The main issue here, in my opinion, is the tendency to assign value and judgements (either pro or anti) related to feminism where they don't belong. To label a comedy series as a breath of fresh air in the modern feminist movement or lauding it for making feminism mainstream are equally ridiculous. Not because the show is or isn't feminist, but because it's a TV show whose sole purpose is to provide entertainment. Is the show entertaining? Yes. End of story.

The feminist values attributed to SATC are absurd, sure. But if someone told you that seahorses were a sign of progress in the feminist movement because the males rear the offspring, would you get annoyed with seahorses or the idiot making the argument? Getting angry at the seahorse is not only pointless, but also ridiculous. 

It's just a show. Get over it. Just because you like it, it doesn't need to mean something. If anything, the whole debate is probably anti-feminist in and of itself: a bunch of women stereotypically ascribing irrational meaning and feelings to something arbitrary instead of discussing real feminist issues, like salary equality and sexual exploitation and bras. Oh right, put your lighter away...we've entered the third wave and the battle against the bra is over. The bra obviously won.

All jokes aside, women do a diservice to feminism when elevating trivial media content, like SATC, to feminist status. The women that lend credence to the argument by hating the show for its phony feminism aren't doing much in support of feminism either. All that energy could be spent making news like this as prevalent as bra burnings. The information displayed in the graphic below reveals that we have a long way to go. Too long to get distracted by trivialities, like SATC, along the way.

Last I checked, nobody was making claims that Entourage, arguably the male equivalent of SATC, was anything but a humorous show. People aren't raising a stink because the show's "boys will be boys" message is insulting to hard-working, polite men who don't treat women like sex objects (yup, that's aimed at you, Vince) or don't sit at home, smoking pot, mooching of their friends (I'm looking at you, Turtle). Claims of blatant sexism in response to Entourage aren't rampant either, even though the men on the show get away with things that women (not even Carrie Bradshaw) never would on TV (at least I can't think of an Ari Gold-esque character without a penis... not even Babs comes close). Why isn't there a fuss? Because it's just a silly, yet entertaining, show.

I can sum up my point with a single analogy: If you go to the beach and pay the artist sitting on the boardwalk to draw a caricature of you and the resulting picture exemplifies the things about yourself that are the most humorous, including your big ears, should you:

a) get your panties in a twist because your ears aren't really that big and spend hours crying over the travesty and telling all of your friends that the artist on the boardwalk sucks?

b) frame it and put it above the mantle and spend hours staring at it, claiming that it is pure artistic genius and encouraging all your friends to have their portraits drawn, because you love your big ears?

c) have a laugh and get on with your life (which might include fighting for the provision of better funding for arts programs so talented artist don't need to spend time away from their core endeavors drawing caricatures on the boardwalk)?

d) all of the above.

I'll let you guess where I stand (when in doubt, pick c).