So I figured there might be more than a few things in the new Sex and the City movie that would make me sad and sentimental for the show.  I was right.  I mean, it is not a good movie for movies’ sake but – if you watched the show – you cannot not see the film, and the girls in all their glory.

I thought long and hard about seeing the film its opening weekend, being that I’d have to see it in Florida to do so.  It’d be over 90 degrees outside and I’d be looking at my hometown and the dirty streets and the subways and, no doubt, snow at some point, and my skin wouldn’t be leathery like a few of the ladies around me and what would that feel like?

Overall, I’d have to say it felt fine.  I live in New York, my mind and my heart are in New York, and a pitstop to the inside of an oven wasn’t going to change that. 

But if there was any question at all, it vanished when Carrie Bradshaw has to get a new cell phone.  And a new cell phone in New York is likely to mean… 347!  34*!?*&7!  “347?  “But I’m a 917 girl!” says Carrie.

And in that moment, I was home and knew exactly what she meant.

  First JuicyCampus, now this.

UK-based www.missbimbo.com claims to target girls as young as 9 to find their inner tramp.  A player’s ultimate goal is to get a “fun job to pay for your needs and all the clothes a bimbo could possibly want” and “become the trendsetting bimbo in town.” To do this, a player must do whatever it takes, even resorting to extensive ”meds or plastic surgery.” You pay for stuff with “bimbo dollars,” and if you run out of the free ones, you must send text messages costing £1.50 each or use PayPal to replenish your account.  The tagline? “Become the hottest, coolest most famous bimbo ever.”  The site claims to have over 380,000 registered players, mostly girls age 9 to 16.

The site was created by Nicholas Jacquart, a French entrepreneur who started with Ma-Bimbo and its 1.2 million subscribers.  Parents are tweaking.  A father says he was appalled when he saw his 9 and 14 year old daughters ”looking at possible breast operations and facelifts for their bimbos at the game’s plastic surgery clinic.”  And you just know that’s gonna cost a whole lotta £1.50s!

Based on what I do for a living I’m not often the one to argue that movies/comics/games are corrupting our youth, but the site’s claims that it is “simply mirrors real life in a tongue-in-cheek way, [and that] the missions and goals for the bimbos are morally sound and teach children about the real world” are, I hope, over everyone’s line.

But chin up:  the site has done away with the diet pills feature, and you can send your bimbo to college (to find a “sugar daddy,” but it’s still college!). 

missbimbo.comma-bimbomiss bimbo.com

This blogger is not at all happy to find out that women are less likely than men to begin saving for retirement before the age of 30.  A Rasmussen/Country Financial poll found that 42% of men vs. 35% of women start saving for this goal before the big 3-0. 

This is even more troubling when one discovers that women are becoming far more pessimistic than men regarding the ability of the average middle class family to retire.  Of the 50% of Americans who now believe that a middle class family cannot successfully save enough to secure a comfortable retirement, only 29% of women vs. 44% of men overall believe the same.  The gender gap is even more dramatic for married individuals:  just 32% of married women compared to 53% of married men think a middle income family can save for retirement. 

And just to beat a dead horse a little more…  Men are most concerned about ending up with enough money to “do what they like to do ” as they age (47%), while women are closely split between the same concern (37%) and worrying that they will run out of money altogether (36%).   Run out of money altogether!  And yet, men are more likely to say they have taken steps to alleviate their concerns (61%) than women (48%).

So women worry more and do less.  This is not entirely new information, of course, and we are aware of its social, educational and cultural underpinnings, but the numbers are alarming. 

Those of us in the financial services sector need to do better.  I’ve talked about women and financial services before.  At the event that sparked that very post, I met Linda Descano, the talented COO of Citicorp’s Women & Co.  Women & Co is a smart, savvy resource that’s free for select Citibank/Smith Barney clients and $125 a year for others.  Worth every penny.

We need more more more.  High school graduation rates in this country are a mess, we know.  But college?  When we’re in charge, no one gets out of college without taking a required series of mini-courses every year on how to save, invest and build credit.  Yes, when we’re in charge…