Is Mad Men a Feminist Show?
Before we go too far with the Don Draper suits sold at Banana Republic in anticipation of season three of Mad Men we might want to ask a question or two about just why the womanizing, heavy-drinking, chain smoker is any kind of role model and what our obsession with the show says about gender roles in 2009.
When I sat down with my Wesleyan classmate Matt Weiner, creator of the show, to write "Seven Deadly Sins" for our alumni magazine, he reminded me that he spent his college years as a poet studying under the watchful eye of Franklin Reeve (father of Christopher) and was particularly taken with feminist canon. He even recounted moderating an all-campus debate between feminists on the topic of pornography (if you want to hear Weiner tell the very funny story listen here and scroll to the bottom of the page).
As it turns out the creator of Mad Men views his show as a feminist show exactly because of its painfully accurate portrayal of the treatment of women in the workplace in the early 1960s. Weiner told me the highest praise he ever gets is when a woman approaches him after a public appearance to say she was a secretary during that era that era and the show got the sexual harassment exactly right. They always thank him for putting a spotlight on what really happened.
But what makes the rest of us watch so intently? As the show has progressed, the female characters have in fact become stronger and stronger despite the abuse. It's relatively easy to root for Peggy as she breaks the glass ceiling, Betty as she slowly gains her footing and even Joan as she beats the men at their own game. Why the obsession with Don? He is lying about even his own name and hasn't seen a woman he doesn't feel obliged to sleep with.
Weiner told me that the way he writes the script he is never thinking about the male characters say, its what they are not saying that drives the plot forward -- a remarkable concession for a man who obviously is fastidious about everything on the show and has been widely praised for his dialogue. Don is certainly cool-looking in his period get-up but my theory is that the attraction is what we see in his eyes while he delivers those lines in his snappy clothes.
We desperately want Don to tell the truth about himself even while we know he never will. As guys in 2009 we are trying to deal with economic depression, foreign war, and the increased expectations as husbands and fathers. We see in Don's eyes the deer in the headlights that is the male experience not just in 1960. From Wall Street to the streets of Detroit we can relate to the contradictory worlds and the attempt to hold together worlds in collision that Weiner shows us through his leading man.
What makes the show tick is our sense that it's realistically portraying something important about the treatment of women at a certain point in the past while portraying something equally important about men today. We are trapped. We just didn't get to wear clothes as cool as Don Draper (until now).
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A mixed bag in terms of feminism.
Peggy is advancing well in terms of professional progress as Sterling Cooper.
Betty took more power in the Draper household when she kicked out Don, but is still a whiny petulant and childish brat.
Joan did not have a pleasant second season. Her power in the office was undermined twice, firstly when Sterling dismissed her decision to sack the secretary, and when Harry passed her over for the role as script reader. On another note, her personal life crumbled too by being raped by her lunatic fiancee and then putting up a facade to Peggy to make it seem she had found a great guy.
Of all the characters in Mad Men, only Peggy will emerge into a good place. All the others are doomed in their own way.
There's a great book by Don Delillo called "Americana" that took on alot of these issues over 25 years ago. It's very interesting to read now that Mad Man has done a 21st century update on the discourse of both 1. Female subjegation/ descrimination in the modern business world 2. Male alienation in the modern business world. Delillo relates the two and I believe Mad Man's creater does as well, at least, he is simultaneously having these discussions and letting the audience ask themselves if/how the two are related.
Madmen is great historical fiction. More can be learned from it than pure history. Fiction's role in advancing civilization is underestimated by the poor generation whose eyes now spend more time in front of a screen than roaming through the marvelous sentence edifices of the world's great literature. Even in conversations with recent college graduates one experiences their complete lack of any knowledge about literature; it is overwhelming. Reading is thinking is education. We are in deep doo-doo!
The reason I love Don is that despite his cheating; despite his hidden identity; and despite any other loathsome character traits we may end up finding out about; when he gets into the "zone", he's totally believing and feeling what he's saying. While the real ad man comes up with the cheesy concept because it will sell, with Don, it sells because he believes it so much himself - or at least wants to believe it so much. (Remember the Kodak Carousel spiel? He had me at Calomine Lotion.)
Check out the initial James Bond movies with Sean Connery...
The Bond movies "evolved" and now women are treated as equals with the men.
Great article; honest, sensitive -- though, still lacking in insight. How in the world could you feel trapped? Are you forced to wear a burka (sic.) in 104 degree heat? Are you making .76 cents less than anyone else in the world? Are you still being profiled in rich meighborhoods? And are you having your virginity raped away by grown men trying to cure their HIV?! Go "feel" trapped in the Sudan or the Saudi Arabia prince's harem or hell, the secretarial pool (they still exist) at Goldman Sachs.
Give me a break. That caving in feeling you're sensing is called Enlightenment. Growing Pains. Guilt. It's good for you, Mr. Matlack.
I wholeheartedly agree that Mad Men is addictingly claustrophobic in its oppressive portrayal of not only women in the home and workplace but minorities as well. "The good ol' days?" No such thing, if you weren't in power to enjoy it. If you had to serve it, bow to it and then wipe up after it! God bless 2009! The playing field gets more balanced every, single, day. And say a little prayer for that little girl in the Sudan -- next time you feel trapped.
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Enlightenment certainly is the goal. I really wasn't speaking for myself but trying to figure out why men in general can relate to Don. But I grant you 100x about the little girl in Sudan. The whole shooting match is a luxury problem for all of us, even if it is some kind of growth us guys yearn for.
What I like about the show is that it isn't afraid to show people whom we might consider wrong or politcally incorrect, and not in a glamourizing way (the sort of retro-cool ideal that was big in the late 90s, exemplified by a movie like Swingers).
I love the series.
But, gosh, I really do get sick and tired of seeing all that smoking. Okay, I understand that that is how people at the time smoked but enough is enough! I had the same reaction when I saw George Clooney's movie "Good night and good luck" about Edward R. Murrow.
As an ex-smoker, I find it disturbing because I recall those days. I remember when a pack went from 25 cents to 35 cents in a machine. We all vowed to quit because it was too expensive.
I'm not sure I agree with the premise that the male-female dynamic is "what makes the show tick." I find that the most memorable moments of the show aren't about Don's relationships with women but Don's relationship with the advertising business and his firm. The jockeying for position among the staff, Don's cool genius for advertising and office infighting, and the juxtaposition of real products and historical events with fictional campaigns are what I tune in for. I thought the show sagged during Don's long absence from the office in the middle of the second season. The gender angle is a distinctive aspect of the show, but it isn't what made "Mad Men" a hit.
I agree with you on every point.
got to admit mad men is one of the few shows i'll go out of my way to watch, from the great cast to the writing of the characters it really does bring to life the social dynamic in an advertising office of that era.
but that is far as it goes as a reflection of social attitudes of that time it doesn't hold up things were already starting to change, however it portrays the men brilliantly and it still holds true.
If you create an all male environment in an office this is how we will behave, its how we are childish compulsive and overly competitive ...
Perhaps a better subject for this post would have been: "why is this show relevant?"
I just finished watching the entire first season of MadMen. I can't stand watching it on AMC the commercial breaks are unreal. And I never know when other stations are showing it..so I watch all these series a season at a time. I was hooked. I love this show. I've never seen a show or a movie more realistically portray the 50's and 60's. It is so real I get totally lost in the show. Although I am a child of the times I was very young during the 50's but the memories this show brings back to me is astonishing. The clips of tv shows is remarkable. The Kennedy election. wow. I can't wait to rent season two or watch it on demand via my cable provider.
I whole heartedly agree with your assessment of Don Draper and all the mad men. I think the show is successful because it shows the oppresive culture of the office in the 60s, especially the mistreatment of women, not at the hands of some all knowing, malicious evil genius, but rather at the hands of deeply flawed men, who have no outlet for understanding themselves.
As a woman who was in college in the 90s, already feeling quite emancipated with every option in front of me, I found it hard to relate to early feminist writings often discussed in classes. My feeling was that the constant railing against "male oppression" gave the sterotype of "men" alot of credit for having any power in the first place, and ignored the fact that life among men is a constant struggle for survival and recognition too. I have also always believed that the most hurtful treatment of others rarely comes from a malicious intent, but a total lack of self-awareness as well as lack of awareness of other people's feelings.
Mad men deals with the same social issues as a Betty Freidan or Gloria Steinam, but doesn't discuss them from the female point of view or the male point of view, rather demonstrates how it all works together as a social unit.
I love Mad Men, and the pre-feminist look it gives us into that era. But the show is true to the era in so many small ways, I am blown away.
There was an episode in the second (I think) season during which Dan, Betty and the kids are picnicking in a park. When they get up to go, they leave all their paper plates and wrappers on the grass. Wow. I remember when people actually did that! There was a print campaign at the time telling us "Don't Be a Litterbug!" Those throw-away moments (no pun intended) are what sets this show apart.
Yeah! Me too. And Lady Bird Johnson had her "Keep America Beautiful" campaign (I think that was the name). I remember driving on the highways, and people just throwing things out moving cars.
As if it would vanish.
I'm very happy to see a man recognize what I saw right off the bat about Mad Men. Notice the dates of the show. We're leading up to 1963, when the Feminine Mystique was published and its explosive effect on American households. Betty (named after Betty Friedan maybe?) is like an untended pot ready to boil over.
I'm reminded of how Sharon Stone's character in BASIC INSTINCT has since been reinterpreted as a feminist icon because she did as she would and never apologized for any of it.
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