My first taste of  ‘Sex and the City’ was the ‘Tantric Workshop Episode’, back in the late 90s. Unaware of the title of the series, I’m enjoying it; it’s colourful, fast-paced, smart, witty. The women are beautiful, fabulous clothes. Next scene, the girls are at the workshop where a woman is demonstrating on an old man. I’m thinking; ‘Nooooo, this couldn’t be happening – it’s not, no way’….then splat, on Miranda’s face. I had never seen anything so risqué, or so hilariously absurd on TV before. It was completely fresh, just the right side of shocking, and so ridiculous it was funny.

What we loved about Sex and the City was that women everywhere could relate to something in each of these women, with all their minor and major dramas, their fears, their triumphs. It celebrated women and their relationships in a way that was never explored before. All of a sudden, all these quirks that we had never quite vocalised were being shouted from the rooftops.

There was the time Carrie farted in bed with Big…a girl’s biggest nightmare, there were all the graphic sex scenes with Samantha…the one where Miranda was dumped by the hot gym guy for being too full of herself. Then there was Samantha in her yoga class, propositioning any guy within earshot while doing downward dog. The great thing about Sex and the City was that it was unpredictable, unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.

The obsession with the show got so out of hand at one stage that you were being asked to define yourself through the characters…‘Are you are Carrie, or a Charlotte?’ If you fancied yourself as the cool, pretty one with great style and finesse, the star of the show, then you were definitely claiming to be Carrie. Liken yourself to Samantha and you were running the risk of being seen as a mad man-eating trollop, but it was ok to describe yourself as being a bit of Carrie, and a bit of Samantha (just the sexy side though of course). Poor Miranda was rarely aspired to, and Charlotte suited those few wanting to be seen as sweet and wholesome. And that was part of what made it so attractive to women – the fact that every woman could see a part of themselves in at least one of the characters. They were real, they were sassy, and we loved them.

For the first time ever, women talking openly about sex was not only not taboo anymore – it was fashionable, liberating, empowering. For all those years of listening to men’s vulgar comments about sex, it was our time to let loose a bit. Whole groups of women were chatting confidently about their sex lives – done in just the right way, it was charming, fashionable, and very ‘of the moment’. You felt like an enlightened, modern day hero, a banisher of the shackles of decency.

Sex and the City wasn’t just for women though. It was one of those girlie programmes that guys pretended to hate, but secretly enjoyed. Wide-eyed in delighted shock at the blatant sex talk, it gave them an insight into what women really think…and got them worried that the women in their lives were doing the same.

Suddenly it was all about the women, the women and her girlfriends and the laughs and the fun…the resurgence of a celebration of gorgeous things and clothes, of excesses. It was the perfect backdrop to the Celtic Tiger years, that sense of ‘live for today and screw tomorrow’. Ever see those women work? Hell no, they spent their days hanging out in a breakfast bar, wining and dining with gorgeous men in stylish restaurants, or out clubbing with the girls. We wanted their life, and so we emulated it. Sex and the City gave us what we all crave from time to time – a fantasy, and one that wasn’t so far away from our own lives if we decided to behave like that. It gave us lots and lots of laughs, and maybe a newfound appreciation of ‘the girls’ and their importance in a woman’s life.

NBCRI and NSB Events will host the Sex and the City 2 Movie Charity Screening on Friday 28 May. The night begins with a cocktail reception at 6.45pm in the Hotel Meyrick, after which you’ll be whisked off to the Omniplex Cinema for the much-anticipated movie…Tickets cost €35 and are on sale at www.msbevents.ie.