Saturation marketing might have alerted you to the fact the new Sex and the City movie is nearly on our shores, and I bet there’s a whole load of teenage girls either begging their mothers to take them to see it or planning on going with their friends anyway.
You might think they’d be better off skipping the sexually-charged antics of Samantha and co and instead heading to the latest installment in the chaste Twilight saga.
After all, Twilight is all about saving yourself for marriage, getting off on holding hands, and personal sacrifice. But as role models for young women go, I’d pick Carrie and her friends over Bella any day.
Last night the major cinema sites were still listing the classification of both films as TBA, but the last Sex and the City movie was rated MA, while the last Twilight film was an M. Both of the new films are in cinemas in the first couple of days of June.
Here’s why teenage girls will get more out of the racier, more grown up, story.
Friends
SATC
Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte are friends. Friends who pick each other up off the floor, toast each other success and every now and again fight and make up. They rarely let other commitments get in the way of their friendships and they’d do anything for each other.
Twilight
Bella doesn’t really do girlfriends, unless she needs someone to cover for her while she sneaks off with her boyfriend. Her only friend in the series is a poor boy called Jacob, who’s desperately in love with her, who she uses and abuses mercilessly while carrying on with his rival Edward.
Relationships
SATC
They don’t all work out happily ever after, as the women in SATC have often demonstrated. Their relationships with men, however, are mostly on an equal footing and they rarely allow themselves to get pushed around.
Twilight
For a modern teenage girl Bella would do better in the era of Jane Austen. What she finds romantic, most sensible people would find manipulative and controlling. She relied on the men in her life to protect her, and her heart flutters when her 17-year-old boyfriend says things like “I forbid it.”
Success
SATC
All the women in SATC are educated and have successful careers.
Twilight
Bella views school as a necessary evil, which at least allows her time to gaze longingly at her boyfriend during chem class. When he bribes her way into an Ivy League school she’s not the least bit interested. Instead she wants to stay home all day gazing longingly at her boyfriend/husband.
Body image
SATC
Carrie and her friends have the normal amount of self doubt (well except for Samantha), but are generally confident about themselves and their bodies.
Twilight
Bella thinks she’s ugly and stupid and can’t believe a handsome boy would look at her twice. In fact she never shuts up about how she doesn’t feel worthy of Edward’s attention and the only way she ends up feeling confident, beautiful and strong is when she finally becomes a vampire, which is not an option for most teenage girls.
There might be a few moments during Sex and the City that you’d want to cover the eyes of the 14-year-old girl sitting next to you, but I’d want to cover their ears every time Bella opens her mouth.
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