Letters to the Editor

• Regarding Mad Men

  [Read the article: Women are the new men on TV]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I think it is a wonderful show and at first, being a woman I noticed the blatant sexism. No one wants to be a sexual object all day at work and they don't want to be automatically thought of as blathering morons either. The fact that a therapist would think it's fine to tell a husband what's going on his wifes sessions when she would not be granted the same agreement, well that pissed me off royal. Then as the show aired more episodes it became much more nuanced with the roles of Don and Peter. Each of them is equally trapped in different ways, as much as the women working in the office and the wives at home are. These rigid gender roles don't do anyone favors. Don has the beautiful young wife who still looks awesome after two kids and makes dinner everynight. Sure he's got the freedom to screw around, but why is he screwing around? Because he married the woman people told him he should marry, his pretty little secratary who's only thoughts are what to wear and what to do with the kids and proper manners in society. Not a bad person, but obviously not a match for Don who would be better matched to the department store manager lady. But even if he'd met her first, marry a Jew, oh hell no.

  When his boss hits on his wife, yes he angrily blames his wife. But why, because he knows he can't confront his boss because then he'd lose his job/status and how would they live when his wife expects a certain standard of living? So instead he gets angry at his wife and lets her know to never be in that posistion again and lucky for Don, his creepy boss apologizes for his drunken leering. He misdirects his anger because he can't direct it where it should go.

  Then we have Peter, married because marriage is what young successful businessmen do. All the while, his wife controls everything about their home life, he gets a little free and buys a shotgun, she berates him and makes him return it with her screaming about that returned gift was for us, when really most of it was home crap she picked out because she liked it, and pretends it's for them when Peter could care less about a chip & dip.

  It just seems like a show where each person is trapped in their roles, it's okay to hit on the secretary becuase you know she's just there to land a husband in the first place, so why not you?

  Women act flighty and dumb because that's what the books to land a husband tell them to do.

  Don and Peter are married to women they don't really seem to love, just women who fit the bill of what a white career man should marry. The wives don't seem all that happy having to worry about all their manners and you can see that each of them is terrified of losing their husband and ending up like the divorced mom with her sad little clerk job.

  They also have the characters that are there to enforce the status quo, the redheaded office sex bomb doesn't like the new girl trying to do more than just typing and taking messages so she belittles her.

  It seems like everyone is living in some sort of mortal terror, losing a job, losing a spouse, losing status, just losing something.

  So the only thing I admit is better for the men, at that time period is that because they aren't chained to the hearth and home, they are freer to have affairs, to stay out drinking with their pals and not really have anyone to answer to, other than a wife they grow to loathe because her and the kids are chains so he gets a mistress to be free, even for a short while. While housewives drink and smoke and give locks of hair to the little boy in the throes of his first crush.

  Permalink Wednesday, September 12, 2007 01:47 PM