Sex Education.

Byline: Sarah Van Boven

With the Sex and the City movie out this month, we're a touch nostalgic for the early days of the HBO hit--before cosmopolitans were hopelessly passe and Manolo Blahnik became a household name. Turns out, there's an unlikely faction that never stopped watching: academics. As their scholarly essays reveal, even Ph.D.s care about the clothes.

THE STUDY*****THE GIST*****THE CONCLUSION*****AND THE CLOTHES?

"It's Either Fake or It's Foreign: the Cityscape in Sex and the City, " by Fiona Handyside ( Continuum Journal of Media & Cultural Studies )*****On Sex and the City , Manhattan isn't just the center of the universe--it is the universe.*****"The series works...to convince the audience that it is far more difficult and heartbreaking to change your city than it is your partner."*****"Paris is isolating and lonely for Carrie, who seems to return to its streets as a rather nineteenth-century incarnation. Her outfits largely consist of huge skirts that reference her Degas-like tutu of the opening credits."

"Faking a Sonogram: Representations of Motherhood on Sex and the City ," by Laura Tropp (The Journal of Popular Culture)*****Though media coverage idealized Sarah Jessica Parker's and Cynthia Nixon's real-life pregnancies, SATC emphasized Miranda's struggle with the challenges of motherhood.*****"By having Miranda balance her own desires with cultural expectations of what a mother should be, Sex and the City reveals an irony of its own: Sometimes art can paint a more credible vision of reality than coverage of the real."*****"When [Miranda] goes into labor, her water breaks over Carrie's expensive shoes, symbolizing the disconnection between femininity and pregnancy."

" Sex and the City and Consumer Culture: Remediating Postfeminist Drama," by Jane Arthurs ( Feminist Media Studies )*****In the world of the show, you are ...