Guys like dogs. Guys like the outdoors. Guys like a bit of isolation. Guys like roughing it. Girls like clothes. Girls like shoes. Girls like to shop for clothes and shoes. Girls like to hoard their collections of clothes and shoes in their closets and to adorn themselves with these items while standing in their bathrooms. Obviously these are some very stereotypical overgeneralizations, but there are some truths to be found here. As the YouTube clips from the “Sex and the Country” and “The Good Fight” episodes of Sex and the City demonstrate, space is defined by gender and the corresponding power structures.
It is clear from the YouTube clip from the “Sex and the Country” episode that Carrie is very uncomfortable within a rural/outdoor/cabin space. She describes the cabin as “scarier” than she thought it would be and seems unsure of what to do with herself within this space (“Sex and the Country”). Though Massey argues that “the home is regarded as the domain of the ‘private’ and the feminine,” the cabin in this particular episode is clearly the man’s domain where he rules supreme (Barker 377). Aidan’s domain also extends to the great outdoors. By the example of boys’ playing fields in the Mersey flood plain, Massey argues that the outdoors is the masculine domain (377). Carrie is used to a much more urban environment and thus feels awkward within Aidan’s more rural environment which lacks modern day comforts such as up to date plumbing.
Back in the city, however, it is a much different story. As the episode “The Good Fight” demonstrates, the apartment is clearly Carrie’s space, and Aidan is seen as intruding upon her space – more specifically her closet and her bathroom: two distinctly feminine areas of the house within American culture. Throughout this clip, Carrie emphasizes the difference between her space and Aidan’s stuff that is intruding upon her space, as when she tells Aidan, “Look at all your shit in my bathroom!” (“The Good Fight”). This relates to what Zukin was saying in terms of who owns space (Barker 385). Though he was specifically referring to cities, the idea still applies to Carrie’s apartment in how people determine “who has the right to inhabit the dominant image” of the space or environment (385). In her argument with Aidan, Carrie clearly lays out the "his and hers" of the apartment as well as whose stuff is allowed to remain within that space.
No matter the space, society has socially constructed meanings within the environment, with gender acting as just one of many filters. Though the domestic or private spaces are generally seen as feminine spaces, it is also possible for men to dominate within these spaces. However, should the man attempt to intrude upon the woman’s space, he had better watch out and keep his dog away from the expensive shoes.
Works Cited
Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2008.
“Sex and the Country.” Sex and the City. Writ. Allan Heinberg. Dir. Michael Spiller. HBO. July 22, 2001. (retrieved from YouTube via
“The Good Fight.” Sex and the City. Writ. Michael Patrick King. Dir. Charles McDougall. HBO. Jan. 6, 2002. (retrieved from YouTube via
