuous consumption to show their daily lifestyle
and social position. Besides, both the wide spread of consumer credit and the influence of
mass media promote conspicuous consumption in the consumer society. The term
“conspicuous consumption” broadly applies to the men, women, and households who possess
the discretionary income that allows them to practice the patterns of luxurious and
extravagant consumption according to their own choices. They consume goods and services
for the purpose of display their social status publicly, rather than the intrinsic, practical utility
of the goods and the necessary of services. The conspicuous consumption can be divided into
two types, to be more specific: luxurious consumption and extravagant consumption in Sex
and the City.
3.1 Luxurious Consumption
What is luxury goods? In terms of economics, luxury goods are goods that demand
increases more than proportionally as income rises. It is in contrast to the necessity goods.
Luxury goods are often synonymous with superior goods and veblen goods. Superior goods
have the following characteristics: a good that must be scarce and, along with the scarce, it
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
must have a high price, while veblen goods are named after the sociologist and economist
Thorstein Veblen, who proposes the thory that expensive goods are in demand because they
can manifest the buyer’s high social status. In the 21st century, the significant improvement of
technology makes the material standard of living is unprecedented higher than any previous
ages, not only in American, but also the whole world. Thus making the luxurious consumption
becomes one of the major characteristics of the consumer society.
The world presented in Sex and the City fills with luxurious consumption. Luxurious
consumption is the spending of money on and the acquiring of luxury goods and services to
publicly display economic power — either the buyer’s income or the buyer's accumulated
wealth. Sociologically, to the rich consumer, such a public display of discretionary economic
power is a means either of attaining or of maintaining a given social status.
In Sex and the City, the director sets many examples of luxurious consume behaviors
for the audience. Carrie Branshaw is a typical one in the show that she almost spends all of
her incomes on the fashionable and expensive clothing, handbags, accessories, and especially
shoes. Carrie utilizes the most luxurious and expensive meals, wines, cigarettes, and so on. In
one scene, when Carrie is shopping with her friend Miranda in a shoe shop. She compares the
shop to water and herself was desperately thirsty. Carrie’s income is relatively higher than the
majority of American middle class women. She is being offered four dollars a word at Vogue.
Nevertheless, she still cannot afford an apartment in New York, even the bank clerk says that
she is an unatttractive candidate for a loan. Carrie asks her friend Miranda where does her
money go? The following is the dialogue between the two:
Carrie: Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink. This is torture. Why are you
doing this to me? I can’t buy shoes .Where did all my money go? I know I’ve
made some.
Miranda : At $400 a pop, how many of these do you have?
Carrie: A hundred? Would that be wrong?
Miranda: 100 times 400, there’s your apartment’s down payment.
Carrie: I spent...$40,000 on shoes...and I have no place to live?
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I will literally be the old woman who lived in her shoes.[14]
Carrie spends most of her money buying these expensive and fabulous shoes. As a result,
she doesn’t have any savings to purchase the apartment she has rented for a decade. She pays
much of her attention on the look rather than buy some practical items, such as an apartment.
Shoes, to Carrie, have more deep meaning than daily necessities. It is an expression of her
self-identification, or something to boast, to attract man’s attention, thus, the impact of
conspicuous consumption explicated in her is especially deep and profound.
In the majority of the Americans’ value, income is a sign of success. People do their best
to make money and equipped themselves with high income for the purpose of flaunt their
success under the impact of competitive individualism and material first ideology. In this way,
luxurious consumption becomes a symbol of social position. People spare no efforts to make
money no longer just to make both ends meet but also show their social success and position.
In such society, people respect wealthy men who are in possess of abundant materials. People
show off their wealth and their dignity by means of competing against each other in shopping
and purchasing expensive, top grade and luxurious commodities in order to make themselves
seem to have more prestige, value and honor.
In the episode of the Caste System, Miranda invites her boyfriend Steve as her date to
attend the annual meeting of her law firm:
Miranda: Saturday, my firm is having its annual meeting thing. I was wandering if you
think the bar could spare you, you could be my date. I warn you, it will be
totally boring. You probably should wear a suit.
Steve: So it's gonna be a big fancy affair.
Miranda: You do have a suit, right?
Steve: Sure, I do. It's really nice. It’s gold.
Miranda: It’s gold?
Steve: Yes, corduroy. [14]
In the show, Steve is a bartender and his whole life is based on the tips that guests give
him, so he doesn’t earn as much as Miranda does. The couple has different background and
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
education. Miranda goes to Harvard, while Steve almost never attends any college. Steve
claims that he owns a corduroy suit, but to Miranda, corduroy is nothing like a suit and the
two are totally different things. Later Steve takes Miranda to his apartment and she is shocked
by what she see. The apartment is so tiny that it can barely hold one person. Then Miranda
gets the chance to see the so called "gold suit", which hanging in his little closet. As far as
Miranda is concerned, a person’s clothing have the magic power, that is to say, it can reflects
which class he belongs to or what social position he occupies. Miranda will never allow her
boyfriend to wear such a suit to go to the party with her. She is afraid of that Steve might
embarrass her in front of all her colleagues. After thoughtful consideration, Miranda decides
to take Steve for shopping.
Miranda: What do you think?
Steve: I think it’s frighting how good I look in. It’s a beautiful suit.
Miranda: I think we should take it. Also the shoes.[14]
The sad truth is that these suit and shoes are totally out of Steve’s reach. He cannot
afford such fabulous things. Steve has to use his credit card, his check and some cash, all
together three means just to pay for that outfit so he can keep up with Miranda’s social status.
Shopping makes Steve feel expensive. Steve’s self-esteem bloats during the shopping process.
Steve’s experience tells us that people incline to buy luxurious goods to prove their existence
and self-esteem in consumer society.
In the episode of Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda, Carrie and her friend Samantha are window
shopping at a handbag store:
Samantha: Look at that one, isn't it adorable?
Carrie: Which one?
Samantha: The red one in the middle. I love it!
Carrie: The Birkin bag? Really? That’s not even your style.
Samantha: Honey, it’s not so much the style as what carrying it means.
Carrie: It means you’re out $4,000.
Samantha: Exactly. When I'm tooling around town with that bag...I’ll know I’ve
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made it.[14]
Samantha would like to spend $4,000 only to buy a bag which is even not her style.
Though she sets her minds on buying it, the bag is a limited edition one in the market and she
has to wait at least five year to get it. This is also one of the major characteristics of luxury
goods, even though consumers have money, they cannot buy it because of scarcity. Once
Samantha determines on getting something, she would resort to every conceivable means. So
in order to get the Birkin, she lies to the salesman about her occupation and says that she is
the press representative of Lucy Liu, who is a famous Hollywood star and the Birkin is for
Lucy Liu, not for herself. Finally she gets the bag as she wished but was fired by Lucy Liu.
Utility was the first factor when it refers to the nature of commodity. However, Samantha puts
more emphasis on the sign value, which is the symbolic meaning, than the utility of the
commodity itself. In her opinion, if she can afford a $4000 handbag one day, it means she has
already become “Somebody” in New York. What she buys is not the handbag itself, but the
pleasure, satisfaction, higher social status and joyful that accompanied the consuming.
The four main characters have great enthusiasm abut shopping in Sex and the City. They
often get together spend lots of money to proceed all kinds of consume behavior and discuss
the consumption process with pleasure and build their consumption based on the love of
luxury. They wear different clothing at different times for different occasions and enjoy the
pleasure brought about by luxury goods. Sex and the city contains a lot of advertisements,
commodity information, and consumption desire. The characters buy various luxury goods,
from fashionable clothing, bags accessories, make-up products, magazines, perfume, to
electronic products, household goods, and other kinds of goods and services. Luxurious
consumption has become one of the main consumption patterns in consumer society. The
show introduces a lot of fashion labels such as Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, Birkin, Prada,
Chanel, Jimmy Choo, Christian Dior etc.. In addition to that, the show also makes many
unknown brands famous overnight as well as, such as Italian shoe’s label Manolo Blahnik.
There are numbers of details to describe Carrie’s Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik shoes.
Besides these labels, Vera Wang, Marc Jacobs, Burberry, Gucci, Marni, Norma Kamali Lame,
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
D&G, etc. also welcomed by the four characters. These brands are perceived as luxurious
simply because they represent one’s social status and the purchasing of these goods tend to
signify one’s economic power. Nevertheless, behind the happiness caused by creature comfort
lies in the protagonists’ disappointment and frustration. Happiness plus luxurious
consumption becomes a type of signifier and the signified is the doubt and discontent to
reality, the panic to the uncertain future. Characters can achieve a sense of security and
spiritual consolation through the possession of these fashionable items, but this consolation
provided by material enjoyment is just transitory, or even illusory. Consumers’ consumption
need are in a constantly changing and developing state. The minute old needs were satisfied,
the new needs emerge. People will once again fall into despair if they cannot meet the new
needs. Luxurious consumption put women in false satisfaction under the cover of happy
shopping.
3.2 Extravagant Consumption
The high speed of science and technology makes new inventions emerging in abundance
and the new inventions could be timely apply to industrial production, which greatly promotes
the economic development of American society. Western world had been undergoing
profound transformation through stimulating economy by means of consumption, that is,
encouraging consumption in replace of controlling consumption. In this way, the increase of
wages promotes peoples’ potential to spend, which makes the extravagant consumption
available.
In episode two, Carrie breaks up with Mr. Big, when he leaves New York for a work
secondment to Paris and does not show willingness for Carrie to accompany him or continue
a long-distance relationship. Carrie is heartbroken and some months later she runs into Big at
a party in the Hamptons; he is accompanied by his 20-something year old girlfriend, Natasha,
whom he meets in Paris. Despite this, Carrie attempts to be friends with Big, however this
goes away when he tells her that he and Natasha are getting married. In the episode of Attack
of the 5’10” Women, Carrie comes across Natasha while shopping in a dress store. Natasha is
young, beautiful and coming from a wealthy family, and more importantly she has Mr. Big.
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All the above things make Carrie jealous of her. Natasha is buying some clothing for a
luncheon held by a charity origination called “Women in the Arts”. Out of nowhere, Carrie
says she goes to that luncheon every year and she will be there too this year. Carrie wants to
show her best appearance in front of Natasha. For the purpose of grand debut, Carrie has a
religious experience at Manolo Blahnik and buys an extravagant pair of shoes that she can
barely afford.
Carrie: Do you think they make the right statement?
Charlotte: What statement do you want them to make?
Carrie: I’m beautiful, powerful and don’t care you’re only 25, and married my ex.[14]
For Carrie, the Manolo Blahnik is a form of religion, and paying visits to Manolo
Blahnik is just like taking religious rites at a church. Unfortunately, no matter how confident
Carrie is, the minute she sees Natasha, the confidence just blows away. Nevertheless, she
hopes that the Manolo Blahnik has the magical power to equip herself with confidence and
with the height of heels are almost high enough to put her face to face with Natasha. Through
the process of extravagant consumption, Carrie achieves a sense of security and fulfillment.
Carrie models her entire wardrobe and votes everything for the luncheon. Clearly, Carrie’s
outfit, besides manifesting social status, usually achieves a sense of elegance and beauty.
However, in the end, Carrie finds out that she only makes a fool of herself by purchasing the
expensive shoes and charging another outfit she cannot afford, even bouncing a cheque to
charity just to prove she is more amazing than Natasha. Because Natasha gets a cold and she
never shows up for the luncheon. In consumer society, people always want to prove
something or achieve some certain goals through extravagant consumption, be it wealth,
prestige, social status or just personality, like Carrie does. They are addict to a vicious cycle
because they fail to realize that extravagant consumption only brings them temporary pleasure
and countless bills in the end. Carrie’s consumption behavior is not just to meet her basic
needs, but also in the constant pursuit of desires that are difficult to satisfied. Carrie represents
the majority of American people who are influenced by consumerism and portrayals
extravagant consumption as an important part of their happy life and platform of social
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
discourse. False need continues enlarging people’s consumption expectations. It does not
bring freedoms, on the contrary, makes people’s sense of satisfaction in a constantly extended
state for consumers are guided by continuously innovative lifestyles. We can summarize
Carrie’s lifestyle through the following formula: unsatisfactory of actual needs (the belonging
of love) → extravagant consumption → appearance of newly false needs → extravagant
consumption. Carrie’s needs will never be satisfied in this vicious cycle.
In consumer society, every class intends to choose the popular lifestyle of the class
above them as their big goals so they spare no effort to be much closer to it, Samantha is a
represent one. There is one scene in the TV series vividly describes this kind of emulation.
There is a pool from Samantha’s apartment and she can not get in due to the fact that the pool
is so fabulous that everybody in the apartment hopes have access to the pool. Samantha has
waited for two months in the waiting list and still she was forbidden to enter the pool. This is
unacceptable to Samantha, especially when it is in August, the hottest month in New York.
And she is desperately expects to sit by the pool and drinks cocktails. By chance, there is a
woman named Annabess who is a member of the extravagant swimming pool and loses her
card in the bathroom. Samantha grasps the opportunity immediately and claims herself as
Annabess by using her lost card. Samantha even invites her friends coming to the pool. While
she is having a good time in the pool, she has to fake Annabess’s British accent as well so that
she would not be found by other people that she actually does not belong to this group.
Samantha totally loses herself in the world full of cocktail. With the age of affluence and
abundance, people are more intend to lose themselves in the city that full of desires. In the
end, Samantha was thrown out of the swimming pool party ruthlessly and was forbidden to
step the pool forever.
American women have great enthusiasm about shopping and their role as consumer
seems almost a natural one--a role captures in the phrase, women are born to shop.
Consumption is coded as a female pursuit, frivolous and even wasteful, a form of leisure
rather than productive work. In turn, consumer identity obscures woman’s important
contributions to economic and social life. In such locutions as “Mrs. Consumer” and “born to
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shop”, women are viewed as the creator of consumer culture. In Sex and the City, it was
difficult to find scenes where characters are interacting without simultaneously consuming.
For instance, Carrie is always smoking a cigarette while writing. She talks to her friends over
meals at nice restaurants, and she goes to bars and clubs with her dandies. Sex and the City is
a celebration of bourgeois sentiments, with its characters drifting in and out of various
capitalist outposts to find new and exciting ways to consume.
In the show, when Charlotte is making preparations for her wedding ceremony, she
shows interest in a beautiful 1300 dollars plate in a bridal registry department. Even though
her husband Trey comes from a wealthy doctor family, he has to make a loan to buy these
plates. At first, Trey disagrees with the idea of buying the plate, but Charlotte begs him again
and again. In order not to let his wife down, Trey promises to pay for the plate and consents
her extravagant consumption. In Trey’s opinion, it is just a dish that serves for foods or fruits
and he would never spend 1300 dollars for such a thing. On the contrary, Charlotte holds the
opposite idea that the plate is so special as if it were made for her. The plate is denoted with
much deeper meaning for it stands for her taste, her artistic value, even her lifestyle. Just a
glimpse of the plate, people will know her education background and her social status. When
the plate was used in the table, people may envy her. Charlotte even breaks up with a man
because he has different tastes of china with her.
The four leading characters’ garment and item quantity is over thousands. In the show,
Carrier’s boyfriend reminds her that her new shoes worth 2000 dollars, but she says that “but I
need them, you know” in an innocent voice. “A woman without a decent handbag is like
naked”, says Carrie, this simple sentence outlines the women obsessive conspicuous
consumption situation. Carrie says: “money decides your taste; you can never expect a 25
dollars hat has the same value of 2500 dollars.” In the show, extravagant consumption can be
vividly illustrated by holding fabulous parties and inviting distinguish person to the parties. In
season one, Carrie’s boy friend Mr. Big takes her to a cocktail party at the home of Sarian
Bush, who is an upper east side hostess famous for her husband’s money and has a close
friendship with Tina Brown. When Carrie enters the room, she sees a room that full of women
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
clutching their bejeweled swan, kitten and asparagus purser. It is at this moment, Carrie
realizes she and Mr. Big belong to totally different castes, their friends belong to different
social classes and Mr. Big’s caste is much superior to hers. Then the waiter asks them if he
can get something for them to drink. Carrie says she wants red wine. But the waiter says” Ms,
Bush doesn’t serve any brown food or drink, they only serve something clear.” The hostess is
trying to show her upper social status by the food she served in the party. Carrie feels
uncomfortable at the party where people are judged or criticized by what they wear or what
drink. However, it is a common and prevalent phenomenon in consumer society that people
are more intend to display their prestige through superfluous, unlimited, extravagant
consumption. The intention of consumption is not only to meet the genuine need, but also
gratify one’s desires and wants. The idea “you are what you consuming” dominates the whole
society and people are more or less affected by it.
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Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Hedonism in Sex and the City
Hedonism in Sex and the City
As has been mentioned in the previous chapter, America was experiencing a booming
national prosperity in the 1980s, which profoundly changed the social, economic and cultural
landscaped of the whole nation. Economically, America has shifted from heavy industry to
consumer goods, from Fordism to Post-Fordism in production and from production-oriented
society to consumption-oriented society. At the same time, changes in consumer attitude have
been shifted from the traditional thrift ideology to modern hedonism. It is acknowledged that
consumption could meet people’s diverse requirements and needs. In turn, it is the manifest of
human desires and human nature, which also have negative impact on the whole society. It is
through the tortuous consumption of clothing, shoes, apartments, automobiles and bodies, the
fetishism and alienation of consumption, all together three factors make people plunge into
existential crisis and question the very value of their life, leading them to confuse about their
identities, struggling in the paradox between material desires and traditional values,
undergoing the gradual disappearance of charm, elegance and refinement. The four female
characters in Sex and the City have a living for enjoyment and pleasure which could be called
hedonism. They pay much attention to their individual feelings and the material enjoyment
always come first. It is through luxurious, extravagant and superfluous consumption that
makes them feel they exist, that they are truly alive.
Hedonism is described as an ethical system that evaluates the pursuit of pleasure as the
highest goal and believes that happiness is the purpose of life. People who believe in
hedonism depend on the material pursuit to fulfill the spiritual pleasure, and thus become the
slavers of material. The United States, as a newly emerging and booming country after the
First World War, gradually forms the concept of consumer culture that is hedonism-oriented.
It is consumption-oriented and worships money and shatters the concept of Puritan spirit into
pieces. The modern popular hedonism concept replaces little by little the traditional lifestyle
of “ Labor First, Enjoyment Second”. The prevalence of hedonism has made the traditional
production-oriented society shifted gradually into a modern consumption-oriented society by
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
taking the installments and credit card as the main consumption pattern. In the end, the
consumption-oriented society came into being in the western world in every aspect of life
after the Second World War. Goods that were used to regard as luxuries by the lower class in
the old times have then escalated as the necessities.
Hedonism regards the acquisition of pleasure and enjoyment as the highest priority in
life. Having fun is all that counts. The hedonistic mood came prevailing among Americans
throughout the nation after the Second World War. Daniel Bell in his book The Cultural
Contradictions of Capitalism argued that “ by the 1950s American cultural had become
primarily hedonistic, concerned with play, fun, display, and pleasure--and, typical of things in
American, in a compulsive way”.[15]P60As a matter of fact, the popularity and wide spread of
modern hedonism in America after the Second World War can be traced back to the following
factors: the rapid development of scientific technology, the expanding leisure, the massive
productions, and the rising individual affluence. Considering the root causes of hedonism in
modern consumer culture, Bell further explains that it is mainly generated by the capitalist
system itself. The capitalist class need to free individuals as well as individual desires from
the standard social requirements, therefore comes the establishment of mass consumption
economy, which requires the hedonistic ethic to help maintain the free flowing of
commodities in the marketplace. Thus, the traditional Puritan thrift spirit was replaced by
modern hedonism and consumerism. Pleasure-seeking is considered as good. People pay
more and more attention to the spending and enjoyment. Americans have addicted to
self-indulgences and pleasure-seeking activities. The fun morality has already replaced the
previous goodness morality. People’s free desires and endless wants were much more
emphasized then never before in American social values, besides, lifestyle has become a
catchy phrase rather than work itself.
Bell describes the world hedonism as that, “The world of hedonism is the world of
fashion, photography, advertising, television, travel. It is a world of make-believe in which
one lives for expectations, for what will come rather than what is. And it must come without
effort.”[15]P60 In this book, the nature of modern hedonism is clearly illustrated. Modern
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version of hedonism interacts with the consumer society in a unique and specific way since
consumer society is surrounded by overwhelming goods and consumers see commodities as
things possessed the pleasure of the fantasy life in concrete form.
4.1 Self-Indulgence
With the affluent resources and high wages, people’s attitude towards consumption was
greatly changed. The virtue of thrift was replaced by showy consumption. “Many Americans
began to define themselves not through their jobs, but by turning to other outlets like leisure
and consumption.”[16]P33The whole society was pervaded with a culture of hedonism and
materialism. Among which women’s life was influenced most. Advertisement has become a
booming industry, advocating the principles of pleasure and self-fulfillment, self-indulgence,
persuading people to welcome their new identity as a consumer. In order to keep up with the
Joneses and remain beautiful to attract men’s attention, women become crazy about
consuming. Shopping made its way into an enjoyable commercial activity. For young women,
the novel cosmetics, trendy handbags and luxurious jewelries are great appeals to them. An
advertising professional have given the essence of advertisements to consumers: “ Sell them
dreams. Sell them what they longed for and hoped for and almost despaired of having....After
all, people don’t buy things to have them, They buy hope--hope of what your merchandise
might for them”. In Sex and the City, four female characters’ life is filled with leisure, parties,
materialism and self-indulgence.
As television’s most daring and provocative comedy, Sex and the City concentrates on
depicting human sexuality and their pursuit of sensual pleasure like no series before. In the
beginning, women in Sex and the City are seen enjoying the pleasure caused by sexual
intercourse with a totally tolerant and positive attitude. In the total 94 episodes of Sex and the
City, the women all together had 101 sexual encounters according to statistics.[17]P100 In the
opening episode, Samantha strongly recommends her friend Carrie to have sex without
emotional attachment or feelings. She states her opinion about sex and men as that women
have as much money as men and they have the ability and capital of treating men like nothing
more than sex objects. This is Samantha’s individual value and she sticks to it by having
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
meaningless sex with lots of men without inner feelings. She is a successful New York PR
executive and she has been called as “sexual predators” and Samantha’s friend Carrie says
that she has the kind of self-deluded confident that causes men like Ross Perot to run for
President for her and finally it usually gets her what she wants. Samantha even calls herself as
“trisexual”, which means she will try on anything once. As for Samantha, the only thing she
cares about is whether the man has a perfect body to meet her sexual needs. She even has sex
with the delivery guy of her office building, a guy who she barely knows his name. When
Carrie grumbles about the conflicts caused by her boyfriend Aiden’s cohabiting with her,
Samantha says that in order to avoid endless quarrels and spiritually dependent on a man, she
never lives with a man and will throw the man out of her apartment immediately as soon as
she gets her climax. Samantha once has a fight with a guy over taxi and in the end she wins
over not only the taxi but also the guy on the taxi and enjoys good sex with him. Samantha’s
friend says that she practically sleeps with every man in Manhattan, at least half of them. In
the six seasons, she sleeps more than forty men, one woman, and numerous vibrations.
However, most of them treat her as a thing that can be discarded at any time and Samantha is
contented with her “special existence” to men. In the end of the work day, Samantha will go
to the bar and enjoy a smart cocktail herself. Once in a bar, she meets a mid-70s millionaire
named Ed. At first, Ed insists on buying Samantha a drink, but she refuses him since she
never dates seniors. Then Ed says “Can I buy you an island”, this sentence touches her heart
and stimulates her interests. Ed is vibrant, power, above all, he is extremely rich and generous
to Samantha. Ed can take Samantha to the most expensive restaurant in Manhattan without
reservation and he will hide some jewelry in a plate ahead to surprise Samantha when they
are having dinner. Ed is looking for someone to have a little fun and Samantha is the best
option for him as she is beautiful, sexy and loves his money. Samantha will stay in bed with
him so long as Ed whispers fantasies of dream vacations in her ear. It is easier for her to get
material satisfaction, but she can never find her mental peace by indulging herself into
meaningless sex. She cares for nothing beyond herself and she even resents children due to
their loud noises in a restaurant. Sex is the most efficient way for Samantha to fill the void.
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Seeking pleasure by indulging in sexuality is not only male’s priority in this modern
consumer society, but it is also female’s. In episode six, when Samantha set hers mind to do a
breast-enlarging operation for herself, unfortunately, she is diagnosed with breast cancer. It is
at this moment that she is aware of that she does need a man to care about her, to support her
and accompany her to share joys and sorrows.
Carrie is a newspaper writers of a column called Sex and the City. In episode one, when
Carrie and Mr. Big meet for the first time, Mr. Big asks Carrie what she does for a living ,she
describes herself as a sexual anthropologist, and she explains further at present she is writing
an article about women who have sex like men and afterwards they feel nothing. In order to
identity the feelings of having meaningless sex, Carrie sleeps with her ex-boyfriend Kurt
Harrington, whom she comes across in a restaurant. After gets her satisfaction, Carrie’s
voiceover says, “Kurt was just like I remembered, better, because this time there would be
none of that messy emotional attachment.” Carrie dresses up quickly with her ex-boyfriend
lying back on the bed, naked and bewildered. She leaves Kurt’s apartment feeling powerful,
potent and incredibly alive as if she owns New York, nothing and no one could get in her way.
As a matter of fact, Carrie does not know what she is looking for at that moment and lose
herself in this materialistic city and holds the opinion that if she can have sex without emotion
attachment and then dumps the guy without the judgment of traditional value, she can obtain
spiritual satisfaction. In episode six, when Carrie’s boyfriend Berger breaks up with her
through a post-it that says “I am sorry, I can’t, don’t hate me” and leaves her house in the
middle of the night. This makes Carrie furious and frustrated, her whole values shattered into
pieces and holds the opinion that relationship is a completely waste of time. Instead of loving
somebody who will never loves her back, Carrie decides to live her life according to
Samantha’s principle: just have sex with men, without emotional attachment. In order to do
something to unleash her bad emotions, Carrie suggests her friends that they should go
somewhere fantastic and have a fantastic time, then they go to a newly opened club called
“bed”, where Carrie notices some young people are smoking marijuana, this stimulates
Carrie’s desire of smoking weed stronger and stronger. She realizes what she need mostly is
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
cloudiness and wants to spend her life in an aimless and self-indulgent way since she is too
lucid in the facts of the days and night. In the end, she manages to get a marijuana and
smoking weed in the street, contemplating the fact that her relationship has gone to pot and
shouting loudly “Men are bullshit”. Carrie wants to escape the reality by indulging herself to
marijuana, which is not only illegal, but also harms her physical and psychological health.
In a society in which consumerist value prevails, human’s morality is falling and the
traditional value and spirit is experiencing crisis. Samantha and part of Carrie are searching
for something by indulging themselves in having meaningless sex and try to find a sense of
satisfaction and fulfillment. But they are looking for the false need and have no idea what
they really need. Hence there is no fulfillment for them. It will be a vicious cycle if they
continue to do so and finally they will get lost in such self-indulgence.
4.2 Pleasure-Seeking
As mentioned above, Sex and the City is a story of the economic life about the economic
effects on the American society. Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, Samantha all live an idle life with
various entertainment activities. They hold the thought that pleasure is the top priority or most
intrinsic good and they have the right to do everything in their power to achieve the greatest
amount of pleasure, as long as their actions do not infringe on the equal rights of others, and
they strongly believe that every person’s pleasure should far surpass their amount of pain.
Money and sex are intimately conjoined in Sex and the City. The numerous attempt of
the sexual description is to reveal that in the hedonism life of American middle class, money
and sex are the main means of self-realization. And sexual desires are an appearance of their
desires for wealth, which at last become the burdens and bondage of life. Samantha, one of
the main characters in Sex and the City, whose greatest love in life are sex and real estate,
routinely sleeps with good-looking guys in their 20s. She knows which hotel services the best
food, travels a lot, buys fabulous apartment, and has sex with various men who are much
younger than her. Hence we can say she is an active practitioner of hedonism. Most of her
time was spent on seeking pleasure, such as dating hot and handsome man. In turn, she is also
the victim of this hedonistic lifestyle. After the transient pleasure, she still loses in the endless
40
Chapter 4
Hedonism in Sex and the City
desires.
Fun morality prevails in consumer society. People’s free desires and endless wants are
more emphasized in American social values. Charlotte, the most conventional one among the
four characters, also fulfills various uncommon activities just for pleasure. She will satisfy a
shoes salesman’s shoe fetish and allow him to touch her feet randomly so long as she can get
free high heels; she even lies about her age for the purpose of having sex with a man, whom
she meets in a bus on a vacation to Hamptons and much younger than her. In her first
marriage with Trey, because of her husband’s impotence and cannot satisfy her sexual needs,
she cheats on Trey and has affair with a florist. It seems that her whole life is about the
endless pursuit of pleasure and she never satisfies with what she currently has. During the
process of crazy craving for commodity to explicit consumer’s identity and social status,
people in consumer society become fetishistic and are more easily manipulated by goods and
the relationship among them become the trend of materialization.
In season six, Carrie was invited to attend a baby shower, where every guest must take
off their shoes before entering the room for fear that brings outside dirt in the room. When the
baby shower is over, Carrie has been one foot out of the door, but her shoes have gone
missing and somebody has stolen her newly purchased Manolo Blahnik. Carrie tells her friend
that it is her legal responsibility to pay 485 dollars for the shoes, but her friends says that
“That’s crazy to spend much on shoes, but I don’t think I should have to pay for your
extravagant lifestyle.” Carrie’s request is totally reasonable, but she throws away their pure
friendship and forgets the social etiquettes just for a pair of shoes. In the end, for the purpose
of getting her shoes, Carrie tells her friend that she is getting married to herself, and her friend
buys the Manolo Blahnik for her as a wedding present. In consumer society, the relationship
among people is not as intimate as before. In contemporary American society, the growth of
material wealth is often accompanied with the lack of meaning and human suffering. Faced
with various commodities and temptations, people easily neglect what is most important to
them and things they traditionally treasured and relied on: thrift, love, diligence, honesty,
loyalty. On the contrary, plunge themselves into pleasure-seeking way of life.
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
In Sex and the City, Mr. Big, one of the main male characters, who is in a tumultuous,
on-and-off-again relationship with Carrie. He is the reason for many of Carrie's breakdowns
as he never seems ready to fully commit to her. Mr. Big is a representative individual of
consumer society, who has his own company, moves from one place to another, and is
depicted as the “next Donald Trump, except he's younger and much better looking” in the TV
series. He only smokes Cohibas, which is a famous cigar brand. His purpose of consumption
was a completely manifestation of his social status. Characters in Sex and the City live in a
commodities-drive society, motivated by money and status, turns to various consumer
activities to find the self-satisfaction and identity, to live a life they long for, however, while
enjoying the facility and comfort of the new lifestyle, people were depressed to find the social
indifference, chaos, and an anxiety of displacement.
42
Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Conclusion
Conclusion
Consumption has the function of reflecting consumers’ demands for identification and
differentiation. It is through consume luxury and upscale commodities of high sigh value that
people obtain a false identification with upper social position and a fleeting sense of
belonging. In the meantime, people lost their individuality in the pursuit of this mode of
identification, indulging in the false needs and fancies created by conspicuous consumption.
In a modern society full of material desires, consumption not just holds its practicability
of meeting people’s needs, but it is more of a social expression and connotation. The content
and means of consumption indicate and deliver certain information of the consumer, such as
one’s identity, social status, personality, wealth, prestige, interest, education background and
so on. As a result, in the process of consumption, consumers consume not only the commodity
itself, but also purchase the sign value it stands for. People are willing to spend higher price
for the same commodity because of the necessary of showing off identity.
In Sex and the City, the producer gives a vivid description about the characters’ spending
behaviors. Various characters in the show resort to luxurious and extravagant consumption for
peace of mind and consolation. In modern consumer society, the hedonism has replaced the
traditional thrift value. People do not believe in traditional value and adopt to the
self-indulgence and pleasure-seeking activities. Consumer culture makes Carrie and her three
friends desirous of dressing up beautifully just to make themselves more confident, identity
their existence and draw male’s attention. For instance, the purchasing of fashionable clothing
and shoes, fabulous automobiles and apartments, which people purchase not just because of
the utilities of those commodities; they also buy the sign value that commodities possessed.
The consumption behaviors, whether about clothing, automobile, apartment, body also
viewed a special commodity that can be used for trading, are all the symptoms to hide
characters’ fear, anxiety and depression deep down their heart. Some women plan to trade on
their bodies or love for some money to satisfy their material desire, such as clothing, purses,
shoes, even apartment. The consumption brings them a sense of vanity, thus consumer culture
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河北大学英语语言文学硕士学位论文
makes them consume for the sake of consumption. What they bought were not only the
commodities, but also something invisible that they were signifying. The upper class's tastes,
lifestyles, and preferences trickle down to become the standard for all consumers. The not so
wealthy consumers can purchase something new that will speak of their place in the tradition
of affluence. A consumer can have the instant gratification of purchasing an expensive item to
improve social status.
Everyone is a consumer and everyone participates in the activities of consumption in the
contemporary society. However, being consumer does not mean spending much money on
unnecessary luxurious, extravagant and expensive commodities, and there is nothing wrong
with being a consumer. Consumption is necessary for economic growth and human civilizing
and flourishing. But this flourishing is far more than having the bare minimum of food,
clothing and shelter. Human flourishing is about being surrounded by beautiful things in our
society, such as families, relatives, friends, affordable and meaningful recreation activities and
entertainments, having enough time for maintaining friendships, having a degree of security,
being grateful to everything, having opportunities for learning, exploring and creating. All of
the above things require consumption beyond what we need in the pure materialist sense.
In conclusion, the author of this thesis attempts to illustrate and analyze the panorama
reflected in Sex and the City that people are indulging in material desires and losing their
direction of life. America is a greatly commercialized country. There is no doubt that
consumer culture is an important part of American culture. The investigation of Sex and the
City from the effective and relevant approach of the consumer culture studies can promote us
to have a better understanding and appreciation of the current American consumer society,
which can provide people a perspective to notice and take precautions against the powerful
erosion of consumerism.
44
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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to these who have helped me during my
three-year postgraduate study at Hebei University.
First and foremost, my greatest gratitude goes to my thesis supervisor Professor Zhang
Jinxia, who is a respectable, responsible and resourceful scholar and assisted me to
accomplish this thesis. Without her constant guidance, enlightening instruction, impressive
kindness in every stage, it would be impossible for me to finish this thesis. Her knee and
vigorous academic observation will influence my further study.
My gratitude also goes to all my teachers who have helped me to develop the
fundamental and essential academic competence. Their intellectual excellence has always
been source of encouragement and inspiration for me. In addition, I would also like to thank
all my classmates and roommates, who have provided a free and serious academic atmosphere
around me.
Last but not least, my sincere appreciation also goes to my parents, their financial and
emotional support makes it possible for me to pursue postgraduate study. This thesis could
have never been finished without their ceaseless assistance.
50