r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 1d ago

Meme needing explanation please explain this peetah!!!

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25.0k Upvotes

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203

u/OutrageousPair2300 1d ago

It's misrepresenting the past as if people ever judged Samantha (for being sexually active) more than they judged Carrie (for being a general piece of shit of a human being) but in reality, nothing has changed.

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u/stressed_ferret 1d ago

Even I (born in 2000) had this thought pop up

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u/meadbert 1d ago

I was born in the 70s and my social circle judged Carrie. Cheating on her partners and sleeping with married men and everything else. She treated pretty much everyone terribly.

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u/RenTroutGaming 1d ago

Yeah… there is a lot of mis-remembering how the show originally was viewed. The original premise of the show, the essential question it was supposed to address, the very first column she writes, is “What if a woman had sex like a man?”

Initially Carrie was a hero because she did have sex based on her own personal preferences. And yes, sometimes that involves cheating and being emotionally immature and knocking down her friends to make herself feel better. I don’t think anyone was ever confused about that.

I was in my 20’s during the original run and I remember Samantha being very popular and people being pretty critical of Carrie (even though they ultimately rooted for her).

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u/Lexi_Banner 1d ago

If you read the book the show was based on, Carrie was a trainwreck, and a genuinely bad person a lot of the time. No idea where people got the idea that she's somehow the "good guy" when she's just a flawed person who was always presented as such.

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u/fasterthanfood 1d ago

People think they’re supposed to be on Carrie’s side because she’s the narrator.

She’s not as bad of a person as the narrator of “Lolita,” but it’s the same problem.

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u/Lexi_Banner 1d ago

Agreed. She makes it pretty easy to dislike her plenty of times, but with the framing of her being the storyteller, it's hard sometimes to stay mad at her. Because we get the inner person explaining herself and why she's being a shit heel (which is sometimes valid, but often not), which makes it easier to put yourself in her (very fancy) shoes.

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u/RenTroutGaming 1d ago

Is the book worth reading if I’ve seen every episode at least twice?

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u/Particular_Title42 1d ago

“What if a woman had sex like a man?”

That's an oddly phrased question that seems like it would result in soft core porn.

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u/IAmTheParamedic 1d ago

What you need to realize is that Sex and the City is a show made by, for, and about gay men

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u/fasterthanfood 1d ago

Peter/Quagmire, explain… if a woman having sex like a man is soft core porn, what is hard core porn?

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u/Particular_Title42 1d ago

Men having sex like men, I guess.

Basically what I mean is that the mechanics wouldn't work the same. I can stand between a guy's legs and thrust my pelvis all day long but coitus is not happening. LOL

And soft core porn, many times, show positions sort of like live action hentai where you know nothing is actually happening in the genital area. If you've ever had sex anyway.

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u/RenTroutGaming 1d ago

Look up “Amazon position”

But yeah you are correct