Sex and the City 2 (now that's a clever title!) opened this weekend. For some asinine reason it is set in Abu Dhabi and not the aforementioned City a.k.a. Manhattan. So why the outrage? Abu Dhabi is an ultra-homophobic nation and Sex and the City has been, until now, a homopositive franchise. It would be like filming A Raisin in the Sun in apartheid South Africa.
Yes this is short. It is to stop, hopefully, DK readers from going.
EDIT: Just read it was filmed in Morocco. Because the UAE said it was too faggy to be filmed there. Not exactly that but that's what they said. And still the twits set it there. If Morocco was cool enough for Patsy and Edina then it is more than cool enough for the SatC gals. Samantha could've even gotten a penis installed like Patsy did. (It fell off.)
There's the dirty and down low on this stupidity courtesy of Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Any half dead hack with two brain cells could google LGBT rights and this nation's name before shooting started and yet not one person did or if they did they didn't give a fuck.
Article 354 of the Federal Penal Code states, "Whoever commits rape on a female or sodomy with a male shall be punished by death."
Article 80 of the Abu Dhabi Penal Code makes sodomy punishable with imprisonment of up to 14 years. Several news reports have revealed how the law is typically enforced. Cross-dressing would likewise be illegal.
In discussing the raid, Mohammed bin Nukhaira Al Dhahiri, Minister of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Auqaf stated, " "There will be no room for homosexual and queer acts in the UAE. Our society does not accept queer behaviour, either in word or in action,"
And where was Mario Cantone our fellow queer who starred in this? Was his eyes on the big Hollywood blow fest being in such a movie affords him or was he thinking about all the tortured queers in UAE? And Stanford? Oh Stanford. I'm just so disappointed in you.
Fuck you Sex and the City. I watched every single episode. I went to the first movie. I will not attend this one. And Congratulations on your steaming 16% at Rotten Tomatoes!
EDIT2: One commenter has kindly suggested SJP has nothing to do with this and that I should direct my outrage at the corporation who created it. She's, supposedly, just there to read lines like a robot and getting angry at her for being a robot is misdirected. As far as finding out who is responsible for deciding to call Morocco Abu Dhabi that's a legal rabbit hole I do not have the expertise to follow. If anybody knows, which corporations, I'm assuming more than a few had to sign off on this, made this decision please let us know.
EDIT 3: Cynthia Nixon, my favorite character, got married--scratch that, she got engaged to another woman in 2009 and they have been dating since 2004. Where was Cynthia Nixon's voice? Why didn't she suggest a different location? Why did she do this?
EDIT 4: Before anybody tells me, I know that the entire cast of SatC is pretty much queer positive in their beliefs. I just find this choice utterly tone deaf. There's plenty of exotic places they could have picked to set this movie. They specifically decided on the one that imprisons (or worse) queers.
EDIT 5: Michael Patrick King wrote both movies and he is gay. Good job at looking out for number one and never beyond that!
EDIT 6: two great reviews listed by commentors, thanks to gladkov for the salon link and desa for The Stranger review. The Salon review focuses on the gay characters being cliches and the The Stranger sodomizes the flick.
from the Salon article by Andrew O'Hehir
King seems to be posing the rhetorical question: Can a gay-wedding scene staged by a gay director still be homophobic and offensive? I think I'm voting for yes, especially since Stanford and Anthony disappear from the movie right after their nuptials and play no role in what happens later.
http://www.salon.com/...
http://www.thestranger.com/...