Why is the sitcom Sex and the City popular?


Have you seen women let the bouquet fall to the ground, instead of catching it? Here are four women who did that. When they attended the wedding of a friend, the bouquet the bride had thrown came toward them. Strangely, none of four tried to reach for it, uninterested in becoming the next bride by picking up the bouquet. This episode came from the popular American sitcom <Sex and the City> describing the romance and sexuality of four women Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, Charlotte in New york. Each episode is structured around Carrie’s observation while she writes down her weekly column. HBO broadcasted it on 6 June 1998 and produced six seasons successively. Korean cable TV including onstyle, catch on, OCN also has broadcasted the sitcom since 2000 and it gained popularity especially among single female audience. The sitcom's appeal to Korean female viewers resulted from three factors: representation of the fantastic single life, frank discussion of female sexuality and description of process of making true relationship.


The most obvious cause is that Korean women wanted to see how contemporary New york single women enjoy their life. According to the survey by the Department of Health and Welfare, four out of ten single women do not want to marry.. Also survey shows that 63% of single women can give up marriage to succeed in their profession. This evidence shows that women put more weight on developing oneself than on the marriage. They are also eager to enjoy their single life, dating with various men, shopping and traveling with friends. Lee Yeon-soo, a researcher in LG Economy Research Institute, said successful single women spend a lot of money for themselves. These Korean women are interested in what the sitcom shows in terms of food, fashion, date, party. This proved to be true by increasing in sales of highly expensive FENDI bags, HERMES necklace, Manolo Blahnik handmade shoes in an effort to copy the fashion of main characters in the show. Many restaurants in Chung-dam and Itaewon also released brunch menu for single women shown on the sitcom often. All these trends among Korean single women are affected by the sitcom 'Sex and the City'.


In addition to outer appearance of their life, open discussion about female sexuality is also appealing to Korean single female viewers. Four women in the show are not reluctant to express their female sexual desire. Samantha, the most active character in sexual relationship, decided to become lesbian temporarily for sexual pleasure. The other main characters often discussed the best posture in sexual intercourse in public place. Hugh Hefner, playboy founder and chairman, said that the show makes it clear that women are just as sexual as guys. And that the key to personal sexual freedom of women is to be judged in a way that's not so very different than man. On the other hand, Korean women are not completely free to express their female sexuality openly. According to Lee Chan-hee, counselor at institute for Korean women and sex, Korean women know that chastity has still value in Korean society so they sometimes took a liberal attitude, yet actually they are still passive and conservative. Nevertheless, the survey by Buyer healthcare indicates that 90% of Korean women think of sexual relationship as vital element in life. These facts shows that Korean women desire to have women’s right to sexual pleasure but they are restricted by social prejudice. Therefore Korean women get indirect satisfaction in the frank expression of four women, being not able to do by themselves.


However, the main cause for attracting Korean single female is the sitcom shows how four women underwent hardship in making relationship rather than just talking about sex. First of all, the hardship stem from social prejudice toward single women. According to Kim Hye-jung, the CEO of DUO wedding consulting company, highly successful women in Korean have difficulty marrying because of the prejudice that they must be cold-blooded and blunt. Four women in the sitcom are not the exception. The fourth episode in season 2 " They shoot single people, don't they?" shows prejudice toward single women. For example, Carrie was taken a picture for the article about successful single women in New York, yet she found the article assaulting. The article said "Single was fun at 20, but you wanna ask these women how fun will all night club being fun at 40? Filling their lives with endless distractions to avoid the painful they're completely alone." Watching the show, Korean single women sympathize with it because their fighting with the social prejudice is not solitary. In addition to fighting with the prejudice, four main characters struggled to overcome the hardship. For example, Charlotte who wanted to marry the most divorced because of infertility, but she found real love again. Miranda who hated babies the most delivered a baby and finally lived together with the father of the baby, after parting with him several times. Carrie who always long for the real love gave up the life with a boyfriend in Paris to start the relationship with herself. These examples prove how much they struggled to be in love with another person or oneself.


It is not just a story about fabulous single life. It is not just a story about sex. There is something more special about Sex and the City. It is the story about establishing relationship- whether it is with others or with oneself. This is the most deep-rooted reasons why Sex and the City is popular among Korean single women. Influenced by Sex and the City, Korean broadcasting station produced similar dramas: What are you doing, fox?, Hyena, Romance Hunter, Spring of Dalja, The woman who want to marry, My name is Kim Sam-soon. All these dramas have straightforward expression of sexuality and succeeded, yet the fundamental key to success was these dramas shows what single women are worried and afraid of in making relationship and how they overcome