What if Miranda, Charlotte, Samantha aren’t real, but just three parts of Carrie’s psyche? On Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw’s (Sarah Jessica Parker) three best friends are presented as exaggerated archetypes of single women. Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) is the career-oriented cynic who preaches independence; Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is the old-fashioned romantic seeking a relationship, and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) is the sexually liberated commitment-phobic bachelorette. But if you look closer, you can also read the three secondary protagonists of Sex and the City as representing the three primary facets of a contemporary woman. Here’s our Take on how Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha embody a woman’s head, heart, and libido—and why it can be so hard to get these three pieces of oneself to agree on anything.