The Power of Female Sex

Infobox Television episode
Title = The Power of Female Sex
Series = Sex and the City


Caption =
Season = 1
Episode = 5
Airdate = July 5 1998
Production =
Writer = Jenji Kohan
Director = Susan Seidelman
Guests =
Episode list = List of "Sex and the City" episodes
Prev = Valley of the Twenty Something Guys
Next = Secret Sex

"The Power of Female Sex" is the fifth episode of the first season of the HBO television series "Sex and the City". It originally aired on July 5 1998.

Carrie's thematic question: "Where's the line between 'professional girlfriend' and just plain 'professional'?"

Plot synopsis

Carrie's "international party girl" friend, Amalita Amalfi, comes to New York City, provoking Carrie to ponder the morality of her friend's benefiting from expensive gifts from her suitors and, by extension, to ponder the relationship between sex and money. Her friend introduces Carrie to Gilles, a gorgeous French architect. After one night of pure bliss, he leaves in the morning and Carrie wakes up to find he has left her an envelope containing $1,000.00. A cash-strapped Carrie briefly considers the possibility of following her friend's example of using men to acquire the material goods she craves, but decides that while such behavior is legal and commonplace, she considers it a sign of societal decline and cannot participate. Charlotte, always keeping her eye out on what's hot in the art world, is asked to model for a famous painter whom she'd like to attract to her gallery, but she finds the painter's favorite subject, female genitalia, is a little personal for her taste. Skipper becomes sexually obsessed with Miranda.

The theme of female power also appears in Carrie's and Samantha's ongoing quest to get favorable seating at the restaurant, Balzac. Although Samantha tries a variety of ploys to persuade the female host to seat them promptly, nothing works until the woman finds herself in the bathroom without a tampon. Carrie finds that after providing the needed item to the hostess, whom she describes to the viewer as "the most powerful woman in New York," she and Samantha never again have to wait for a table.