Sex and the City 2: Feminist Hawks? Accused of Being Anti-Islam

Did Hollywood finally see at a least a sliver of the light? Sure, Sex and the City isn’t really Feminist Hawk-y. They promulgate that whole “sexual empowerment” meme that is actually harmful to women and demeaning to them. As such, they generally fit the liberal Feminist (Femisogynist) role.

That’s where this movie gets interesting. They are breaking with the Stepford Feminist lockstep, wherein American liberal feminists hypocritically ignore the misogyny in the Islamic world because they want to be cool and enlightened and embrace diversity. Because Shut Up, Racists â„¢. Also, George Bush.

They usually worship at the shrine of multiculturalism and make excuses for Islamic misogyny while desperately inventing a way to denigrate American culture. So, whatever will they think when they read the reviews for the latest movie from their usual poster girls? You see, apparently the new Sex and the City movie dares to acknowledge, albeit rather superficially, the fact that Islam is misogynistic. Egads! How will the left resolve that in their minds, as Hot Air notes?

The rather scathing portrayal of Muslim society no doubt will stir controversy, especially in a frothy summer entertainment, but there’s something bracing about the film’s saucy political incorrectness. Or is it politically correct? “SATC 2? is at once proudly feminist and blatantly anti-Muslim, which means that it might confound liberal viewers.

Indicative of the film’s contradictory stance is a scene in which the ladies perform a karaoke version of Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman” in an Abu Dhabi nightclub. An equally outrageous moment comes when the interlopers are rescued by a bunch of Muslim women who strip off their black robes to reveal the stylish Western outfits they are concealing beneath their discreet garb. These endearingly loopy scenes exhibit the tasteless humor that enlivened the TV series on its best nights.

Other reviewers show their multiculturalism zealotry in their reviews; they actually seem angry that Islamic misogynistic behavior was pointed out.

In Variety, critic Brian Lowry said the film featured “some not-very-convincing rumination on the treatment of Muslim women — even in what’s supposed to be a relatively progressive Arab country — that seems more condescending than stirring”.

How dare they ruminate on the treatment of Muslim women! And it’s a relatively progressive country; no fatwa on suntans has even been issued yet!

Writing for Slant magazine, Ed Gonzalez said: “Such is the arrogance of this self-congratulatory movie. It takes the Sex and the City girls to the Middle East so they can cavalierly thumb their nose at the region’s retrograde gender politics.”

Oh, we wouldn’t want to thumb our noses at misogynistic policies in other countries, would we? We should only bash things like the institution of marriage here in silly, old America. Other regions are culture-y and all. That makes misogyny exotic! Who cares about misogyny if it lets you be an enlightened “Citizen of the World!”

And in New York magazine, David Edelstein wrote: “The thinking behind the movie (written and directed by Michael Patrick King) is undisguised. Let’s start with an over-the-top gay wedding! Then we’ll send the girls to Abu Dhabi so they can rile up the fundamentalists with their sexuality! Then they’ll make fun of women in niqab (‘Certainly cuts down on the Botox bill!’) but later show (campy) feminist solidarity!

Wait, what? I thought sexuality was good? Now it’s offensive to “rile people up” with it? That smacks of “she had it coming” to me. And you know what is solidarity, Mr. Edelstein? Acknowledging the fact that other cultures make women cover their faces in shame, instead of pretending that it doesn’t exist.

The biggest irony, perhaps, is how will liberal feminist Sex and the City fans defend this one?

There is high sensitivity in the United Arab Emirates about plots considered too racy, and the first Sex and the City movie was not shown there at all.

Huh. Fancy that.

I’m generally the last person to defend Sex and the City, for the demeaning “sexual empowerment” issue alone. But, anything that helps shed even a glimmer of light on and raises even slightly the awareness of Islamic misogyny, deserves credit where due.

So, bring on the “cavalier thumb-nosing”. And relish in the fact that it’s poetic justice that it is being done by women in super cute shoes (Seriously, have you seen Carrie’s shoes? Am I right, ladies?)

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(Originally posted at David Horowitz’s NewsReal. Cross-posted at Hot Air Greenroom)

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