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To women, she is the epitome of style, grace and sass. No cocktail conversation about dating and men is complete without one stiletto-heeled career girl musing, "It's like that episode of 'Sex and the City,' when Carrie Bradshaw "..."
Ask any woman and she will tell you — no, she will gush — that Sarah Jessica Parker glows. That both she and the iconic character she plays are sources of inspiration, even emulation. They love her, and when her movie arrives on May 30, they will line up, Manolo to Manolo.
But to some men, or rather male-dominated media, Carrie Bradshaw and the actress who plays her aren't exactly the subjects of flattery. Here's a taste from Maxim magazine:
"How the (heck) did this Barbaro-faced broad manage to be the least sexy woman in a group of very unsexy women and still star on a show with 'sex' in the title?" the magazine wrote in its October 2007 issue, which featured the unsexiest women in Hollywood. Those in company with Parker included Madonna and Sandra Oh.
Ouch. Certainly, it wouldn't be pop culture if the media didn't attack a petite blonde with a rocking body once in a while, right? But why the venom? Is it her Romanesque nose? That mole on her chin? What justifies a 2006 Onion headline "From Horse-Face to House-Hold Name," about Parker's career? How about the verbal slaying on Live 105 FM in November, when the morning show deejays repeatedly called her a
Parker's response to the Maxim feature was brief and unemotional. She told Allure magazine this past February that "it felt per sonal." "It was really about 'We don't like her,'" she said. "I would like to ask them (the judges), 'What exactly is it that you personally don't find sexy about me? Is it my figure? Is it my brain that bothers you?'"
Perhaps there's something to that. Another Maxim feature on TV's least appealing women included war correspondent Christiane Amanpour and writer-actress Tina Fey. So clearly, brains are a bust.
What's enlightening — and also absurd — about the latter list is that Maxim included fictional characters, like Ugly Betty and Peggy Hill. And there you have it: While Carrie Bradshaw is fake, her character is completely real. She is an "older" single woman on the prowl, broadcasting her sexual escapades, often at the price of a man who didn't measure up. She is independent, yes, but desperately needy and looking for love. It's probably the first time we've seen a woman like this on television. That image is powerful.
As someone who has interviewed Sarah Jessica Parker in person and can vouch for her beauty, I'd go as far as to say that if the actress were playing a coach's wife on some family comedy, she would not be attacked in this way. But because she portrays a powerful and sexual women that females all over the world can identify with, she is a victim of these sandbox insults.
Most men I've talked to would rather watch the Lifetime channel than tune into "Sex and the City" reruns. They'd rather sit through "Made of Honor" than Sarah Jessica Parker's upcoming flick, and that's fine. I think the idea of four women sitting around analyzing and judging men and their sexual pitfalls is more than a little intimidating. After all, we never meet these women's families. Besides their careers, they are fairly one-dimensional. They want love and sex, and we're often not sure in which order.
The actress herself is someone we see often: Sarah Jessica Parker is not only the lead but also the producer of one of the biggest cable shows of all time. She has two perfumes, a successful budget clothing line and is a wife and mother. She is the spokesperson for hair and skin products.
On a purely physical note, it's possible that the male-dominated media pick on Sarah Jessica Parker because she doesn't fit some button-nosed Hollywood ideal. For every Sarah Jessica Parker working in Hollywood, there are 100 men, the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and John C. Reilly, who, with all due respect, are no Brad Pitt. Yet they continue to score leading roles and win accolades for their craft. And last time I checked, no women's magazine dubbed them slovenly, rotund or unkempt — let alone a hoofed animal.
Jessica Yadegaran can be reached at 925-943-8155 or jyadegaran@bayareanews group.com.
