Is there a Sex and the City dismissiveness to Cynthia Nixon's candidacy for New York governor?

Vulture

Yes, Nixon is and will always be closely identified with Miranda Hobbes. She even capitalized on that association in her announcement video. But the reaction to her candidacy seems to be in line with the reaction to Sex and the City, says Jen Chaney. In contrast, other celebrities-turned-politicians -- from Clint Eastwood to Arnold Schwarzenegger to Al Franken to Donald Trump -- were taken more seriously despite their entertainment backgrounds. "I’ll admit that I may be extra-sensitive to the premature disregard for Nixon’s candidacy because it reflects the way Sex and the City often has been treated: as a breezy, meaningless show about ladies," says Chaney. "When we talk about the series that changed everything for HBO and television in general, The Sopranos is the one we point to, which isn’t wrong at all. But it also doesn’t capture the full picture of what was happening on TV in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Sex and the City became a phenomenon not simply because the women on the show drank cosmos and spoke frankly about their sexuality, but because it dealt with distinctly female experiences that women rarely saw depicted on television. So when I saw Cynthia Nixon not being taken seriously after her announcement — being described as that woman from Sex and the City — it triggered the same defensive posture I assume with regard to the series." She adds: "Being a well-known actor shouldn’t pave an immediate path to a governorship or a seat in Congress. But it also shouldn’t always be a disqualifier either. Sex and the City was smarter than it often gets credit for, and Cynthia Nixon is smarter than some people were giving her credit for yesterday, too."