“No Ifs, Ands, or Butts”: Analyzing Race and Gender in Sex and the City Through Black Feminist Theory

This article analyzes Season 3, Episode 5 of Sex and the City, “No Ifs, Ands, or Butts,” through the lens of Black feminist theory. It investigates how race and gender are constructed, stereotyped, and selectively represented within the episode’s narrative. The analysis focuses on two Black characters who were featured only in one episode of the series, Adeena and Chivon, and examines how the show portrays harmful stereotypes such as the angry Black woman (Adeena) and sexualized Black male (Chivon) in the episode. These limited and harmful representations are further scrutinized by the fact that the show is often hailed by many to be a liberal, feminist program that was revolutionary to see on screen in the late 90s. While the show does attempt to showcase female empowerment and sexuality, it is only done in a positive light for the White female characters, who are the main characters that the show revolves around. Blackness is predominantly absent, aside from a few guest characters sprinkled in, which is why it is imperative to investigate and analyze how the show portrays Black individuals. Since representation is so finite in the Sex and the City universe, the portrayal of Black individuals becomes an important point to focus on to identify how the show negotiates topics of race and gender.