In this class we have spent hours arguing over what Radical Romance really is and how to define it, but in reality, it can’t be defined; we all have different perceptions as to what the true meaning actually is. Society nowadays has become much more accepting of certain behaviors that definitely weren’t shown on television fifty years ago, let alone talked about during that era, but television has become a commodity and producers know that sex sells, so that’s what is shown. Last year the television show, “Lipstick Jungle”, started on NBC, in a way replacing “Sex and the City” which ended a few years before. The show has definitely come into its own, proving that it is nothing like the prior. It is a show about three women who are not only best friends but are the three most successful women in New York City. Based on the best selling books by Candace Bushnell (who also wrote “Sex and The City”), “Lipstick Jungle” goes on to illustrate how these women juggle their careers, their families, their love lives, their friendship with one another, as well as other “affairs”. This series portrays radical romance at its best and let’s the world see that it’s no longer a man’s world, women, too, can have it all—money, power, families, and a sex drive.
The women of “Lipstick Jungle” are fierce, successful, and gorgeous and they don’t let anything get in their way. Wendy Healy, played by Brook Shields, is a movie producer, and is married to an unemployed musician and together they have two children. She is the breadwinner of the family and Shane, her husband, stays home to take care of the children, and this situation usually isn’t seen too often, especially in film or on television. In the book by Chris Barker, it says, “Men are commonly held to be more ‘naturally’ domineering, hierarchically oriented and power-hungry, while women are seen as nurturing, child rearing and domestically inclined” (285), but these roles are seemingly flipped for Wendy and her husband.
Victory Ford, played by Lindsay Price, is a fashion designer, is a single woman in her early 30’s who caught the eye of New York’s richest bachelor, billionaire, Joe Bennett. Joe bought the rights to her clothing line in an effort to save her from failure and puts it under a different name. Like any man, Joe’s mentality is this: “…she is sex-absolute sex, no less. She is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her; she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject, he is the Absolute- she is the Other” (de Beauvoir), which is why buying her clothing line was simply an act of dominance and trying to fulfill her need so that she could fulfill his. Victory eventually found out about this investment and didn’t like that the man she was sleeping with, in a sense, owned her. She agreed to let him own her company, but she broke up with him. Shortly after, she started dating her contractor, Rodrigo, who was hired to construct her studio that Joe Bennett is paying for.
Nico Reilly, played by Kim Raver, is the Editor in Chief of a prominent fashion magazine, has the most scandalous life out of the three of them. She fell in love with her college professor, Charles, and was married to him before she was 26. During one particular photo shoot for the magazine she works for, she met a man or a boy, rather, named Kirby Atwood, and they, in turn, ended up having an affair. “Women tend to stray from their husbands when they are not getting enough attention from their husbands, whether it be mentally, physically or otherwise. Many women feel that they have become alienated from their husbands and no longer feel that there is any love or feelings between them, at least not coming from their husband's part. Also, some women simply cheat on their husbands for the thrill of not getting caught, or the feeling that they are getting away with something. Often times it becomes an addiction for men and women alike, and seems to be uncontrollable until all is lost, including their marriage, their health, and many times their mental stability” (Fleenor). Well, after her husband had a heart attack and died, we soon found out that he wasn’t leading an innocent life, either. She found pictures of her and Kirby in his desk drawer, which were taken by a detective that he hired to watch her, and, along with the pictures, were divorce papers. To top it all off, one of his students whom he impregnated and was keeping in a loft somewhere on the Upper East Side was there at the hospital and demanding money from Nico, so that she could raise Charles’ baby.
If “Lipstick Jungle” isn’t the definition of radical romance, I don’t know what is. Another word for radical is extreme, and a different term for romance is love affair, and this is exactly what this show portrays: extreme love affairs. Whether it’s the married mother of two being the main source of income, a single 30-something trying to keep her independence, or a woman in a lackluster marriage in desperate need to feel loved or cared about again, the main point of this is that these situations are new(er) to our society. In these particular instances, we are so used to the man fulfilling these roles that this show has women satisfying. It’s true that society has changed drastically within the past fifty years, but there are still many women who gave up their career to be stay at home moms, but this show, even though it is just a television show, could show the world that women really can rule in a man’s world, that they can have it all- money, power, families, and, yes, a sex drive.
Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. 3rd Edition. Sage Publications Ltd. 2008.
Page 285.
De Beauvoir, Simone. “Introduction: Women as Other”. The Second Sex. 1949.
Fleenor, Laura. "Why Some Married Women Cheat On Their Husbands". Why Some Married
Women Cheat On Their Husbands. 22 May. 2007. EzineArticles.com. 23 Oct 2008
Husbands&id=575082>.
