Sarah Jessica Parker couldn’t help but wonder why her iconic “Sex and the City” and “And Just Like That” character Carrie Bradshaw has been “condemned” by audiences. Well, that’s just the gender bias for you.
The actress told HuffPost UK that Carrie being deemed an unlikeable female lead has more to do with fan reactions rather than the character itself. “It’s always interesting to me that [Carrie is] so condemned, but a male lead on a show can be a murderer, and people love him,” Bradshaw said. “If a woman has an affair, or behaves poorly, or spends money foolishly […] there’s a kind of punitive response to it.”
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The memes of Carrie eating Chinese takeout leftovers out of Natasha’s (Bridget Moynahan) fridge after having an affair with her husband, Big (Chris Noth), is just one of the many cringe Carrie moments that have gone hate-viral. However, Parker does welcome the discord to some degree.
“I ultimately think that all those feelings are pretty fantastic,” Parker said of the controversy and knee jerk reactions to Carrie’s choices throughout both series. “That kind of connection and those kinds of strong feelings, both positive and negative, are pretty wonderful. People are kind of captive in those moments to something, and I think that’s perfectly fine.”
Parker added that Carrie is one of the “smart people [who] make bad decisions sometimes [and] are foolish in judgement,” especially since Carrie has “made mistakes” and “not been mature in love.”
“I think, fundamentally, Carrie is an extraordinarily decent and good person – an extremely devoted friend, she’s generous of spirit and time, in all she has to offer,” Parker said.
Parker’s former co-star Kim Cattrall recently spoke out about the legacy of her own “Sex and the City” character, Samantha. Cattrall told The Times that she still disagrees with some audience reactions to the beloved role. “[Samantha] wasn’t a nymphomaniac — well, some people might have thought she was — but she was just enjoying the main course,” Cattrall said. “Everyone else was nibbling on the appetizers when she was going for the steak. And it was always on her terms — that I always insisted on.”
