And Just Like That: Sex and the City’s history with queer representation

And Just Like That, the much-anticipated sequel to HBO’s Sex and the City, hit screens this December. Women all around the world held their breath as the anticipation of what to expect from the show overwhelmed online fandom spaces. If you are a straight, white woman, chances are that you felt Sex and the City was probably the greatest thing since sliced bread. Everyone else, though? Not so much.

When news that And Just Like That was in production, many raised the question: would the show’s creators make an attempt to right the wrongs its predecessor made? And the soundbite audiences were provided was yes, they would.

There was a distinct lack of diversity amongst the actors, and its treatment of social issues left a lot to be desired as well. At the time, for the queer community to have openly gay characters written into a heterosexual show at all was considered something of a revelation. However, the way that Sex and the City treated the LGBTQ+ community, and LGBTQ+ issues was problematic at best.

With the promise that And Just Like That will be different, we’re taking a walk down memory lane putting Sex and the City’s treatment of queerness under the microscope!

Gender fluidity: And Just Like That

When the news dropped that fans were getting an episodic reboot of Sex and the City, show creators were quick to let audiences know that they would be including new characters that reflected the progress of the LGBTQ+ community. Grey’s Anatomy star Sara Ramirez signed on to play a non-binary character, Che Diaz.

This announcement certainly caught people’s attention. On August 27, 2020, Sara Ramirez came out on Instagram as non-binary, stating “In me is the capacity to be everything from a “girlish boy” to a “boyish girl”. Ramirez had already come out as queer and bisexual several years prior in 2016.

Folks took this as a good sign. An out queer, non-binary individual playing a non-binary character on screen.

As we are only a handful of episodes deep into this new reboot, we’re going to reserve judgment for now. However, the show is getting wildly mixed reviews. Watch this space in the future for more on this.

Sex and the City and gay men

The original Sex and the City featured two regular out gay male characters. Stanford Blatch (Willie Garson) and Anthony Marantino (Mario Cantone). Each character is essentially a carbon copy of the other: very camp, overly concerned with fashion, and exceptionally bitchy. Outside of that depiction of male gayness, that’s all that existed in that world.

The reality is, male gayness comes in many shapes and sizes. This cookie-cutter version of gayness did nothing to advance tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality in the 90s at all. All it did was reinforce negative stereotypes about masculinity and how gayness fits into that sphere.

Neither Anthony nor Stanford are ever depicted as having healthy male friendships – queer or otherwise – and it’s suggested more than once that they should date each other because, well … they’re both gay so why not? Despite their numerous objections, at the end of the series, they do actually end up getting married. Because there were apparently no other gay men in New York City at all, right?

Transphobia and biphobia

When Samantha (Kim Catrall) moves to an expensive, trendy part of the city she learns quickly that her new neighborhood comes with a cohort of transgender sex workers that populate the sidewalk underneath her apartment. Samantha, definitely the most sexually open and progressive of all the characters on the show, uses outwardly harmful transphobic slurs when referring to them.

There were no other attempts made to represent the transgender community throughout the entire show either. In the land of Sex and the City transgender people were sex workers only.

All four of the female characters on the show also make statements that are egregiously dismissive of bisexuality. In season 3, Carrie dates an openly bisexual man but deeply struggles with the concept. She tells her friends that she thinks bisexuality is just “a layover on the way to Gaytown” and clearly expresses she doesn’t even really think bisexuality is a real thing.

Miranda (Cinthia Nixon) – who is played by an openly gay woman in real life – explicitly calls bisexuality “greedy double dipping”. Samantha dismisses it as mere sexual experimentation, and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) blames the bisexuals of New York City for the reason there are no available men in the city.

Then, despite all this, in season 4 something wild happens and Samantha enters a monogamous relationship with … a woman.

Reinforcing biphobia through Samantha

It’s almost as if the writers decided that the biphobia was not overt enough for their viewers. To really make sure that the message was received, they ended up pairing Samantha up with Maria (Sonia Braga). Despite the female-on-female coupling, Samantha herself refused to admit that she was bisexual (ack, what a dirty word) and set up the relationship on the premise that Samantha was just “over men”. Her friends deemed it as a phase and something that Samantha was just doing for attention. The writers never really gave Samantha the credibility or space to really explore her sexuality and the relationship ended quickly in a hail of “I miss dick”, thereby reinforcing the notion that it really was just a phase.

A lot of people chalk up Sex and the City’s flaws to it being a product of the 90s. However, And Just Like That is not. We’re going to reserve all judgment until the entire season has finished streaming but here at Q+ Magazine, we are watching closely to see how they handle all the queer issues that are prevalent at this time. The inclusion of a non-binary character feels like a definite step in the right direction. Will they do it well? The jury is still out on this one.

Stop by later when the season has ended for our full review of And Just Like That.

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HBO’s And Just Like That is available to stream on HBOMax every Thursday. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!

Featured image: Image Courtesy of HBO