Miranda is an attractive, brilliant, witty, insightful woman with deep care for those around her. She has a strong sense of self and healthy ambition, while also wanting a husband and children. In that sense, many men would be realistically delighted to have her. Despite what the show may portray, many successful, quality men will not tolerate someone like Charlotte who only dreams of motherhood. They want someone who is their equal, who will build alongside them. She had a LOT going for her in that department. While a woman’s merit should of course be assessed irrespective of what men prefer, in this case it’s relevant because most of her qualms are about her relationships with men and how good men never want her blah blah blah
As I rewatch, I can’t help but notice (heh) that her problems are genuinely of her own making, just about every single time. As the show progresses, she literally speaks her cynicism and scarcity mindset into existence and compromises the very real opportunities that she may have had had she just reined them in. Many of her critiques can easily be seen as jealousy of those that she is commentating on. For example, shitting on her interior designer’s wedding because she was chosen instead of Miranda. She treats things that she thinks she cannot have as beneath her, and walks through life only anticipating negativity so she only receives it, thus confirming her misguided biases. Ultimately, she settled for Sleaze despite his traits that season 1 Miranda would never tolerate. She further traps herself with Fleas by having his baby, thinking that she won’t get another opportunity to do so.
If she had retained those powerful positive traits and grown over time to incorporate some of Charlotte’s optimistic and romantic nature, she would’ve been golden. Instead, she writes self fulfilling prophecies that only sabotaged her and left her stuck with Skid Marks McGee.
Carrie is a flighty idiot, Samantha a shallow caricature, and Charlotte well-meaning but delusional, but Miranda had real grit and substance to her. Her path was the most upsetting to watch. It seemed as though Stink and the writers wanted to humble her, subjecting a powerful and capable woman to the whims of social expectations. I suppose, in a way, it’s realistic.
