With the TV show "Girls" becoming more and more successful, many wonder if this TV show created by Lena Dunham is the Sex and the City of this new generation.
Both TV shows have similar story lines. They both tell the stories of four single girls in New York, their main character is a writer who talks about her experiences, every character is very different and experiences life and love in their own way, among other similarities.
Without a doubt, Sex and City impacted many generations of women with their view on men and dating. The show successfully portrayed women's worries about men. While some people might relate to its characters more than others, it did justice to some concerns women have about dating and how girls over think certain things men do and how they interpret their signs.
More than entertainment, it became a religion for the women of the 20th century. At the same time it was focused on romantic love, it also portrayed four independent women with successful careers and an amazing lifestyle in Manhattan.
The audiences who grew up watching the show wanted to become one of the characters from Sex and the City. It seemed like a feminist TV show to show powerful women, despite their main focus was to find a husband. It showed women with money, capable of making a living for themselves and be fabulous about, women who cared about fashion, who knew how to have fun and who valued friendship more than anything else.
However, this is where the character of Samantha is so liberating and such a powerful icon for women. Why? Because she behaved like a man. Samantha could sleep around with whomever she wanted without pining afterwards, she was a successful woman and she was proud of her own achievements. She wasn't looking for marriage or children but for her own happiness. To show a character that focuses on herself more than on what society thinks she should was an asset to the TV show. Moreover, to show a woman who can act like a man and be successful and happy is ultimately empowering.
Perhaps "Girls" are the new characters portraying girls from this generation. Even though there is an age gap since Sex and the City portray women in their 30s and 40s, Girls focuses on women on their 20s. In this case, they are more sexually insecure and are still struggling with their careers. They are also women who are trying to find themselves, to understand what they want in terms of both love and career. In Sex and the City, due to those times and also their age, they had more things figured out.
Given the success of the TV show and its way to portray reality, Girls is influencing many women around the world who turn to these characters for answer to their own life quandaries. Only time, however, will determine if the impact of the TV show Girls will be as dramatic as the impact Sex and the City has had.
