Sex and the City
A Woman's Right to Shoes
TV Flash files “A Woman's Right to Shoes” as a desk essential hour — Sex and the City (1998–2004) on HBO, season 6, episode 9, aired 2003-08-17, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S06E09: listed hour 83 of 94 in the Sex and the City guide, hour 9 of 20 in season 6. It aired 2003-08-17 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “The Catch” (S06E08). Next is “Boy, Interrupted” (S06E10).
Essential hour: “A Woman's Right to Shoes”. Shoes as thesis. The object that still photographs as the show’s entire worldview.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Carrie and Stanford attend a baby shower thrown by their friends Kyra and Chuck. Upon arriving, they discover that Kyra's house rules include the removal of all footwear, regardless if doing so will destroy a carefully crafted outfit. The evening is pleasant enough, but when Carrie plans to leave the party, she discovers that her brand new Manolos have been stolen. Later, Kyra offers to pay for the missing shoes, but balks when she discovers that they cost $485. Carrie winds up leaving the apartment with no compensation, and a sense of shoe-induced shame. She wonders if she has somehow made a mistake by choosing the lifestyle that she did, rather than the more traditional one chosen by Kyra. Miranda finds herself with three separate problems: an open apartment in her building, Brady suffering from the chickenpox and her own growing need for male companionship. Luckily, one person solves all three problems, as Dr. Robert Leeds takes the vacancy and helps Miranda care for her sick child. When Brady's virus spreads to Miranda, Robert begins attending to her, but the tension in the air hints that their relationship may soon grow beyond doctor/patient. Charlotte and Harry are still glowing in their post-wedding bliss, but the new bride has a slight problem adjusting to living with her husband's habits. She manages to get him to agree to stop leaving his used teabags all over the apartment, but she finds it more difficult to get used to the sight of him walking around the apartment in the nude. Charlotte doesn't say anything, but when Harry puts his naked form on her new white couch, she puts her foot down, and he agrees to wear shorts around the house from then on. Samantha's dislike for misbehaving children comes to a head in a fancy restaurant. While a child babbles loudly in the background, Sam is admonished for daring to speak on a cell phone. Wildly frustrated by the double-standard, Samantha approaches the table with the child, but winds up with a face full of pesto for her troubles. Carrie tries to smooth things over with Kyra, but it seems that the two won't be able to come to an agreement. Carrie then gets a brainstorm... since she's always come through whenever Kyra has registered at a store, then maybe it's time for Carrie to turn the tables. Ms. Bradshaw registers herself at Manolo Blahnik, in recognition of her just-announced marriage to herself. The only item that she registers for is a single pair of the missing $485 shoes, and Kyra finally comes around and replaces the missing Manolos.
Viewer FAQ
Where does A Woman's Right to Shoes sit in the Sex and the City guide?
S06E09 is listed hour 83 of 94 — hour 9 of 20 in season 6, season 6 episode 9.
When did Sex and the City S06E09 air?
A Woman's Right to Shoes aired 2003-08-17 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Season 1, episode 1. The voiceover and the four-silhouette contract are the whole machine.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Watch it as the original big-city look book: four women, a voiceover, and shoes that did more character work than half the boyfriends. Manhattan is a lighting setup. The reboot noise is later; this run is the template every brunch-core series still copies.
The first thing you see is a woman on a street that is really a runway. Carrie Bradshaw’s voiceover is a fashion dispatch with dating as the alibi. HBO at the end of the 1990s did not accidentally invent the look book as comedy-drama. Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon made Manhattan photograph as a weekly fitting: four silhouettes, four theories of sex, one city that never dressed casual unless the casual cost more. Style is the plot. The shoe is not a punchline. The shoe is a…
Filed against
- Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw
Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw typed Manhattan desire into a global lifestyle franchise — Sex and the City as fashion, friendship, brunch as appointment TV, and shoes that did more character work than half the boyfriends. Reboots…
- Kim Cattrall as Samantha Jones
Kim Cattrall’s Samantha Jones made brunch into a press strategy on Sex and the City — four women, a voiceover, shoes that did more character work than half the boyfriends. Skin as branding, Manhattan as a campaign. On TV Flash she is the…
- Kristin Davis as Charlotte York
Kristin Davis’s Charlotte York is Sex and the City’s corporate sheath — architecture in a brunch quartet, shoes as character work, Manhattan sidewalk as campaign. Four women and a voiceover; her column is the manners. On TV Flash she is…
- Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Hobbes
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- Chris Noth as Mr. Big
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