Orientalism in 'Sex and the City 2'. Representation of the 'feminine Orient' and 'masculine Occident'

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3, University of Osnabrück, language: English, abstract: This thesis aims to examine the presence of Orientalism in U.S.-American mainstream popular culture. The basis for this is the movie 'Sex and the City 2' (hereafter referred to SatCII) from 2010, based on the globally successful series 'Sex and the City'. The series Sex and the City is one of the most successful series and few TV series have had such an impact on our contemporary culture. Its success story and its ongoing relevance - as there was even a third movie in discussion - makes the series and the movies highly interesting for academic purposes, since a critical examination of the represented themes provides genuine insights into today's society. In what way does SatCII project Orientalism? What is the significance behind the used Orientalist representations? What do these images reveal about the relationship between the United States and Eastern countries and, especially how does America see itself? Edward Said claims the representation of the Middle East has less to do with the Orient than it does with 'our' world. In order to answer the aforementioned questions, Chapter 2.1 deals with the representation of Orientalism and general Orientalist stereotyping in mainstream popular culture. Moreover, it gives insight into their origin and tries to shed light on the development of Orientalism over time. After that, in Chapter 2.2 the paper turns its attention to 'Sex and the City' in order to examine whether the series is in hold of a feminist status, as this discourse is of importance for the ensuing analysis. The analysis in Chapter 2.3, then, looks at the ways in which SatCII depicts the ideology of the 'feminine Orient' and 'masculine Occident'. This part includes select scenes from the movie in order to underline how the U.S. views the East and itself. Finally, Chapter 2.4 deals with one of the characters of the show - Samantha Jones. She is the key figure that represents third wave feminist thinking best and gives additional revealing insight to the notion of Western hegemony over the Orient. This part, too contains selected scenes. The conclusion then summarizes the results and provides suggestions for further, related analysis that might be of importance in this context, but that could not be dealt with in the scope of this work.