Carrie Bradshaw was undoubtedly not intended as a hate figure when Sex and the City first aired. But in recent years, a curious cultural shift has occurred: newer fans have started to see Carrie, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, as the most toxic thing about the horny, headline-grabbing show. An entire website, Carrie Bradshaw Is the Worst, was devoted to explaining why Carrie sucked. (The most common complaints: she cheated on nice guy Aidan; talked about herself too much.) One viral essay posited that Carrie was TV’s first female antihero. Parker, 60 and still synonymous with pop culture’s most iconic single gal, has grown to love the term.
“I prefer that to any other description of her, because it allows her to be as male as the men have been. I love The Sopranos so much, and I look at all the times [Tony] was unlawful, and we loved him. Carrie has an affair and everybody falls apart,” says Parker ruefully. “An antihero, to me, is somebody that’s not behaving in conventional ways, and she hasn’t ever.” She pauses. “Am I crazy?” Another pause. “A lot of people love her too, though!”
