Men and looks not everything

Carrie Bradshaw, sexpert extraordinaire, has $40,000 worth of Manolo Blahniks, but has to pawn her friend Charlotte's Tiffany's rock to obtain ownership of her chic Manhattan flat.\nIn all of her seasons on "Sex in the City," Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) has set standards for style while sifting through various generations of wealthy NYC bachelors who are all too willing to take her on thousand-dollar dates.\nYes, Carrie has partied with the best of them, with a mentality of irresponsibility and naivety not unlike many of us collegians with our mountains of credit card debt and no concept of financial responsibility other than minimum payments.\nIn the bonus season finale on HBO Sunday, Feb. 10, Carrie got her American-Express card cut up by a clerk at Dolce&Gabbana. If only some clerks at Express here in Bloomington would be so helpful.\nMoney, male and social problems amounting, some critics have still declared Carrie and her sidekicks the essence of modern feminism. \nIf modern feminism is the ability to have sex like a man (that means with no emotion or attachment for all of you non-viewers), to parade around NYC at every place where everyone has to dress only in designer clothes while harassing bachelors from all generations, then perhaps these girls are the embodiment of feminism.\nThey have all maintained somewhat professional careers, so perhaps that is where these critics are getting their feminism claims. Carrie just talked Vogue into $4.50 per word, while Charlotte continues to live off the money of Trey, her recent divorcee. \nSamantha, a PR princess after my own heart, has a firm that is always in charge of the best openings. She works as the right hand man of Sex's own Ted Turner, so perhaps she could be called a true professional. But because this Turner figure, Richard, is the man she is currently sleeping with, professionalism sinks to a point of no return. \nThe only character that comes anywhere close to being a true working professional is Miranda, the not-so-saucy redhead that recently gave birth out of wedlock.\nThroughout the seasons they have maintained lasting friendships, only sleeping with the same men on a couple of occasions. Certainly they can get some credit for that. But overall, I think these four women fail miserably as role models for feminism and twentysomethings.\nWhile it might be nice for nymphomaniacs to be able to have sex with no emotional attachment, that is not the purpose of sex, and it isn't a good message for young women just beginning their sexual journeys. \nHaving children out of wedlock, dating men only because they are wealthy, and materialism in the form of Prada, Chloe and Versace, are only solutions to a bad day. These are not the greatest messages to represent any feminist movement. \nThe mindset that designer shoes are more essential than a stable apartment and the ability to pay bills regularly sends a scary message to college girls, who already have enough trouble dealing with Ameritech and rent.\nThe main problem I have with "Sex in the City" is that although the women are all in their thirties, they haven't learned lessons they should have after a freshman year at any college. Their lives are entrancing and ideal, but not realistic at all.\nThe truth is Carrie could never afford an apartment in Manhattan writing a weekly opinion column about sex that isn't even published in The New York Times. The truth is, while having sex with men without commitment might be fun and exciting, at thirty years old, it is time to set some standards of self-respect.\nThe truth is, if at thirty years old all that matters to you is men and looks, there are serious problems not even a Fifth Avenue shopping spree could ever rectify.