Cynthia Nixon drags Sex and the City

[TMC]

Leaning into that freedom, Nixon did not hold back when asked how she thought “Sex and the City,” the groundbreaking HBO comedy that made her a household name, might be different if it were made today.

“Well, I certainly think we would not have all been white, God forbid,” she said. “One of the hardest things for me — it was at the time, too — is looking back and seeing how much of it centered around money, right? And how, Steve, my [character’s] husband, was like the closest we got to a working class guy, you know? Never mind a working class woman, right?”

Looking back at “Sex and the City,” Nixon wished there had been more nuance in the casting.

“Also, I think we wouldn’t all look like that,” she said. “In terms of like, the perfection factor. In terms of always looking so incredible. And I know that’s the fantasy element, and in terms of the show that was important. But I think there’s a lot of ways that people can be visually compelling without looking — quote unquote — perfect.”

She sees the failings of the show as commensurate with the failings of the mainstream feminist movement, which activists and women of color have criticized for prioritizing the needs of white, affluent women over lower income women and women of color.

“There was so much debate when [‘Sex and the City’] came out about whether it was a feminist show or not, which I always thought was stupid — of course it’s a feminist show. But I think it has a lot of the failings of the feminist movement in it. In that it’s like white, moneyed ladies who are fighting for their empowerment. In a bit of a bubble.”

Cynthia Nixon Knows ‘Sex and the City’ Had a White Feminism Problem