La sexe

For those who know me, it may be surprising to see a movie such as Sex in the City 2 on the blog.  It was all over the institute today, and before I knew it, I was taking an afternoon off with a load of Portugés and Colobiana college girls to see the flick.  As much a nerd as my father, I thought it would be a language-learning experience... I already hear your skepticism.

True, I did learn quite a bit of French from reading subtitles while watching the movie.  For example, "vale la pena" has its equivalent in French: "il vaut le peine." Nevertheless, what was most fascinating (and disturbing) was viewing an archetype of American pop culture from a non-US perspective.  Every cinematic revelation - a new wardrobe of clothes, the decadent Dubai hotel suite, the moment when the heroine kisses her ex-fiancee, etc - was accompanied by gasps and oogles from the audience as if the entire showing were preplanned.

At one point, Carrie discovers that her butler only sees his wife once every three months because he is too poor to return to his home in India.  When the four women visit the Dubai marketplace, they fail to notice the striking economic disparities between their luxurious hotel paradise of "the future" and the real UAE.  Of course, one would hardly expect the franchise that catalyzed New York glam's rise to fame to cast a bone to the poor of the world - beyond the patronizing plane ticket that Carrie leaves for her butler when she leaves - but the cultural blindness of the movie is astounding.  What was more shocking was how the audience, especially my classmates, bought into the excessive vision of the movie.

I recall a conversation I had yesterday with one of the Brazilian girls at our school.  Like me, she had studied Spanish in Salamanca, and she was remarking about the slutty behavior of the American girls she had seen.  When I agreed that I thought it was inappropriate, she backed off.  She claimed the difference was merely cultural, that such things were acceptable in America, and I think that for a second she forgot she was speaking to an American.  I didn't understand how someone could come to believe such things were commonplace in the US until I witnessed the craze today over Sex and the City.

Films like this are, for all practical purposes, propaganda to the outside world, even if their dreams are as empty to us as North Korean radio.  In my class, we've been sharing our favorite works of art over the last few days.  It surprises me that these girls respect the socialist-revolutionary poets of their countries, and yet adore Mr. Big, Adrienne, and the eroticized American Dream just as much as Carrie and Samantha.

I wonder how the voice-over changes the patriotic message of the war movies advertised before the feature.  These contradictory images can be held in tension abroad.  If you travel outside the US this year, I encourage you to witness an American culture icon from the other side.  It will test more than your artistic sensibilities.