“Sex in the City” Author Takes on #MeToo

BY Nicola Paerg

Staff Reporter

“Sex in the City” author Candace Bushnell is collaborating with young adult writer Katie Cotugno for her next project.

The pair will be creating a novel that correlates with the #MeToo movement to draw attention towards it.

“I have not read any of her books,” said freshman Dorrian Stangel. “I feel like the book topic is a good idea because it is something that our generation stands behind and it can help continue the sparked conversation.”

The #MeToo movement has ignited a national conversation acknowledging the survivors and victims of sexual assault and domestic violence according to the Me Too Movement website.

“Sexual violence, in my eyes, is something that is becoming a more prevalent issue in our society today and definitely gets overlooked,” said junior Samantha Zebitsch. “The fact that she is taking the risk to write about it is really courageous and inspiring because many books don’t talk about things of this nature.”

Cotugno is known for her books “How to Love” and “99 Days.” She considers herself to write “complicated, feminist love stories.”

“I feel that the #MeToo movement is a necessity that will ultimately contribute to raising awareness to an issue that shouldn’t be an issue anymore,” said Stangel. “It’s an issue that is not right and people keep ignoring it, but it continues to affect a majority of the people in the world.”

The novel “Rules for Being a Girl” will revolve around a high school senior girl, Marin, a victim of teacher harassment. The teacher will make advances and passes towards Marin in an inappropriate manner.

“The whole teacher student thing is becoming increasingly relevant in the media, so it’s a topic worthy of exploring,” said senior Arthur Natale. “It is something that many people might easily identify with, especially since a majority of college students are women and there are many of male college professors.”

Marin channels “Sex in the City” protagonist Carrie Bradshaw by writing for the school newspaper, creating the column “Rules for Being a Girl.”

“Even if you were not directly affected by sexual violence, being able to read a book and see someone’s perspective as if they were sexually abused can educate people on what to do and how to deal with someone who was affected negatively from sexual violence,” said Zebitsch.

The novel is set to be published and released in 2020.

Bushnell’s intention is to represent the new generation of girls who are affected my these acts of violence and assault.

“Creating a book about the ‘Me Too Movement’ just adds to the power of the effort, making it more difficult to eventually sweep these issues under the rug and forget about them again,” said Natale. “It will keep the conversation and progress alive. This movement is something with the ability to create real culture change.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

About the author

Leave a Reply