When men were men. And women were skirts.
Vacuum cleaners, lipsticks and office desks: The
dynamics of gender in Mad Men’s female characters
Master Thesis
American Studies
Annemieke Conijn
5733944
Universiteit van Amsterdam
July 2014
[email protected]
Index
Introduction
p. 3
2. Mad Men as a cultural media product
p. 5
2.1 Mad Men as a ‘Quality TV’ production
p. 5
2.2 Complex narration
p. 11
3. Mad Men in a historical context: Analysis of
female Mad Men-characters: Betty, Peggy and Joan
p. 17
3.1 Femininity as a concept
p. 17
3.2 Analysis of Mad Men
p. 19
3.2.1. Betty Draper/Francis
p. 19
3.2.2 Peggy Olson
p. 36
3.2.3. Joan Harris/Holloway
p. 49
Conclusion
p. 55
References
p. 60
2
Introduction
Within popular culture, there seems to be a fascination for the past. Quite some cultural
products deal with several historical topics or try to portray a certain era. Movies like Django
Unchained or 12 Years a Slave and television series like Happy Days and That 70’s Show are
examples of these historical products that were created in another era. One of the most
rewarded (and rewarding) examples of these ‘historical’ products in the contemporary
television landscape is the series Mad Men, a series that deals with the late 1950s and the
decade of the 1960s.
Mad Men has been a research topic for historians because of its historical background
and its accuracy. These historians take Mad Men as a reflection of American society and
debate how it reflects history. Historian Beth Baily, for example, sees the series as one in
which history is ‘a main character’.1 It is a television series that deals with ‘hot topics’ from
the 1960s, such as the emancipation of women, capitalism, civil rights movement, the Cold
War and the presidencies of Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson.
The series was created in 2007 by Matthew Weiner and shows us the world of a
successful advertisement agency in New York City, in the late 1950s and the 1960s. This
agency, Sterling Cooper (Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in later seasons), is a site for though
business, sexual affairs, glamorous and charismatic people, and many, many, many dollars.
The private life of the characters shows a world outside the office and portrays ‘ordinary’ suburban lives with their partners and children. Since it takes place in another time period, it
offers the audience a fascinating insight of that era. The well-created and detailed world Mad
Men portrays is why historians like Baily praise the series for its use of history and its
historical accuracy.
I have to admit that I am a huge fan of the series and I love the world of creative
advertising and smooth salesmen. Main character and creative director Don Draper is actually
one of my favorite television characters ever because he is a skilled businessman and knows
how to get important business deals. But watching the series for quite some years now, I
noticed that the series does something very interesting with its main female characters. I was
fascinated by the differences between them; I admired Betty for her pretty and ‘feminine’
appearance, but at the same time, I supported Peggy for standing up for herself in a world that
1
‘In Mad Men, History Is a Main Character’, Newswise. September 17, 2009.
3
is dominated by men. I appreciated Joan for her professional attitude, but felt deeply sorry for
her when she became the victim of sexism. With this ambiguous feeling in mind, I decided to
further research the ‘deal about women’ on Mad Men. In this thesis, I will examine the series
and look at how the dynamics of gender exactly works. By ‘dynamics,’ I mean the situation of
gender as portrayed on the series and the susceptibility to social and economical change. How
does Mad Men portray the lives of women and how does it relate to these to their historical
context? This particular curiosity encouraged me to come up with the following research
question:
How does Mad Men portray the gender dynamics in its historical context as a
contemporary media production?
To answer this question, I will first look at the production of Mad Men as a television series to
get an understanding of what kind of product Mad Men exactly is and why this series is made
the way it is made. I will discuss Mad Men as a so-called ‘Quality TV’- production because
this type of television making, influences the way the past is portrayed in Mad Men. This will
be outlined in the second chapter.
In the third chapter, I will look at the historical context of Mad Men regarding
femininity and feminism. What did it mean to be a woman in the 1950s and 1960s and how
did they live? Why did the Second-Wave feminists gain prominence in the 1960s and what
where their arguments? The concepts ‘gender’ and ‘femininity’ will be explained on the basis
of well-known ‘gender’ scholars such as Judith Butler and these concept will be put in the
1960s context, on the basis of the rise of the Second-Wave feminists.
The fourth chapter includes the analysis of three important female characters from
Mad Men. These characters, Betty, Peggy, and Joan, their lives and struggles are analyzed.
These findings are connected to the historical background of Mad Men. This thesis will of
course be closed with the conclusion in which I will discuss the research question. How do
these women live their lives in the 1960s and how does Mad Men play with the gender
ideology of this era?
4
2. Mad Men as a cultural media product
In this chapter, I will introduce Mad Men (2007 - ) as a contemporary media product that can
be labeled as a so-called ‘Quality TV’-production, and I will point out how this type of
production has influenced the way Mad Men represents history.
2.1 Mad Men as a ‘Quality TV’ production
The American television production Mad Men premiered on June 17th 2007 on AMC and is as
of 2014 still a running show in the United States and other countries, including The
Netherlands where the show is broadcasted by broadcaster VARA. Matthew Weiner, also
famous for his work on the award winning show The Sopranos, is the creator of Mad Men and
is therefore an important person in the television industry.2
Before analyzing a series like Mad Men, I want to discuss the context of the series in
terms of production and appreciation. Since the introduction of television as a site for the
production of fiction, the medium has developed tremendously. As of 2014, there is a type of
television production that can be labeled as ‘Quality TV’ and Mad Men can be considered to
be such a production. Although the term ‘Quality TV’ does not have a very specific and
objective meaning, television scholars usually use the term to indicate the improving quality
of television series. The ‘Viewers for Quality Television Organization’ describes it as
something that ‘enlightens, enriches, challenges, involves and confronts. It dares to take risks,
it’s honest and illuminating, it appeals to the intellect and touches the emotions. It requires
concentration and attention, and it provokes thought. Characterization is explored (…)’3 The
American media scholar Robert Thompson has summarized several characteristics of ‘Quality
TV’ that originated from debates that other media scholars had about what ‘Quality TV’ is.
Among them are the following:
‘‘Quality TV’:
can be defined by what it is not. It is not ‘regular’ television
• usually has a quality pedigree. These are shows by artists whose reputations were made in
2
“Mad Men”, International Movie Database (IMDB), accessed August 29, 2013,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804503/.
3
Robert J. Thompson, Television’s Second Golden Age. From Hill Street Blues to ER (New York: Syracuse
University Press, 1997), 13
5
other, classier media, like film
• attracts an audience with blue chip demographics. The upscale, well-educated, urbandwelling, young viewers advertisers so desire to reach tend to make up a much larger
percentage of the audience than of other kind of programs
• tends to have a large ensemble cast. The variety of characters allows for a variety of
viewpoints since multiple plots must usually be employed to accommodate all of the
characters
• has a memory. These shows tend to refer back to previous episodes. Characters develop and
change as the series goes on and events and details from previous episodes are often used or
referred to in subsequent episodes
• creates a new genre by mixing old ones
• tends to be literary and writer-based. The writing is usually more complex than in other
types of shows
• is self-conscious. Oblique allusions are made to both high and popular culture, but mostly to
television itself. (…) Both the classier cultural references and the sly, knowing jabs at
television serve to distance these programs from the stigmatized medium and to announce that
they are superior to the typical trash available on television
• has a subject that tends toward the controversial. (…) The overall message almost always
tends toward liberal humanism. Jane Feuer stated that ‘Quality TV is liberal TV’
• aspires toward ‘realism’
• is usually enthusiastically showered with awards and critical acclaim.’4
What becomes clear from these characteristics, also according to Thompson, is that ‘Quality
TV’ has more or less become a genre on its own because it has this set of characteristics and
as viewers we know what to expect, just like we have expectations when we watch genres
such as westerns or police shows. Thompson suggests a certain predictability in these shows
because ‘the innovative elements that have come to define ‘Quality TV’ have become more
and more predictable’ and that one could ‘recognize a ‘quality show’ long before you could
tell if it was any good.’ Furthermore, it is something that was referred to as a ‘set of
characteristics that we normally associate with ‘good,’ ‘artsy’ and ‘classy.”5 As of 2014,
4
Thompson, Television’s Second Golden Age, 13-15.
5
Ibid., 16.
6
typical ‘Quality TV’ series are, for example, contemporary series like Lost, The Sopranos,
The Wire and indeed Mad Men. Media researcher Monique Miggelbrink has an interesting
approach towards Mad Men as a ‘Quality TV’-production in her article ‘Re-Evaluating
History in Mad Men.’6 She first considers Mad Men to be a ‘Quality’ series, which she
defines as a production with complex storylines and episodes that do not have a narrative
closure each episode but are linked together. She also states that this type of television
production is ‘accompanied by immense academic output, either due to formal considerations
or topics addressed.’ This statement is also applicable to Mad Men since the series uses subtle
references to academics such as Marshall McLuhan7 and addresses many important topics that
prove Mad Men’s intelligent writing, like feminism and capitalism.
A last point that I like to underline with regards to ‘Quality TV’ is a development that
had become quite interesting in contemporary television landscape. In their book Legitimating
Television, Michael Z. Newman and Elana Levine describe how television’s reputation has
improved and how the medium has become an interesting site for professionals from the film
industry. Furthermore, showrunners (the head of a television production) can now become socalled ‘auteurs’ and this is important for the legitimation of television as a culturally
important medium. It is this notion of ‘auteur’ and other authorship discourses that promoted
other cultural expressions such as art, music, painting and of course cinema as ‘culturally
legitimate.’ It is therefore common that cultural forms, especially the ‘newer’ forms such as
cinema and now television, are legitimated ‘through the identification of artworks with artists
who created them.’8
So Newman and Levine point out that showrunners in a television production can
eventually reach the status of an ‘auteur’ and by stating this, they show how the status of
television is elevated after a period in which television was symbolic for superficial and
trashy culture. They follow a discourse of ‘television authorship’ in relation to ‘Quality TV,’
in a way that was also used to define an ‘auteur’ in the film industry, namely by using six
‘tropes of authorship.’9 The following tropes give a good insight in the contemporary
6
Monique Miggelbrink, “Serializing the Past: Re-evaluating History in Mad Men,” Invisible Culture 17 (2012),
1, accessed July 5, 2014, http://ivc.lib.rochester.edu/portfolio/serializing-the-past-re-evaluating-history-in-madmen/.
7
Miggelbrink, “Serializing the Past,” 1.
8
Michael Z. Newman and Elana Levine, Legitimating Television. Media Convergence and Cultural Status (New
York: Routledge, 2012), 38.
9
Newman and Levine, Legitimating Television, 45.
7
television landscape and all of these are directly applicable to Mad Men:
1.) ‘The author as guarantee of art.’ This trope refers to a Romantic notion of authorship that
guarantees that an artwork should have an artist and that works without artists ‘do not count
as instances of art.’ Andrew Sarris adapted this idea to American film production and stated
that American cinema could be seen as an art form if directors were seen as authors. The same
could be said about television, since in this era the television author has gained prominence
and can be seen as the individual mastermind of a production. Some of these authors include
David Chase who created The Sopranos, J.J. Abrams from Lost and indeed Matthew Weiner
from Mad Men. These authors know how to differentiate their products from ‘degrading
forms of television’ and add aesthetic value to it.10
2.) ‘The author’s work as product of personal experience.’ This trope shows how
‘individuals who create culture are crafting expressions of their own concern within the
constraints of a commercial medium’ and it is ‘often manifested through the identification of
autobiographical elements in storytelling.’ So it helps us to see the creative function of the
author as we get to know that his or her life is a source of inspiration in the production.11
David Chase’s authorship on The Sopranos was noticeable through his Italian-American
background but also through his own experiences. The character Lydia was for example based
on the personality of his own mother, the setting of New Jersey is the one where Chase spent
his childhood and he explained that he used his psychotherapy as inspiration for the plot. It
exemplifies how television has the possibility to become ‘a personal medium in which one
individual’s vision can be realized, making TV shows subject to the same kind of interpretive
strategies that have long functioned as means of making sense of artistic works.’ ‘Quality
TV’-productions with authors are personal, in contrast to impersonal television productions
that lack such a strong authorship discourse, like soap operas.12
In the case of Mad Men, the personal influence of Matthew Weiner is certainly
noticeable. Not only does his son Marten play the role of Don’s daughter Sally’s friend, he
also expresses his personal feelings through the series. By means of interviews with the press,
Weiner explains his personal input on the series. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Weiner
10
Ibid., 45, 48.
11
Ibid., 48.
12
Ibid., 50.
8
states that he sees himself as a combination of the main characters Roger, Peggy, Don, Pete,
Joan and Betty. He also explained the meaning of Mad Men as a personal experience:
That’s what Mad Men is about: It is a construct for me to talk about how I feel about the
world, for me to talk about my family, my parents, my fantasies. To see my wish
fulfillments, trans my enemies, vanquish my fears or see them played out. Even just for a
lesson.13
In another interview with TVGuide.com, Weiner was asked why he made a drama series that
is set in the ‘60s instead of a contemporary drama. He answered as followed:
It was a period that I had been interested in intellectually, historically. My parents are
steeped in it and I love the art from that period. It was really a golden age, especially for
mass culture. Catch 22 was being read the way people read The Da Vinci Code now. When
you read a Jane Austen book, the manners really allow you to tell a story about what’s the
same and what’s different. I definitely felt like a lot of what I was writing about is the way
things are now and what we have lost and what changed.14
He also had to answer the question how Mad Men’s view of the ‘60s differs from other
portrayals in pop culture. Weiner answered that:
There was a huge revisionist thread in this. Being raised in the shadow of the baby
boomers, there was a version of the ’60 and ‘70s that was being passed down to us that was
all about how amazing these people were. And of course the big cliché was they’d all sort
of sold out. I was very interested in showing that cultural changes are drastic and huge and
there’s no denying them. I was not interested in just sugar-coating it and playing the Stones
and showing people with long hair. I was talking about what it is like to go through a big
change like that. What would the death of Kennedy look like?15
13
Eric Konigsberg, “Mad Men Creator Matt Weiner on His Hollywood Struggles and How George Lois Is Like
Tony Soprano, Not Don Draper,” Rolling Stone, September 3, 2010, accessed October 20, 2013,
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/mad-men-creator-matt-weiner-on-his-hollywood-struggles-and-howgeorge-lois-is-like-tony-soprano-not-don-draper-20100903.
14
Adam Bryant, “The Perfectionist: Matthew Weiner Turns the World Mad,” TVGuide.com, December 7, 2009,
accessed October 20, 2013, http://www.tvguide.com/news/perfectionist-matthew-weiner-1012872.aspx.
15
Bryant, “ The Perfectionist.”
9
What becomes clear is that Weiner was inspired to write and produce for Mad Men because of
his personal fascination for that particular era. He sees Mad Men as a means of selfexpression and says that he sees a part of him in the main characters, including, interestingly,
the female ones. This exemplifies the space that an author has in a television production,
because he is the ‘genius’ within this production.
3.) ‘The author’s works constituting an œuvre.’ The third trope shows how the
author’s identity needs to be transferred from the one production to the other in order to
‘guarantee of value within discourses of legitimating.’ This will eventually help television
networks to broadcast and promote the television program (‘from the creator of…’) and the
audience gets to signal specific signature styles and meanings. So this identification of
‘authorial marks’ through style and meanings across the works of an author proves to be an
effective commercial branding and is essential to discourses of authorship and artistry in
television.16 As for Weiner, the press and also the DVD boxes from Mad Men announce him
as ‘the creator of The Sopranos’ as the marker of quality. So Weiner being a writer of The
Sopranos guarantees the audience to have a production of high quality with Mad Men. For
example, the Dutch edition of the DVD box of season 1 announces Mad Men as the
‘frequently awarded series that is invented by The Sopranos-writer Matthew Weiner.’17
4.) ‘Attribution of artistry to the individual rather than a collaborating team.’ This
trope refers to the phenomenon that the artistic credits are often rewarded to the individual
mastermind of a production instead to the complete collaborating team. Of course, a sole
showrunner or writer cannot produce a television series completely on his own: he or she
needs a professional team, but author-discourses show that individuals are inevitably
promoted as solitary sources of meaning. The culture of ‘Quality TV’ distinction, therefore,
‘obscures the conditions of industrial media production and substitutes for collaborative
notions of authorship a Romantic vision of the autonomous individual.’18 Once again, popular
press often frames Matthew Weiner as the person who is the ‘genius’ behind Mad Men and
tends to ‘neglect’ the whole production team.
5.) ‘The author as celebrity.’ This trope connects to the greater role for the television
creator within a culture that celebrates creative individuals. Newman and Levine notice that
16
Newman, and Levine, Legitimating Television, 50, 53.
17
Mad Men. “The first season”, (A-Film and Lionsgate: 2009).
18
Newman, Levine, Legitimating Television, 53.
10
writer-producers now have new public roles and new opportunities to perform their function
as authors.19 As television has gained more appreciation as a medium, the author has got a
new status of celebrity and this results in more visibility in popular press and promotion.
Newman and Levine specifically mention the use of Twitter for the visibility and promotion
of the author. Showrunners like Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy) and Seth MacFarlane
(Family Guy) use Twitter and other social media to project their stardom, interact with the
audience and to offer a sense of ‘authentic and perpetual access to fans.’ Furthermore, they
are able to promote their shows by sending tweets and to establish an image of being ‘downto-earth’ because these media make it possible to interact.20
6.) ‘Authorship as elevation.’ The last trope that is mentioned by Newman and Levine
is more or less a summary of the other five tropes. The presence of an author is now central to
the legitimation of television and the culture of this legitimation aligns ‘Quality TV’ with
other cultural forms like cinema, literature and other forms of highly respected culture.21
2.2 Complex narration
Miggelbrink also refers to an important feature of ‘Quality TV’ that is also acknowledged by
the famous media scholar Jason Mittell, namely narrative complexity, a feature that can also
be found in Mad Men according to Miggelbrink.22 As Thompson and Miggelbrink already
pointed out, Mad Men can be seen as a production with a complex narration, a characteristic
of ‘Quality TV.’ It is in this light useful to refer to Jason Mittell and to highlight his idea of
‘narrative complexity,’ so that I can eventually point out how Mad Men’s historical
background on gender is portrayed through its characters and storytelling.
Narrative complexity is regularly included on ‘Quality TV’-shows and it distinguishes
itself from conventional modes of episodic and serial form.23 Mittell argues that the US
television era from 1990 until now is characterized by complexity, narrative experimentation
and innovation. He describes narrative complexity as something innovative for contemporary
19
Ibid., 55.
20
Ibid., 56-57.
21
Ibid., 57.
22
Miggelbrink, “Serializing the Past,” 1.
23
Jason Mittell, “Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television,” The Velvet Light Trap, 15
(2006), 29.
11
US television and something unique for the medium.24
Complex narration can be seen as a part of ‘Quality TV’ because many productions
with a complex narration appeal to a ‘boutique audience of more upscale educated viewers
who typically avoid television.’ It is something that can be reinforced by technology because
the audience gained more control over watching television thanks to time-shifting technology
like VCR and video recorders, so viewers can re-watch episodes for narrational clues or to
parse out complex moments. Furthermore, transformations from television to Internet make it
possible to ‘embrace a collective intelligence for information, interpretations and discussions
of complex narration that invite participatory engagement.’25 So the TV-landscape makes it
possible to come up with a more complex narration structure than a classical or simpler
structure that was often used before.
Audiences like this form of narration. They have got a more active role in consuming
this narration and they have to follow a more active and attentive process of understanding
‘the complex stories and modes of storytelling.’ So what is this type of storytelling? As
Mittell puts it:
At its most basic level, narrative complexity is a redefinition of episodic forms under the
influence of serial narration – not necessarily a complete merger of episodic and serial
forms but a shifting balance. Rejecting the need for plot closure within every episode that
typifies conventional episodic form, narrative complexity foregrounds ongoing stories
across a range of genres (…)26
Complex narration is self-conscious and has the ability to weave stories that will coincide.27 It
offers a mode of attraction; it uses narration as special effects and pushes aesthetics to the
foreground.28 Variations in storytelling are common and done with subtlety or delay. There is
no fear of temporary confusion for viewers. It may lack explicit storytelling cues and may
cause disorientation, so it is asking viewers to engage more to comprehend the story.
24
Mittell, “Narrative Complexity,” 29-30.
25
Ibid., 31.
26
Ibid., 32.
27
Ibid., 34.
28
Ibid., 35.
12
Temporary disorientation and confusion allow viewers to build up their comprehension skills
through long-term viewing and engagement.29 Viewers want to be surprised, thwarted as well
as satisfied with internal logic.30 So basically, complex narrations have many possibilities to
play with the audience and can reach several effects on the audience, based on their logic or
experience.
Miggelbrink argues that complex narration is crucial for Mad Men because it ‘is
significant in the way Mad Men chooses to tell its version of the 1960s.’ As its complex
narration features elements of nonlinear storytelling, (historical) events on the show are not
presented as a coherent narrative but are marked by dissonance.31 As she puts it more
concretely: ‘The Mad Men narrative offers its audience the opportunity to experience abstract
history through the life of different individuals’.32 Mad Men’s nature of a ‘Quality TV’
production is therefore important because it gives space for complex narration and thus the
ability ‘to balance and address the personal and the political within one complex narrative
trajectory.’33
In the case of Mad Men, playing with continuation is clearly visible and the series does
not always follow a classical, linear, chronological storytelling. Instead, storylines are
expanded over a number of episodes, or are ‘forgotten’ and referred to in following episodes.
So storylines that often involve the personal histories of the characters may remain unsolved
throughout the season.34 An example of this would be Peggy Olson’s secret pregnancy that
exemplifies her as a career woman as I will point out in the fourth chapter. This storyline
remains unsolved throughout several seasons; the biological father Pete Campbell does not
know about this pregnancy and the series does not refer to it until many episodes later.
Mad Men’s storyline is defined by ‘virtual events’ (dreams, memories, visions) that
motivate the continuation of the story. The audience learns through Don’s memory that he is
hiding his true identity and that he had adopted another identity during the Korean War,
through Don’s memories. And Betty’s dreams and fantasies reinforce her feelings, so Mad
29
Ibid., 37.
30
Ibid., 38.
31
Miggelbrink, “Serializing the Past,” 1.
32
Ibid.
33
Ibid.
34
Ibid.
13
Men uses these visual techniques to explain or define a character’s decision or personality.
Miggelbrink argues that Mad Men also uses elements like music, editing and title sequences
as narrative components, but for this research it is important to look at her arguments about
characters as agents of history. Interestingly, Miggelbrink shows that Mad Men’s own
memory is important for the representation of history because:
Firstly, the serial form entails that single episodes refer to each other throughout and thus,
as the show proceeds, Mad Men’s serial memory gains in depth. Episodes are generally
based on one another; nonlinear features like flashbacks, flash forwards, dreams, visions
and temporal gaps additionally deepen Mad Men’s narrative scope. Secondly, the show’s
mapping of the course of history of the 1960s – the first three seasons cover historical
events from 1960 to 1963 – characterizes the show’s capacity for memory. The slowly
building narrative allows for an expanded portrayal of history that captures the zeitgeist of
the larger era.35
Following this insight, one can argue that Mad Men gives much space to characters to show
their life and development, an approach that results in a retelling of the 1960s. Complex
narration (with the help of memories, time lapses, et cetera) gives the portrayal of characters a
greater depth. Miggelbrink states that complex narration focuses on the character’s inner life
and that an accumulation of details on the show results in character depth. She actually prefers
speaking of ‘character accumulation and depth’ instead of ‘character development’ and this
phenomenon is central to Mad Men’s narrative; the characters become ‘agents in its
reproduction of history.’ They become agents because the focus on their lives ‘stresses the
private aspect of history’ and ‘the audience becomes more and more involved in the
character’s daily life experiences as a part of cultural history of the 1960s.’36
As characters are portrayed throughout the seasons, they accumulate their own
biography and this is ‘determined and restricted by its historical context,’ but Miggelbrink
also underlines and quotes Matthew Weiner’s view (as author) on ‘his’ show: ‘I am interested
in how people respond to change. Are they exited by the change, or are they terrified that they
will lose everything that they know? Do people recognize that change is going on? That is
35
Ibid.
36
Ibid.
14
what the show is about.’37 He stresses the importance of change and development in another
interview about avoiding repetition on the show:
Just the fact that your characters are allowed to change…And that events that happen to
them on the show, that they have memories of them (…). History changing in a permanent
way is part of why I wanted to do the show. I’m going to tell this 10-year period, maybe
longer, in their life, and you will look back, no matter what. At that pilot, they were so
innocent then (…). The other thing that’s helping me from repeating myself, is that I have
been specific, not only about history, but also about the ages of the characters, and where
they live and what they do. Usually, writers don’t do this because they think it constrains
them. But for me, actually, if you’re allowed to change, the difference between what was
on my mind when I was 35 and what was on my mind now that I’m 45 is just huge. Being
able to show Peggy Olsen at 22 and eventually at 30, it’s going to be that story for me.
She’s going to be a different person, and the same person also. 38
Miggelbrink then continues to show why her article is so useful for this research with regard
to the historical context that involves gender, because she keeps arguing that Mad Men
portrays ‘an epoch in transition marked by social dissonances, and visualizes emerging
political turmoil and social change’ and that its characters ‘exemplify climaxes and turning
points in the history of that era as they live through them in their everyday lives.’ (…) ‘Their
feelings are captured in the midst of historical change: ‘All the characters seem to be
screaming in silence under their suits and skirts. On the inside, underneath their sleek
appearance, they feel frustrated about the social restrictions they have to cope with.’39
Furthermore, the course of history turns out to be a narrative stimulant because the
‘overall motivation for its continuous storylines can be found in the question of how the
characters respond to the historical context.’ So as Miggelbrink states, characters build up
biographies throughout the series and these are influenced by the time they live in. Characters
are therefore two folded; they are stereotypical depictions of that era, but their struggles with
37
Ibid.
38
Matthew Weiner, “Matthew Weiner, creator of Mad Men,” Online interview for World Screen, March 22,
2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us3m0Vtm5gQ.
39
Ibid.
15
the restrictions of that time can be seen as an implicit commentary of the show.40 The analysis
in the fourth chapter will show how this personification of history and abstract, political
context is constructed.
So what becomes clear from Miggelbrink’s valuable article is that Mad Men does not
relay on concrete historical events, but creates its historical context through characterization
and the biographies and developments of its characters through time. Mad Men does refer to
specific historical events. A famous scene from Mad Men shows how the characters learn
about the JFK assassination and we see how they respond to the announcement that Walter
Cronkite had to make on television (‘The Grown Ups,’ 3.12). But Mad Men is not about this
event, but rather deals with the emotional atmosphere and how people function in a changing
society.
It is clear by now that Mad Men is a contemporary television production that can be
considered to be a ‘Quality TV’ production, according to several media scholars. The
‘quality’ in Mad Men is that it contains complex narration. That is to say that the show has the
ability to play with narrative conventions, but more interestingly, it provides space for
character development and this is a very important part of the show, because it contributes to
the historical atmosphere of it since the characters are ‘historical agents of the 1960s.’ In the
following chapter, I will look at the historical context of Mad Men in terms of gender,
femininity and feminism.
40
Ibid.
16
3. Mad Men in a historical context: Analysis of female Mad Men-characters:
Betty, Peggy and Joan
In this chapter, I will analyze the three main female characters on Mad Men and I will look at
what type of woman they are. How do these characters relate to Mad Men’s historical
context? I will take a closer look at feminism that includes the Second Feminist Wave,
discuss the depiction of the ‘woman’ in images and relate this eventually to the main female
characters on Mad Men. Which historical representation is portrayed on the show and which
problems do the characters face as females from the ‘60s?
3.1 Femininity as a concept
In order to get a good understanding of the representation of female characters on Mad Men,
it is useful to look at the image of the American woman in the 1960s and the associated roles
that she had to fulfill. In academic work, and more specifically within Cultural Studies,
gender is a concept that has been researched and discussed by many researchers. One of the
most influential researchers on this topic is the American philosopher Judith Butler. She is the
Hannah Arendt Professor of Philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee in
Switzerland and is known for her innovative work on gender. She published well-known
books as Gender Trouble (1990) and Bodies that Matter (1993) in which she discusses the
meaning of gender and the consequences of gender related ideologies. One of her main
arguments is that sex (male or female) causes gender (masculine or feminine) that eventually
leads to the desire towards the opposite gender.41
In addition to the concept of gender, Butler comes up with her theory of
‘performativity.’ This theory sees a gender identity as ‘multiple, fluid and changing.’ Gender
is in fact an act that is performed and this act has been rehearsed over and over again: ‘Gender
ought not to be constructed as a stable identity…rather gender is an identity tenuously
constructed through time, instituted in an exterior space through a stylized repetition of
acts.’42
41
“Biography Judith Butler,” The European Graduate School, online biography, accessed October 28, 2013,
http://www.egs.edu/faculty/judith-butler/biography.
42
Ruth Jeanes, “I’m into high heels and make up but I still love football: exploring gender identity and football
and football participation with preadolescent girls,” Soccer & Society 12, No. 3, (2011), 405; Judith Butler,
Bodies that matter: on the discursive limits of sex (London: Routledge,1990), 140.
17
‘Performativity’ thus refers to men and women who behave according to their gender,
according to what society expects what is male and female behavior. This may result in
behavior (active men or passive women), their looks (a suit or a dress) or their roles within
society (the working man or the housewife). What is important for this notion of
‘performativity’ is that these acts are continually being scripted through hegemonic social
conventions and ideologies. Gender is therefore not natural but socially constructed under the
influence of dominant ideologies that have been established as ‘natural and normal.’ Butler
recognizes, however, that there is potential to challenge these discourses through alternative
performative acts. Scholar Ruth Jeanes quotes the American sociologist Messner about gender
performances: ‘The idea of gender as performative analytically foregrounds agency of
individuals in the construction of gender, thus highlighting the situational fluidity of gender:
here, conservative and reproductive, there, transgressive and disruptive.’43
Although Messner refers to agency of individuals, the ideas of Butler make clear that
this agency is also set within existing power regimes and that alternative performances are not
that free from dominant ideologies. This is the point where Butler speaks about a
‘heterosexual matrix,’ because the possibility for individuals to act multiple performances
within different contexts remains within dominant ideologies. That is to say that within this
‘heterosexual matrix,’ dominant notions of what is femininity and masculinity are still the
‘expected norm.’ It is therefore a risk to perform gender acts outside the matrix because one
may be called ‘not a real woman’ or ‘not normal.’ That is why, as Butler sees it, females feel
forced to confirm the norms, so that they will remain ‘a viable subject.’ If one performs a socalled ‘alternative counter-femininity’ and transgresses the norms for gender, which is
possible, it is seen as ‘difficult and sometimes unadvisable.’ In Butler’s view, these
expressions of femininity are regulated and controlled through a power structure and gender
constructions exist in a space of acceptability.44
Jeanes underlines the importance and relevance of the ‘performativity’ concept for her
study of girls who play football (soccer). It is also of relevance for the understanding of the
dynamics of gender in Mad Men because, as Jeanes puts it, it provides an understanding of
how women can perform several femininities (within a specific context) while they are
confronted with restrictions that dominant norms put on the performances. Furthermore, the
43
Jeanes, “I’m into high heels and make up but I still love football,” 405.
44
Ibid.; Butler, Bodies that matter, 232.
18
space for individual agency can be useful to understand how ‘non-feminine’ activities
contribute to a change of gender norms and how they give space for ‘counter-femininities.’45
So summarizing, gender is a cultural performance in which someone has to fulfill the
cultural and time-bound expectations, so he or she fits within the heterosexual matrix. It
provides some space to ‘perform’ another act, but when someone does this, it might lead to a
lack of acceptance or other forms of negative judgment. In the context of Mad Men, it is
necessary to look at the status of the female gender and how this is constructed so that I can
eventually determine what this concept means in the Mad Men-era and how it is represented.
3.2 Analysis of Mad Men
The Mad Men-era from season 1 to season 5 runs from the beginning of 1960 to
approximately 1967. The three characters that are analyzed in this research, are Betty Draper,
Joan Holloway and Peggy Olson, three women in their twenties and thirties.
3.2.1 Betty Draper/Francis (January Jones)
Betty Draper (born as Betty Hofstadt, became Betty Draper and later Betty Francis), is one of
Mad Men’s main character. As of the beginning of the series until the third season, she was
married to Donald ‘Don’ Draper, a creative director of advertisement agency Sterling Cooper,
but they separated and Betty later remarried political advisor Henry Francis. Betty has three
children with Don and lives in Ossining, a place close to New York City. She is an educated
woman, who spends her days as a housewife, wife and mother.
The American society of 1960 had some very specific thoughts on men, women and
their roles, that had its origins in previous decades. A meaningful indication of the 1950s
would be the McCall’s magazine’s invention of the term ‘togetherness,’ which celebrates the
ideal couple in society: ‘the man and woman who centered their lives on home and children.’
46
The demographical statistics show that Americans would wed at an earlier age than their
parents and became earlier parents than the previous generation. During the 1950s, the
average age for men to get married fell to 22 and for women to 20, ratings that were lower
45
Jeanes, “I’m into high heels and make up but I still love football,” 406.
46
Paul S. Boyer et al., The Enduring Vision. A History of the American People. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 2008) 844.
19
than during the years before the war.47 Due to medical inventions such as new antibiotics,
diseases as polio or whooping cough were under control and helped to decline childhood
mortality and to raise the life expectancy. Between 1946 and 1964, so many babies were born
that this so-called baby boom led to a reinforcement of the idea that the woman’s place was at
home. Motherhood became an increasingly demanding task and mothers had to create an
environment full of love and care for their children. This was also emphasized and reinforced
by Dr. Benjamin Spock, who wrote Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care in 1946 and
urged women to stay at home to create this atmosphere that children need for their process in
becoming an adult.48 These kinds of publications indicate expectations about gendered roles,
expectations confirmed by interviews that Jessica Weiss had with men and women from the
1950s and 1960s:
Wives expected good housekeeping of themselves and struggled to maintain their standards
and their husbands’ too. Role expectations for husbands revolved around breadwinning and
authority in the home, although husbands also ran up against their wives’ demands for
sharing household duties.49 (…) These women worked valiantly to keep house and fill the
proper feminine role. 50
Media like The Tender Trap, Life, and Housekeeping Monthly underlined the woman’s task to
be a full-time mother for her children and to be supportive for her husband, so the popular
press portrayed the woman as one with a task in the domestic space. The Housekeeping
Monthly published an article ‘The Good Wife’s Guide’ (1955) to point out some rules to
follow, in order to be a good woman. The article points out that:
· Catering to his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction
· Don’t complain if he is home late for dinner or stays out all night
· Don’t ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment
· A good wife always knows her place
Furthermore, the role of women outside her home remained limited compared to men
and they followed a stereotypical gendered pattern. In the case of education, girls were taught
47
Jessica Weiss, To Have and To Hold: Marriage, the Baby Boom, and Social Change, (Chicago: The
University Press, 2000) 17.
48
Boyer et al., The Enduring Vision, 845.
49
Weiss, To Have and To Hold, 31-32.
50
Ibid., 32.
20
cooking and typing while boys learned carpentry and coursers that focused on a professional
career. If girls wanted to attend college to get a degree, they were ‘warned’ by guidance
counselors that ‘men were not interested in a college degree but in the warmth and humanness
of the girls they marry.’ In terms of college participation, there were more men than women
who actually went to college and only a third of these women completed a degree. In terms of
jobs, a significant change took place during the 1950s. In 1952, there were 2 million more
women who worked outside the homes than during World War II and as of 1960, a third of
the workers were female, of which 60% was married and added her income to her family
income. However, these women were forced back to fill low-paid and gender segregated jobs
in which they could not develop themselves or show their personal ambition. 51 Sociologist
Mirra Komarovsky underlined the situation and stated that people were living in a time ‘when
marriage in the urban middle class is already strained by the fact that husband and wife live in
two separate worlds’ and feared that differentiation between men and women had (negative)
consequences for marriage.52
For this research of gender on Mad Men, where the main characters focus on advertising
for mass media, it is interesting to mention the introduction of television in American society
because television has the ability to define, repeat or reinforce values. Television became
really popular in the 1950s and by 1960s; nine out of ten American families had a television.
What is very important to note here, is that American television has ever since been a
commercial medium, unlike its Dutch counterpart: in the Netherlands commercial television
was not introduced until the end of the 1980s. As for American television, the three big radio
networks ABC, CBS and NBC included almost every TV station and gained enormous profit
by selling broadcast time to advertisers who wanted to reach as many people as possible.
One of the consequences of the commercial nature of the medium and the fact that
many women were at home, is that consumerism through advertising was strongly
encouraged. Television was the medium that could convince its middle-class suburban
audience that consumerism was the basis for the good life. There were many productions on
television that included a ‘suburban, consumer-oriented, upper-middle class family’ and they
portrayed ‘perfectly coiffed moms who loved to vacuum in high heels, frisky yet ultimately
obedient kids, and all-knowing dads who never lost their tempers.’53 In the 1950s, television
51
Ibid.
52
Weiss, To Have and to Hold, 19.
53
Ibid., 847.
21
mainly functioned as conservator of existing values and institutions. The medium had the
ability to reinforce the dream of being included in current American society, rather than
change it. And so showing toys or products for house holding spread the message of
consumerism, which made Americans more and more name brand conscious.54 Since men had
the role of breadwinner, women took on the role of consumer:
The middle-class ideal included the notion that wives are not supposed to work for wages.
Raising children and managing a household was a mark of leisure-class status. With their
husbands at work, women were the center of life, but with a new imperative: to become
modern housewives – that is, the new consumers. 55
Together with advertisements for magazines, television commercials have a time-reflective
ability because they have to respond to the norms and values of their audience. As for gender,
Anthony Cortese points out how advertising has a lot to do with gender because it uses visual
images of men and women to get attention. It shows images of how we think men and women
should behave and not necessarily how they actually behave. In this process, advertising
images give us culturally determined ideal types of masculinity and femininity, which lead to
images of femininity as ‘dependent, superficial beauty, focus on family and nurturance and
fear of technology.56
Because the idea of domesticity was so strong in the post-war era, many
advertisements responded to this and addressed housewives with their products because these
products could make them a better housewife and mother, and therefore a better woman.
These advertisements, which might labeled ‘sexist’ in contemporary society, depict women
and their femininity in a very specific way. It not unusual to depict them in a domestic setting,
including an apron, kitchen and children around her, and she has this specific product that
makes her life easier. She may serve dinner or prepare breakfast, or just enjoys her family life.
As an interview with a housewife of that time makes clear, women were aware of this media
image:
54
Ibid., 848.
55
Rosalyn Baxandall and Elizabeth Ewen, Picture Windows: How the Suburbs Happened (New York: Basic
Books, 2000), 148.
56
Anthony Joseph Paul Cortese, Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising (Lanham:
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2004), 51-52.
22
To say that media doesn’t affect our lives is to say radiation has no harmful affects. Both
change us, but we don’t feel it’s happening. I remember watching those TV commercials
with those women so overly concerned with how the kitchen floor shined, and of course I
never pictured myself that way, but I tell you, if a relative or friend stopped by
unannounced and my house wasn’t in order, I almost felt like a failure. There was this
pressure to be the perfect housekeeper. I mean now that I had this home I ‘had’ to be Donna
Reed. These messages were so subtle, but they had obvious effects. 57
The blog ‘American Memory of the 1950s Housewife’ quotes William Young and Nancy
Young from their book The 1950s, who stated that American advertisements ‘exhibited
rampant stereotyping and gender bias throughout the 1950s, and the idea that a woman should
live for her husband and family became a dominant image. (…) They portrayed American
women as possibly the best-dressed housekeepers ever seen. They wore elegant dresses, high
heels, jewelry (the pearl necklace seems almost de rigueur), and smile as they dust and
vacuum.’58 Some interesting examples of the portrayal of women and their femininity would
be the following ads from the 1950s:
59
60
61
57
Baxandall
and Ewen, Picture Windows, 150.
58
“Stereotypes”, American Memory of the 1950s Housewife, accessed November 6, 2013,
http://americanmemoryofthe1950shousewif.bgsu.wikispaces.net/Stereotypes.
59
“35 Extremely Sexist Ads That You Should See”, NeatDesigns, accessed November 6, 2013,
http://neatdesigns.net/35-extremely-sexist-ads-that-you-should-see/.
60
“10 Most Sexist Print Ads from the 1950s – 7. Lysol,” Business Pundit, posted by ‘Julian’, December 10,
2012, http://businesspundit.com/10-most-sexist/print-ads-from-the-1950s/?img21459.
23
These really interesting ads are created for respectively Hoover, Lysol and Mornidine. The
women on the left finds a Hoover vacuum cleaner on Christmas and the ad says that ‘she’ll be
happier with a Hoover.’ It underlines her role in her home and the advertisement claims that
she will be even happier when she has such a product, that this is what she dreams of as a
housewife. Another layer in this print ad is the role of her husband: because she gets this
vacuum cleaner as a present, the ad suggests that the husband buys it for her, a normal feature
for the breadwinner of the family.
The middle advertisement is portraying Lysol, a preparation for ‘complete feminine
hygiene.’ It states that without this product, the woman risks a failed marriage. Because ‘often
a wife fails to realize that doubts due to one intimate neglect shut her out from happy married
love.’ The ad continues by saying that:
A man marries a woman because he loves her. So instead of blaming him if married love
begins to cool, she could question herself. Is she truly trying to keep her husband and
herself eager, happy married lovers? One most effective way to safeguard her dainty
feminine allure is by practicing complete feminine hygiene as provided by vaginal douches
with a scientifically correct preparation like ‘Lysol.’ So easy a way to banish the
misgivings that often keep married lovers apart.62
What happens here is that the woman is more or less the one to blame when her marriage fails
because she could have prevented it by using Lysol. Her femininity is directly addressed
because this is a product that she needs to use in order to guarantee her ‘dainty feminine
allure’; it also helps her in her efforts to keep her marriage healthy and good. Thanks to Lysol,
she can unlock the door to her husband.
The last advertisement for Mornidine depicts a, of course, happy woman who is
preparing breakfast for her family. Mornidine was a drug that was introduced to stop morning
sickness and vomiting. The double role of the woman becomes perfectly clear because this ad
shows the woman as someone who can and has to bear children, and as someone who needs
to complete her tasks as a housewife. Pregnant women happen to feel sick in the morning, but
thanks to Mornidine, she feels better and can ‘cook breakfast again…when you prescribe new
61
“10 Most Sexist Print Ads from the 1950s – 7. Mornidine,” Business Pundit, posted by ‘Julian’, December 10,
2012, http://businesspundit.com/10-most-sexist/print-ads-from-the-1950s/?img21460.
62
“10 Most Sexist Print Ads from the 1950s – 7. Lysol.”
24
Mornidine.’ As a result, the depicted lady represents the perfect image because she is
pregnant and she cooks.
These three advertisements show how consumerism can play an important role for the
image of the woman. Women have a task to fulfill and by means of consuming and buying
these products, they can make life easier. She has a family that needs to live a happily and she
also has to follow the notions of femininity because that will make her life better (and
eventually save her marriage). It is also important to note that these advertisements address a
specific public, namely the white, middle-class, suburban family who are able to consume.
Women also appeared in another way in advertisements, namely in a role outside the
home. This is not to say that women were portrayed in equal situations as men, but in the
context of so-called ‘occupational stereotyping,’ such as nurses, glamorous singers or
actresses et cetera.63 This was the case in, for example, cigarette advertisements in which
famous American actresses underlined the pleasures of a cigarette, as depicted in the
following ads:
64
65
The left advertisement shows how American mezzo-soprano singer Risë Stevens promotes
Camel cigarettes by answering the question why she smokes cigarettes of this brand. She is
the ‘lovely star of the Metropolitan Opera’ and is put in a glamorous setting, in front of the
63
Margaret R. Andrews and Mary M. Talbot, All the World and Her Husband. Women in the twentieth century
consumer culture, (London: Cassell, 2000), 178.
64
“Camel,” Vintage Ad Browser, accessed November 7, 2013, http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/tobacco-ads1950s.
65
“Chesterfield,” Vintage Ad Browser, accessed November 7, 2013, http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/tobaccoads-1950s/3.
25
Opera building, and wearing a beautiful dress and jewelry. She holds the cigarette in such a
way that can be labeled as feminine and elegant. The advertisement on the right is promoting
Chesterfield cigarettes and shows how women can also be put in a context of ‘labor,’ because
she is at work. However, she in a position that Andrews and Talbot would call ‘occupational
stereotyping’ because as a stewardess, she is functioning as a servant and more or less
extending the idea of domesticity in the sense that she has to create a comfortable
environment.
Advertisements can give away ideas about gender as these examples showed and
stereotyping is a very important factor in this because people can relate to stereotyping. The
stereotypical woman as depicted in advertisement is either a housewife, glamorous feminine
star or has a gender-related job that suggests her caring tasks. However, these ideas about
gender and expected roles were subject to change as feminists from the Second Feminist
Movement began to demand awareness of their situation. I will return to that point later, but
for now I will continue to look at Betty.
In the context of femininity and gender roles, Betty proves to be a very interesting
character because she is a stereotypical, suburban housewife who has quite a few struggles
that have to do with her married life. Betty could be seen as the perfect illustration of Betty
Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (is it a coincidence that Mrs. Draper’s name is Betty?). She
had education but spends her adult life as a housewife and provides a comfortable home so
that her husband and children and herself have a good environment to live in. Although she is
a housewife, she does not have to do the entire housekeeping by herself because as a member
of an upper-class family she can afford to have a maid, the Afro-American Carla.
Betty is a classy woman. As an upper-class wife she gets to wear beautiful dresses,
precious jewelry and pretty handbags and this turns out to be very useful in her function as
‘wife.’ After all, she is the wife of a successful salesman and this means that she has to be the
lovely, supportive and charming partner of Don. Throughout the first three seasons, Betty
regularly accompanies Don at dinners with business partners and because she cannot discuss
the business affairs, she mainly functions as Don’s beautiful accessories and as evidence of
Don’s family life. She knows what it takes to be a good housewife and in this sense, she could
be one of the housewives depicted in advertisements because Betty is feminine in many
aspects of the 1960s ideology. She is beautiful, wears feminine (but not too sexy) clothes,
takes care of the children, supports her husband, and moves around in her domestic setting.
Although Betty has Carla for the Draper house holding, Mad Men does show how Betty
organizes her home for her family, but she also turns out to be a good hostess when the
26
Drapers are having parties or dinners. Connecting Butler’s idea of the ‘heterosexual matrix’ to
Mad Men’s historical context, we can safely say that Betty ‘performs’ her feminine role
according to the 50s-60s norms very well and she does not try to come up with alternative
gender acts.
However, despite her good looks, healthy family, and material properties, Betty has a
problematic mind and she shows inner complexities. The first episode of the first season,
‘Smoke gets in your Eyes’ (1.1), is the episode in which Betty appears for the first time and
the audience meets her in her domestic surrounding. She is lying on bed while she waits for
her husband to come home from work, an image that will regularly appear on the series. This
episode does not go into detail concerning Betty’s life, but the second episode shows an
interesting portrayal of what her life looks like. In the episode ‘Ladies Room’ (1.2), the series
shows how Betty has some physical problems with her hands. Medicals do not bring to light a
cause for this problem and Betty concludes somewhat disappointed that ‘there is physically
nothing wrong’ with her. The doctor advises her to see a psychiatrist, but Betty has still some
doubts about this. She discusses this with her husband Don and asks whether he thinks she
should indeed go see a psychiatrist. Don replies:
Don: I always thought people saw a psychiatrist when they were unhappy, but
when I look at you…and this (the home)...and them (the children)…and that
(Betty’s pretty face). And I think, are you unhappy?
Betty: Of course, I am happy.
Don: That would be 35 dollars. You’re welcome.
Betty: -smiles- Whatever you think is best.
Don: Good. (‘Ladies Room,’ 1.2)
What happens here, is that Betty questions her need to go see a psychiatrist. But Don
convinces her that she only has to look around her to see what se has got, so that she realizes
that she is happy. Why do you need to go see a psychiatrist when you have a lovely family?
There is another interesting scene in this episode that allows the audience to enter into Betty’s
mind and that reveals some of her mental struggles. Don comes home from work and got her
a present. Betty happily receives it, but starts to talk about the car crash she had with her
children. They remained unharmed, but Betty worries about the bruise on the face of her
daughter Sally.
27
Betty: What if she had gotten a scar? Something permanent?
Don: I don’t wanna play ‘what if’…
Betty: I’m just saying, if this would happen to Bobby it would have been okay
because a boy with a scar is nothing, but a girl…so much worse…
Don: Nothing happened!
Betty: I keep…thinking…Not that I could have killed the kids, but…worse…Sally
could have survived and got on living with this horrible scar in her face
and…some…long, lonely, miserable life…Don, what’s happening to me? Do I
need to see someone?
Don: I don’t know. I guess so. Whatever you want -kisses Betty- (‘Ladies Room,’
1.2)
Betty remains upset and does not seem to be able to specifically express her unhappy feelings
and problems. She hesitates in her expressions and seems to unconsciously project her
feelings on her daughter Sally. Would Sally really have a long, lonely and miserable life when
she has a scar on her face, or is it an expressions of worry because Betty does not want her
daughter to feel how her mother feels?
It is still in the same episode that Betty sees a psychiatrist and tries to explain her
feelings. She is lying on the couch and says:
Betty: I don’t know why I’m here. I mean, I do. I’m nervous I guess. Anxious. I
don’t sleep that well. And my hands, well they’re fine now… It’s like when you’re
having a problem with your car and you go to a mechanic and it’s not doing it
anymore. Not that you are a mechanic…I guess a lot of people must come here
worried about the bomb. Is that true? It’s a common nightmare people say…I read
it in a magazine…My mother always told me it wasn’t polite to talk about yourself.
She passed away recently. I guess I already said that…Can I smoke in here?
(‘Ladies Room,’ 1.2)
After this session, it becomes clear that Don has personal contact with this psychiatrist and
asks him about Betty, but her feelings remain not understood and Betty is not cured. Although
it cannot be proved that Betty’s mental problems are caused by her life as a housewife, it is
likely that her frustrations originate in her domestic life because she has no other life. She
28
feels nervous and frustrated, she finds out about her husband Don’s affairs with other women
and has an affair on her own, she is disappointed when she finds out that Don has always been
lying to her about his true identity, she has conflicts with her daughter every now and then,
and eventually loses self-confidence as she gains weight and loses somewhat of her beauty.
Betty’s psychological condition is a strong indication that Mad Men is inspired by
Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, a feminist publication that had a large impact on
women in American society. Mad Men takes place in an era in which the social structures
were strongly related to gender; women were stimulated to stay at home and to take care of
the house. Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963) became an important indication of an
awareness of the women’s situation. She wrote her book in order to create awareness about a
‘problem that has no name.’ She criticized the traditional ideas about gender roles and
domesticity, and clearly underlined a phenomenon in which women do not feel happy at all.
Friedan portrays the suburban housewife as one who can no longer find satisfaction in her
role, and (un) consciously asks herself whether this is all, even though society tells her
otherwise:
For over fifteen years there was no word of this yearning in the millions of words written
about women, for women, in all the columns, books and articles by experts telling women
their role was to seek fulfillment as wives and mothers. Over and over women heard in
voices of tradition and of Freudian sophistication that they could desire no greater destiny
than to glory in their own femininity.
66
This relates to the advertisements that were discussed earlier in this chapter, because these ads
also tell them to ‘glory in their femininity.’ Friedan also notes that truly feminine women ‘do
not want careers, higher education, or political rights that the old-fashioned feminists fought
for.’67 She refers to the idea of domesticity that kept women at home, and described in her
book how the suburban wife is the dream image of every woman in the United States, exactly
Betty Draper’s situation. If she was healthy, beautiful, educated and had only concerns about
her family, she had found ‘true feminine fulfillment.’ This mystique of feminine fulfillment
66
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1963), 15.
67
Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, 16.
29
became the core of American society in the fifteen years after World War II and Friedan
repeats the image of the woman who kisses her husband on his way to work goodbye and then
cleans the bed sheets.68
When women felt that they had a problem, it was either her marriage or herself. This is
the point where Friedan clearly described the problem of these women, as they got more and
more an undefined feeling about their life. Women were afraid to talk about this certain
dissatisfaction they had and if they did, their husbands did not understand them. Many women
went to see a psychiatrist and had vague expressions about their feelings, like ‘I don’t know
what’s wrong with me today.’ However, the majority did not go to see a specialist and denied
the problem for themselves (‘there isn’t any problem’).69 Betty shows the same expressions
during the sessions with the psychiatrist and she has that same undefined feeling as Friedan
described in The Feminine Mystique.
Friedan realized that many (suburban) American women, from New York to
Memphis, shared ‘the problem that has no name.’ ‘The problem’ was expressed in several
ways, like ‘I feel like as if I don’t exist,’ or ‘I feel empty somehow…incomplete.’70 As the
new decade of the ‘60s started, the (media) image of the perfect housewife became the
opposite of other reports that covered ‘the problem.’ Friedan mentions the 1960 Time article
‘The Suburban Wife, an American Phenomenon’ that dealt with women who were ‘having
too good a time…to believe that they should be unhappy’ and summarizes how media started
to report the unhappiness of the American housewife.71
In her chapter ‘The problem that has no name’ from The Feminine Mystique, Friedan
makes clear that ‘it is no longer possible to ignore that voice’ and this ‘is not what being a
woman means, no matter what experts say.’ She strongly rejects the arguments that women
are happy because they live a luxurious life that other generations did not have: ‘Part of the
strange newness of the problem is that it cannot be understood in terms of the age-old material
problems of man: poverty, sickness, hunger, cold. The women who suffer this problem have a
hunger that food cannot fill.’72 But women felt, although experts and media told them that
68
Ibid., 17-18.
69
Ibid., 19.
70
Ibid., 20.
71
Ibid., 22.
72
Ibid., 26.
30
being a housewife made them happy, that there were ‘more fulfilling activities in life than
cooking meals, cleaning house, and chauffeuring children to school and lessons.’73 This was
all said in a context in which Friedan portrays a society that limits women in mind and spirit,
because it limits women with ‘chains that are made up of mistaken ideas and misinterpreted
facts, of incomplete truths and unreal choices.’74 And so Friedan’s book turned out to be an
important publication for the feminists in the 1960s. Friedan accomplished that many women
started to realize their situation and that there was more than being a housewife. They had no
life outside the home like their husbands had.75 This feeling of being trapped was not caused
by economic necessity, but by the desire to make a choice about their identity and selfdevelopment.76 Throughout the seasons, Mad Men does not let Betty be entirely happy and
her life remains somewhat limited because her job is at home. Betty does go to horseback
riding clubs, for example, but does not have a job in which she can develop herself. She
misses therefore quite an interesting part of the 1960s gender dynamics that other female
characters like Peggy and Joan face.
Friedan’s work proved to be a useful eye-opener for women in the United States.
However, bell hooks provides an interesting criticism of Friedan and The Feminine Mystique.
She acknowledges that Friedan’s work is important, but also states that Friedan exclusively
focuses on ‘college-educated, middle- and upper-class, married white women – housewives
bored with leisure, with the home, with children, with buying products, who wanted more out
of life.’ Furthermore, she did not speak of ‘the needs of women without men, without
children, without homes. She ignored the existence of all non-white women and poor white
women.’77 Brian Ward, professor at the University of Manchester, agrees:
Friedan’s own career, which combined journalism and motherhood, offered a reminder that
some women did manage to escape, if only partially, the shackles of the cult of domesticity.
Moreover, as a heterosexual middle-class white professional and a graduate of the
73
Daniel
Horowitz, Betty Friedan and the Making of the Feminine Mystique: The American Left, the Cold War,
and Modern Feminism (Sheridan Books, 1998), 3.
74
Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, 31.
75
Michael S. Kimmel, “The Birth of an Independent Woman Part 1,” documentary, interviews for bonus
features for the second season of Mad Men, (A-Film and Lionsgate, 2009).
76
Horowitz, Betty Friedan and the Making of the Feminine Mystique, 2.
77
bell
hooks, Feminist Theory. From Margin to Center, (London: Pluto Press, 2000), 1-2.
31
prestigious Smith College, her insight often had more resonance for educated women of her
own class, race, and sexual orientation than they did for poor, black, Hispanic women or
lesbians. Nevertheless, The Feminine Mystique endures as a sharp analysis of the position
of many women in America in the early 1960s, simultaneously identifying and helping to
usher in the modern feminist movement.
78
Although Betty has many similarities with Friedan’s women from The Feminine Mystique,
this does not mean she has nothing in common with the other female Mad Men characters.
Betty faces a part of femininity that was subject to change in the 1960s, namely the discovery
of her own sexuality and the control of it and this influenced both working women and the
housewife. Under the influence of publications like Helen Gurley Brown’s Sex and the Single
Girl (1962) and D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928, no longer banned in 1959),
which showed that women can actually enjoy sex, it is no coincidence that Betty’s sexual
fantasies are revealed. An important part of the ‘female liberation’ is the sexual revolution
during the 1960s. Due to this revolution, the age of a girl getting married was up for a change
because, before the sexual revolution, the age of marrying was declining and this resulted in
the focus on domesticity and marriage. Women got sex at a younger age and they thought that
they had to get married for this. This idea was gone at the end of the 1960s.79 In these years,
there were several ‘conscious-raising groups’ that stimulate women to ‘discover’ themselves
and to ‘look what they have got down there.’ This point of view was quite new because there
were many conceptions of women (based on religious and shame) as sexless persons. The
most dramatic change in terms of the feminist revolution occurred when the pill became
widely available for unmarried women. The pill helped women to control their own sexuality
and reproduction, which had a liberating influence on their sexuality. This new and relatively
safe invention also made sure that women could control their wish to get pregnant (or better
said, to avoid pregnancy) and allowed them to focus on their career, instead of creating a
family.80 But with the introduction of the new power over pregnancy, the discussion about
abortion received a new impulse and became more public. However, although women of
means who wanted an abortion were likely to find a doctor, it remained a ‘unregulated
industry without guarantees.’ There were legal clinics, but there were also many medical
78
Brian Ward, The 1960s. A Documentary Reader, (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 125.
79
DuBois, “The Birth of an Independent Woman Part 2.”
80
York Blaine, “The Birth of an Independent Woman Part 2.”
32
doctors who wanted to take advantage of women, did not treat them well and did not make
sure that the correct procedures were followed. This whole debate about sexuality and the
consequences of it took place in a patriarchal society that told women that they should bear
children81 and this is the struggle that many women faced, and feminists wanted to fight,
because an independent woman can make her own choices.
In the episode ‘Indian Summer’ (1.11) Betty is doing the laundry with her laundry
machine. While she feels the vibrating rhythm of the machines, she starts to daydream about
the air conditioning salesman she met that day and imagines how she is making out with him
on top of the laundry machine. Betty’s lust and sexual being are also portrayed in
‘Meditations in Emergencies’ (2.13) when she has a one-night-stand with a guy she picked up
in a bar, and when she starts an affair with Henry Jenkins, the man whom she will eventually
marry (‘Wee Small Hours’ (3.9)).
A part of her sexuality that relates to the ideology of domesticity is the fact that Betty
got pregnant of Don at the end of the second season. While her marriage is very unstable and
she and Don live separate from each other, she learns in ‘Meditations in Emergencies’ (just
before she picks up the guy at the bar) from her doctor that she is pregnant, which leads to the
following conversation:
Doctor: So, as I thought last week, the spotting was not caused by horseback
riding but rather, as I suspected, you’re going to have another baby.
Betty: -disappointed- ….Oh…really…
Doctor: Well, we have been here before. You’ll have to start eating right, sleeping,
avoid strenuous activity, no riding…Just take it easy, that’s what husbands are for.
Betty: -sights- I can’t believe this.
Doctor: I understand it was a surprise, but blessings come that way.
Betty: Of course.
Doctor: I need you to undress, so I can examine you.
Betty: Dr. Aldrich? Are you sure?
Doctor: Are you concerned about your appearance? You’ve been blessed with
them…very resilient figure.
Betty: Dr. Aldrich, I can’t have a baby right now.
Doctor: -looks serious- Mrs. Draper, for having the conversation I think we’re
81
Emily Bazelon, “The Birth of an Independent Woman Part 2,” documentary, interviews for bonus features for
the second season of Mad Men, (A-Film and Lionsgate, 2009).
33
having, there are alternatives…obviously…but I find it hard to believe that as a
married woman of means, you would even be considering that. That is an option
for young girls who have no other options…I guarantee, the minute you tell your
husband, your friends, you will stop worrying…get into swing of things.
(‘Meditations in Emergencies,’ 2.13)
In addition to this scene, there is another remarkable scene when Betty knows she is pregnant
and goes to the hairdresser where she meets other women. As this episode takes place during
the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, everyone is talking about the threatening situation and
possible attacks, but Betty remains silent and thinks about her situation. Until a friend named
Francine comes to her and speaks:
Francine: I wish we had a shelter, so I could slam the door in her face –looks
angry to another customer- …Betty, you’re wan. Do you want a Miltown? It’s the
only thing keeping me from chewing my nails off.
Betty: No. I’m pregnant.
Francine: -looks a little surprised- Congratulations? –notices that Betty is not to
happy with it- Jessica was an accident. Look how happy I am now.
Betty: Now is not a good time. –referring to her home situation rather than to the
Cuban Missile CrisisFrancine: Is it ever? Look at this world we live in.
Betty: I can’t…I can’t do it. What am I going to do?
Francine: What can you do?
Betty: I don’t think you understand. It is not a good time.
Francine: -gets the message- Are you serious?
Betty: Yes.
Francine: …there is a doctor in Albany. Or if you go to Puerto Rico, they do it in
a hospital. Of course you don’t want to put down there right now.
Betty: No.
Francine: Sometimes, the best thing is to do nothing and wait. (‘Meditations in
Emergencies’ 2.13)
The two conversations develop in a similar way. When it becomes clear that Betty is
pregnant, the doctor and Francine both point out that having another child is very
34
nice (something that the woman is expected to do), but react with a certain amount of
reserve when the conversation leads to the topic of abortion. Francine and the doctor
both happen to know what some of the ‘alternatives’ can be and mention that
abortion is possible. However, there are quite some taboos around this procedure
because the doctor thinks it is a solution for young girls and not for women of means.
Furthermore, Francine’s suggestions show that abortion is a very obscure and only
local affair, because she names specific places where abortion is possible. It is
clearly a phenomenon in the 1960s society that is in development. Apart from the
question whether abortion can be requested in a state, there is apparently also a
cultural factor that determines that abortion is only the solution for young,
(unmarried) women and not necessarily for women like Betty.
However, the dilemma of the abortion is a symptom of Betty’s development
throughout Mad Men. In an ideal domestic surrounding and being the perfect
woman, it would be great news to hear that you will have a new child and you would
not even think of abortion. But Mad Men shows that this was not always the case and
points out how it was really an option for women, because Betty did not react too
happily when her doctor told her she was pregnant and starts to consider this
controversial decision. Although she would eventually not choose for abortion, she
does consider it and this can be seen her transition from her married life with Don to
another married life with Henry Francis. The idea of abortion is an indication of
personal transition, in the context of social and legislative transitions in which the
feminists fought for legal and safe abortions.
So her domestic and family-related problems make sure that her ‘ideal life as
a housewife’ is not completely true. In terms of 1960s icons, one could say that Betty
is the Jackie Kennedy of the series; she is the wife of the attractive, charismatic,
successful man (while Don has similarities with John F. Kennedy). They seem to be
a happy family and the beautiful and elegant wife is supporting her husband, but
underneath this happy family image lies a problematic structure. As Kennedy and
Don appear to be strong men, they were actually vulnerable because of their,
respectively, weak health and secret identity. Furthermore, they are both famous for
their (alleged) affairs with attractive women.
So shortly put, Betty is in a way the ideal (suburban, white) housewife but it
is eventually about keeping up appearances. She has vague physical and mental
problems, her first marriage is not successful and she can therefore not be happy
35
when she finds out she is pregnant. She offers the audience a glimpse of the life of
Friedan’s housewives, including the struggles. When Betty is put in Butler’s
heterosexual matrix in the 1960s context, she fulfills her role well and does not
explicitly challenge the ideology on gender under the influence of feminism, but is
rather a confirmation of it as she repeats this role again when she marries Henry
Francis. But still, her thoughts on abortion and her sexual fantasies show that
sexuality and the control of it are parts of the 1960s that would reach many women
across race, class and occupation.
3.2.2 Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss)
Peggy is a young, Catholic woman of Norwegian descent who lives with her family in
Brooklyn. As the first episode starts, the audience gets an introduction of Sterling Cooper
through Peggy’s character because this is her first day at the office. She has a job in the City
and is exited that she works for Don Draper as his secretary. Peggy’s character obviously
starts as ‘the new girl’ in this episode because her colleague Joan Holloway, the sensual office
manager, tells Peggy everything she needs to know and how to survive at this office.
As Peggy gets to know this office and meets her male and female colleagues, it
becomes clear that there are certain ‘rules’ that involve ideas about gender. It becomes clear
that this surrounding is very sexualized and contains many sexists references. In ‘Smoke Gets
in Your Eyes’ (1.1), Joan accompanies Peggy on her first day and explains several things:
Joan: Hopefully if you follow my lead, you avoid some of the mistakes I made
here.
-male colleagues pass by and greet herJoan: Like that one.
-male colleagues check Joan’s body out as she moves forwardJoan: So how many trains did it take you?
Peggy: Only one, but I got up very early.
Joan: In a couple of years, with the right moves, you’ll be in the city with the rest
of us. Of course, if you really make the right moves, you’ll be out in the country
and you won’t be going to work at all. You’ll be here just across the aisle from me,
we both take care of Mr. Draper…I don’t know what your goals are, but don’t
over-do it with the perfume. Keep a fifth of everything in your desk. Mr. Draper
drinks dry. Also, invest in some aspirin, band-aids, and a needle and a thread.
36
Peggy: Rye is Canadian right?
Joan: You better find out. He may act like he wants a secretary, but most of the
time they’re looking for something between a mother and a waitress. The rest of
the time, well… Go home, take a paper bag, cut eyeholes out of it, put it over your
head, get undressed and look at yourself in the mirror. Really evaluate where your
strengths and weaknesses are. And be honest.
Peggy: I always try to be honest.
Joan: Good for you.
-Peggy looks at the telephone, intercom buttons and electric typewriter on the
deskJoan: Now try not to be overwhelmed by all this technology. It looks complicated,
but the men who designed it made it simple enough for a woman to use.
Peggy: I sure hope so.
Joan: At lunch, you need to pick up a box of chocolates, a dozen carnations, and
some bath salts. I’ll explain later.
Peggy: Thank you Miss Holloway. You’re really wonderful for looking out for me
this way.
Joan: -smiles- It’s Joan. –she walks away but turns her head once more towards
Peggy- And listen, we’re going to be working together so don’t take this the wrong
way, but a girl like you, with those darling little ankles, I’d find a way to make
them sing. Also, men love scarves. (‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,’ 1.1)
Just like Peggy, the audience learns that the work floor at Sterling Cooper is strongly
sexualized. To a certain extent, the ideology of domesticity is extended to the work floor
because male directors (who are in a leading position) want their female secretaries (who are
in a servant position) to be a combination of their mother and a waitress, and females have to
create a comfortable environment for the male leaders. In his article on Mad Men, William
O’Barr underlines this and notes how these are rules to please the boss that the ladies ought to
follow. Peggy eventually complains about the constant sexual harassment, which surprises
Joan because she would have thought that a girl like Peggy would be flattered by the attention
that she got.82
So these relationships are very stereotypical and according to late 1950s/early 1960s
work-floor gender norms. Apart from having a servant function, women also have to show
82
William M. O’Barr, “Mad Men: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Sexuality, and Class,” Advertising & Society 11
(2011).
37
their sexuality. Peggy is the new girl and gets the advice to show off her ankles and her legs
because that will be pleasant for men to look at. This happens with Joan all the time because
men are constantly checking out her curvy and voluptuous body (but this will be discussed
more extensively when Joan’s character will be analyzed).
The very first episode, then, immediately shows a strong, hetero-normative surrounding.
As the new, young and inexperienced girl, Peggy also faces negative comments from her
colleague Pete Campbell and these comments betray a blatant sexism:
Pete: I have never had any complaints. Speaking of which, who’s your little friend
here?
Don: She’s the new girl.
Pete: You always get the new girl. Management gets all the perks. –turns to
Peggy- Where are you from honey?
Peggy: Miss Deaver’s Secretarial School.
Pete: Top notch! But I meant, where are you from? Are you Amish or something?
Peggy: No, I’m from Brooklyn.
Pete: Well, you are in the city now. It wouldn’t be a sin for us to see your legs.
And if you pull your belt in a little bit, you might look like a woman. (‘Smoke Gets
in Your Eyes,’ 1.1)
Peggy gets advice from colleagues around her to improve the feminine and sexy part of her.
As Peggy will turn out to be a complete different character than Betty in terms of feminism, it
is valuable to look at the rise of the feminists in this period because this progressive wave is
the direction Peggy is going into.
As the 1960s became a decade of activism by multiple minorities, educated women
went through a new process of ‘self-awareness and dissatisfaction’ and a new Feminist Wave
would soon arise. As of 1963, there were clear signals that women were not equal to men.
John Kennedy’s Presidential Commision on Status of Women reported the ‘occupational
inequities’ that were quite similar to the situation of minorities. As described earlier in this
chapter, women were paid less than their male counterparts who did comparable work and
women only made up a very small number (7%) of jobs such as the medical doctor. As the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbade racial discrimination in employment, women also
successfully asked to prohibit gender-based discrimination. An important development was
the creation of a civil-rights movement for women. In 1966, the National Organization for
Women was formed ‘to bring women into full participation in the mainstream American
38
society’ and demanded equal opportunities and turned the public opinion against sexism.83
The documentary ‘Birth of an Independent Woman Part 2’ is an interesting bonus
feature on the second season of Mad Men, because several professors from different
American universities are interviewed about the historical context of the series, in terms of
feminism. Professor Michelle Wallace from the National Black Feminist Organization and
Professor Ellen DuBois from UCLA Women’s History discuss how women and blacks were
intertwined in their struggle to gain equality. Women from the Civil Rights Movement started
to join the Feminist Movement to fight for the rights of women.84 Feminist writer Michelle
Karp discusses a deeper comparison between the Civil Rights Movement and the Feminist
Movement and points out how this connection was already visible in the 19th century. The
protests of the suffragettes and abolitionists were going a parallel path and Frederick Douglas
collaborated with Susan B. Anthony.85 Professor Wallace then strongly underlines the
importance of black women in this period because political leaders of the movement, such as
Douglas or W.E.B. DuBois, valued their function as political partners. Black women like
Sojourner Truth helped black men and women in general to get the right to vote, so the two
movements were closely connected to each other.86
Professor Diana York Blaine (professor of Feminist Theory at USC) states that the
Feminist Movement had it seeds in the 19th century, but it had become activist in the 1960s:
‘It had become not just theory, but practice.’87 Wallace then continues by saying that many of
the feminists from the Second Wave began their career as recruits of the Civil Rights
Movement, but:
in the process of being in the Civil Rights Movement, they found themselves severely
83
Boyer et al., The Enduring Vision, 878
84
Michelle Wallace, “The Birth of an Independent Woman Part 2,” documentary, interviews for bonus features
for the second season of Mad Men, (A-Film and Lionsgate, 2009); Ellen DuBois, “The Birth of an Independent
Woman Part 2,” documentary, interviews for bonus features for the second season of Mad Men, (A-Film and
Lionsgate, 2009).
85
Michelle Karp, “The Birth of an Independent Woman Part 2,” documentary, interviews for bonus features for
the second season of Mad Men, (A-Film and Lionsgate, 2009).
86
Wallace, “The Birth of an Independent Woman Part 2.”
87
Diana York Blaine, “The Birth of an Independent Woman Part 2,” documentary, interviews for bonus features
for the second season of Mad Men, (A-Film and Lionsgate, 2009).
39
hampered by restrictions placed upon their ability to exercise power, or to be taken
seriously because they were women. And they found in the structure of the Civil Rights
Movement, although it was meant to change the status of people, that they were expected to
make coffee. They were expected to, some people say, sleep with male Civil Rights
workers. They were expected to take a back seat at any time in which it was needed to
represent the goals.88
The other professors in the documentary underline this and say that women were politically
very active and were involved in Civil Rights Movement and Anti-War movements, but faced
expressions of sexism within the movements. Women got stereotypical functions (typing,
making coffee) or had to sleep with their male fellow activists. Or as Professor York Blains
puts it: ‘Just because you are a liberal male, does not mean that you are not sexist.’ So these
women realized that these men were just as sexist as the men they were fighting against and
this resulted in a separation of these women and this group was now specifically focusing on
the woman’s position.89
Black women who were in activist movements had similar experiences and felt that
black men did not necessarily treat them as equal. When the Civil Rights Movement planned
the March on Washington in 1963, a number of women were not allowed to speak because
they were female and as a result, the March became a ‘sore spot for black feminists.’90 At the
same time, as the Civil Rights Movement questioned the economical discrimination and
inequality, the feminists did the same. Many of these women had a clear identity concerning
labor participation and could raise questions about inequality on the work floor. They
underlined the difference in men’s and women’s paying as a form of discrimination.91
Furthermore, the feminists fought for equality in education and the workplace and protested
the negative, conservative and one-sided portrayal of women in media and advertisements. At
the end of the decade, they also fought for equal employment (again) and for legal, safe
abortions. As of 1970, feminists had filed suit against educational institutions as universities
to secure the equality in salaries between male and female co-workers. In 1970, there were
eventually guidelines that required corporations that got federal funds to maintain a
88
Wallace, “The Birth of an Independent Woman Part 2.”
89
York Blaine, “The Birth of an Independent Woman Part 2.”
90
Wallace, “The Birth of an Independent Woman Part 2.”
91
DuBois, “The Birth of an Independent Woman Part 2.”
40
nondiscriminatory policy and to maintain an equal pay scale. Furthermore, as of this period,
already 40 percent of the women worked full time outside the home, even though women
could get fired when they got pregnant and had their baby.92
Karp concludes in ‘The Birth of an Independent Women Part 2’ that feminists from the
Second Wave were not these radical ‘men haters’ but were women who wanted to say that
they can be liberated from that what makes them a woman. They were seeking for an equal
status with the same opportunities and paying for the same jobs, and did not want to be ‘only’
a sexual being.93
In terms of feminism, opportunities and the development of women, it is very
interesting to look at Peggy’s development throughout the series. At the beginning, Peggy is
the shy, strange, helpful secretary, but she will transform from a girl into a woman. A key
moment in this process is her promotion from secretary to junior copywriter in the ‘Babylon’
episode (1.6) and scholar Katherine Ganz shows how Mad Men aesthetically shows Peggy’s
transformation through a specific use of color in the character’s clothes. Peggy’s change, as
Weiner loves to portray, is visible on several levels.
Ganz argues that both Peggy and Joan undergo struggles to redefine their
socioeconomic status because ‘Peggy becomes increasingly competitive with the male
account executives at Sterling Cooper and establishes herself as an independent career woman
in the city.’94 Ganz uses this development to show how Mad Men depicts this by adapting
Joan and Peggy’s clothes to their lives; ‘they signal their own changing status in the
workplace hierarchy through an elaborate language of wardrobe color.’95
So this ‘Babylon’ episode in which Peggy climbs up the socioeconomic ladder, is an
important moment because she proves herself to her male colleagues with the Belle Joliecampaign. As the male executives are discussing the connotations they want to put on the
lipsticks, they eventually discover that Peggy has some very bright ideas and that she turns
out smarter than they initially thought. The Belle Jolie-experiment on the work floor
determines that Joan leads a group of female workers try some of the new lipsticks, while
their male colleagues are secretly observing them from behind a two-sided mirror. Peggy
92
Boyer et al., The Enduring Vision, 879.
93
Karp, “The Birth of an Independent Woman Part 2.”
94
Katherine Ganz, “Mad Men’s Color Schemes: A Changing Palette of Working Women,” Studies in Popular
Culture 33 (2011): 46.
95
Ganz, “Mad Men’s Color Schemes,” 46.
41
joined the group of testers, but does not do this with the great pleasure of using a lipstick.
Instead, she thinks about the product and observes the other testers, just like the men do. Ganz
argues that her outfit that she wears at that moment, a grey dress, and underlines that Peggy is
basically joining the group of men because these men are dressed in typical 1960s grey suits
while Peggy wears the neutral, grey dress.96 In comparison, the other ladies wear colorful
dresses. Although this Belle Jolie-campaign did not immediately lead to Peggy’s promotion,
she made herself visible as a good copywriter and proved to be a creative mind. Don gave her
the promotion eventually in the season’s finale episode ‘The Wheel’ because he feels she is
the perfect writer for the Clearasil-campaign (1.13). Pete Campbell disagrees because he feels
Peggy takes this account away from him. In his anger, he uses denigrating expressions for
Peggy as a woman who might possibly become a threat to him:
Don: Freddy Rumsen and I were both very impressed with her insight.
Pete: Freddy Rumsen…
Ken: Come on, that Belle Jolie thing…Plus you should have seen her in that booth
yesterday. She was like Kinsey but with balls.
Pete: Stop joking already, will you Don.
Don: Excuse me?
Pete: This is my father-in-law. He’s expecting the very best. I’m expecting the
very best. Not some little girl, who’ll walk away.
Don: You have to get back that copy of Rand.
Pete: Do you know how hard I worked to get this account?
Duck: Who the hell is she?
Pete: Peggy is not even a copywriter. She’s a secretary!
Don: -shouts- Peggy!
-Peggy enters the officePeggy: Yes Mr. Draper?
Don: Miss Olson. You are now a junior copywriter. Your first account will be
delivering Clearasil to the spotted masses.
Peggy: What?
Paul: Don’t act surprised…
Peggy: Is this really happening?
Don: -with a certain proud in his voice- Yes it is. (‘The Wheel,’ 1.13)
96
Ibid., 48.
42
In addition to her arguments about the relationship between Peggy’s promotion and wardrobe,
Katherine Ganz also states that Peggy does not choose color as a mode of expression and this
symbolizes her transforming career, because this is the starting point of her career as junior
copywriter.97 At the moment of her promotion, she wears a neutral brown outfit that matches
the walls of the office. Ganz would interpret this as Peggy who gets out of the stereotypical
serving job as a secretary and manages to become a respected and talented copywriter. In the
spirit of feminism in the 1960s, it is great to experience a part of Peggy’s development and to
notice how some women manage to climb the ladder and overcome difficulties. In this
process, Peggy faces some of these struggles that became an important issue for the feminist
in real life, but as the independent woman she potentially is, she dares to fight for her rights.
I will discuss two examples in which Peggy portrays herself as a brave woman with a
quest for equality. So Peggy becomes a copywriter in the first season, but that is not to say
that she as an equal work environment and that she has equal privileges. In ‘The Mountain
King’ (2.12) Peggy decides to speak to director Roger Sterling and to finally ask for her own
office, so that she no longer has to share a space with the Xerox copy machine and can be
taken more seriously by clients:
Roger: What do you want.
Peggy: -tries to show her self-confidence- I need to speak with you.
Roger: Honey, I have a 6.30 dinner reservation and unless you want to pull me
there in a rickshaw, I have to get going.
Peggy: Well, uh. I am a copywriter.
Roger: What, do they call you something else?
Peggy: No. I don’t know if you aware, but I brought in the Popsicle account today.
On my own…
Roger: -looks away- Hey ginger, do you hear about this? I got to go.
Peggy: Wait! –sights- I need my own office…It is hard to do business and be
credible, when I am sharing with the Xerox machine (Peggy’s ‘office’ is a small
space where the copy machine stands). Freddy Rumsen’s office has been vacant for
some time. –nervous- I think I should have it…
Roger: It’s yours.
97
Ibid., 49.
43
Peggy: Really?
Roger: You young women are very aggressive.
Peggy: Oh I didn’t mean to be impolite.
Roger: No, it’s cute. There are thirty men out there who don’t have the balls to ask
me. (‘The Mountain King,’ 2.12).
Peggy successfully fights for more equal circumstances and brings some of the points that
feminists had to the Sterling Cooper office. The office is an important element within Sterling
Cooper because it is an indication of the company’s hierarchy. Many women at Sterling
Cooper work in a open space (as secretaries) while the male co-workers have got their own
office to work in, including comfortable furniture. Certainly in the case of Don Draper and
Roger Sterling, the offices are a miniature version of a home because they can eat, drink and
sleep there and their secretaries are ought to make it as comfortable as possible for them. But
Peggy is rewarded with an own office (Roger did not even seem to care) and climbs up in the
hierarchy. However, there is still some work to do, as the following scene from ‘The Fog’
(3.5) proves. Peggy enters Don’s office with a present for his newborn baby boy:
Peggy: I heard you were back at work, now I wonder if that’s true.
Don: I invited you in…
Peggy: -nods- … I don’t know if this is the best time. I don’t know, it is kind of
serious.
-Don lets her sitting downPeggy: -takes a deep breath- I’ve been thinking about my situation here. And I’m
so grateful to you for all you’ve done. I just…Oh you know…I’m paid very little.
My secretary doesn’t respect me because I make 71 dollars more a week than she
does.
Don: Maybe we should get you a cheaper secretary.
Peggy: -determined- Paul Kinsey does the same work that I do, and not as well
sometimes. And I don’t know if you have read the paper, but they passed a law for
women who do the same work as men, will get paid the same thing. Equal pay.
Don: It’s not a good time.
Peggy: Well, it’s not a good time for me, Don. Do you know how expensive the
city is?
Don: It’s not gonna happen Peggy. Not now…I’m fighting for paperclips around
here.
-Peggy looks disappointed and perplexed- (‘The Fog,’ 3.5)
44
Although it was not Peggy’s first attempt to get a better salary (she requested it earlier as she
got promoted), this is an important point in Peggy’s professional development because she is
aware of the unequal situation between men and women. Interestingly, Katherine Ganz sees
again how color represents Peggy’s determination to be a successful working woman. As she
regularly wears a green, plaid signature dress during the third season and during this scene,
‘the dress had functioned as Peggy’s version of camouflage, mirroring her efforts to exercise
a different kind of power – that of professional strategizing – in the workplace. (…) its
careful, orderly grid indicates to the viewer that she is a woman with a plan.’98
These two examples also make clear that the directors are somehow aware of the
rising feminism, but do not really seem to get attached to it. Once again, Sterling Cooper is
strongly gendered. After Peggy got promoted and becomes successful, Don reminds her that
she ‘presented like a man, now act like one’ (‘Indian Summer,’ 1.11). This statement also fits
into the idea that men stand higher in the hierarchy than women and in order to be successful,
adapt yourself to these men.
But Peggy does not necessarily do this. She is not really one of the girls, as she has her
own office and has many meetings and projects with men. But she is not one of the guys
either because there is a specific masculine culture that includes, for example, men’s humor
and sexual affairs with secretaries. In this sense, it is good how Peggy develops herself
because she does this as a woman and she does not adapt to the men’s culture. She represents
therefore a progressive development; she can climb up the ladder as a woman by adapting a
professional style and being very ambitious. Eventually in the fifth season, she becomes so
dear and precious for Don that he absolutely does not want Peggy to work for another
advertisement agency. But she is frustrated with the way Don’s relationship with his
wife/employee Megan unfolds on the work floor, that she decides to leave the agency and to
go to Cutler Gleason Chaough, where she is offered a much better salary.
So Peggy is a clear example of an ambitious woman that is determined to stand up for
their equal rights on the work floor, and to develop herself as a professional copywriter and
she manages to do that. As the character gets the space to develop in the series, she becomes
more independent, outspoken and creates a strong relationship with powerful men like Don,
but she really had to ‘get there’ in a patriarchal surrounding. Or as Miggelbrink puts it: ‘Apart
98
Ibid.
45
from the hierarchical structures, which exclude women from any position other than secretary,
it is the obvious sexism at the women’s work place that identifies the regressive milieu.
Although Peggy is able to work her way up and become’s the first female copywriter at
Sterling Cooper, her long and hard professional ascent illustrates women’s precarious
situation in general.’99
Just like Betty, Peggy has to deal with her sexuality, the changing opinions about it,
and the ‘sexual liberation.’ She could easily be a character from Sex and the Single Girl
because she explores her sexuality as an unmarried woman in New York City. As I have
argued before, Peggy is shy and somewhat strange at the beginning of her career, so it is no
surprise that Joan tries to take care of her and wants to guide her in this highly sexualized
world. Furthermore, Peggy is a Catholic girl and is taught to aim for a conservative sexual
life. So it happens that Joan tries to protect Peggy when she is confronted with explicit sexual
content. In ‘Ladies Room’ (1.2) she protects Peggy when their male colleagues tease her and
make sexual comments about her. In the episode ‘Marriage of Figaro’ (1.3), Joan and Peggy
meet two girls who also work at Sterling Cooper and they start to discuss Lady Chatterley’s
Lover:
Joan: You know girls, we’d be happy to bring you coffee. I was on my way over
anyway. I have something of yours. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, I finished it last
night.
Girl 1: Good to the last drop right?
Joan: I can see why it got banned.
Girl 2: You don’t have to be so shy about it, it is literature. That’s a huge pocket
book Joan.
Joan: Well, it’s got a change of clothing and a toothbrush in it.
Girl 2: Ah, a hope chest.
Girl 1: -gives book to Peggy- Have you read this Peggy?
Joan: I don’t think that’s a good idea. There is uhm…this word in it a lot.
Peggy: I know the word Joan.
Girl 2: Well, it’s sad really. Because even with its reputation, men won’t read it
and they really should.
Joan: I don’t care if it’s 500 years old. It’s another testimony to how most people
think marriage is a joke.
99
Miggelbrink, “Serializing the Past,” 1.
46
Girl 2: They rip a lot of clothing.
Girl 1: It’s a fantasy. He is married, she is married, the desperate passion of the
forbidden.
Peggy: Can I borrow it?
Joan: She is making it sounds better than it is. There’s a few good parts. That’s all.
And the book just opens to those pages by itself –smiles and gigglesGirl 1: Don’t read it on the train. It will attract the wrong element. (‘Marriage of
Figaro,’ 1.3)
This scene shows how explicit sexual content as described in the book, is something that
created its own taboo. Not only was it banned until 1959, it is also a topic that is preferably
discussed in a private surrounding. But because the girls are at the office, they find an own,
private room near the coffee machine where they can discuss it. It is also worth noting how
this scene shows once more how hierarchy between men and women works, because men
have their own, private domain while women have to create it for themselves. But relating
this scene to Peggy’s sexuality, it shows that she has the image of an innocent virgin that
needs guidance from the more experienced women.
But as the audience could have seen earlier in ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’ (1.1), Peggy
is not that innocent as she may seem. Peggy does not keep her necessarily away from sex and
the consequences of it because in this episode, she goes to a doctor and asks for the birth
control pill. In the Midtown Medical Building, she has an appointment with her doctor:
-Peggy is reading ‘It’s Your Wedding Night. What every bride should know. How
to be a good wife’-the doctor entersDoctor: So, you must be Peggy Olson…
-Peggy nods and smilesDoctor: Joan Holloway has send you over. She’s a great girl, how is Joan?
Peggy: She sends you her regards.
Doctor: She is a lot of fun. It must be a scream to work with her. –lights a
cigarettePeggy Yes, it is pretty terrific.
Doctor: -nods and prepares the medical examination- Make yourself comfortable
and relax.
-Peggy lies down and the doctor starts to feel around her belly-
47
Doctor: I see from your chart, and finger, that you’re not married.
Peggy: That’s right.
Doctor: And yet you’re interested in the contraceptive pills…
Peggy: Well…
Doctor: No reason to be nervous. Joan send you to me because I’m not here to
judge you. There is nothing wrong with a woman being practical about the
possibility of sexual activity. Spread your knees.
Peggy: That’s good to hear.
Doctor: Although, as a doctor, I would like to think that putting a woman in this
situation, it’s not going to turn her into some kind of strumpet. Slide your fanny
towards me, I’m not going to bite. –he examines Peggy- I warn you now…I would
take you off this medicine if you abuse it. It’s for your own good, really. But the
fact is, even in our modern times, easy women don’t find husbands.
Peggy: I understand dr. Emerson, I really am a very responsible person.
Doctor: I’m sure you’re not that kind of girl. Now Joan… -starts to laugh-…I’m
just kidding along here, you can get dressed. I’m going to write you a prescription
for Enovid. They’re $11 a month, but don’t think you have to go out and become
the town pump to get your money worth. Excuse my French. (‘Smoke Gets in Your
Eyes,’ 1.1).
This scene is a very interesting clash between a conservative view and a progressive view on
a woman’s sexuality. Peggy actually wants to get the pill so that she can have sexual
relationships in the city without getting pregnant. She is a single girl after all and, as an
ambitious woman, getting pregnant would not be the most logical step, since she prefers her
career over having a family. The doctor, on the other hand, shows the conservative site in this
‘debate’ and explicitly uses words like ‘strumpet’ and ‘town pump’ and warns Peggy to not
abuse it, even though he says that he ‘will not judge her.’ Once again, Mad Men shows a
historical society in transformation through the development of characters, in a specific
historical context.
After having the pill and thus having a degree of certainty that she will not get
pregnant, Peggy starts her sexual life in New York City. Colleague Pete Campbell arrives one
day at her home while he is drunk and he is asking if he can come in. Peggy lets him in and
the series suggests that they have sexual contact (‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,’ 1.1). A few
episodes later, when Pete is married and has returned from his honeymoon, he approaches
Peggy again and the two end up having sex again (‘The Hobo Code,’ 1.8). So the
48
development of Peggy as ‘innocent virgin’ to the single career woman who enjoys her
sexuality, starts in the first season.
However, Peggy is confronted with her affair with Pete. In episode ‘The Wheel’ (1.13)
she discovers that she got pregnant despite the fact that she uses the pill. It was noticeable that
Peggy gained weight, but she never realized that she could be expecting a child, until the
doctor tells her. So the question of abortion was never a possibility for Peggy and she had to
give birth to a baby boy. She decides to let the baby get adopted because she cannot or does
not want to choose for the baby. She is a committed and ambitious woman and being a mother
may be very difficult in this business. From this moment on, her transformation from
secretary to copywriter and from girl to a woman that gave birth to a child becomes more and
more visible. Peggy gets mental problems, but recovers from it with Don Draper’s help. Her
attitude makes her more confident and she changes her haircut into a more mature model.
Evaluating Peggy learns that she is in many ways the opposite of Betty. She is
ambitious, wants to make a career and is confronted with the struggles she has as a woman in
both her career as her sexuality. If Peggy was to put in the heterosexual matrix, one can argue
that she shows how feminism tries to adapt a ‘counter femininity’ (the professional woman
that is not a housewife or secretary) in order to change dominant notions on femininity. Betty
is the feminine norm, Peggy is the ‘alternative performer.’ The last main character that can be
put in the context of feminism is Joan Harris.
2.3.3. Joan Harris/Holloway (Christina Hendricks)
Joan Harris (born Holloway), is the floor manager at Sterling Cooper. Her job involves the
management of the secretaries and the support of the directors. She is known for her red hair,
curvy body and sensual appearance. Both men and women refer to her as an attractive
woman. Joan can be considered a very interesting form of what scholar Laura Mulvey calls
‘to-be-looked-at-ness,’ an important term from Media Studies by which she means that the
position of the cinematic spectator, especially in Classical Hollywood films, is gendered male
in relation to the feminized visual image. More concrete, the woman appears on the screen
with a quality and degree of ‘to-be-looked-at-ness,’ that is to say that she is made up, wears
dresses and is photographed in such a way that she draws attention to herself and exhibits
49
herself to the spectator’s (male) gaze.100
This idea is known for its application to media products, but the same process occurs on
the Sterling Cooper work floor. Instead of an invisible gaze that is used in Classical
Hollywood films through camerawork, Mad Men shows very explicit how men are looking at
Joan and other women and this ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’ is therefore an indication for what
feminists would call sexism. One may argue that Joan knows that men are looking at her and
that she plays with the male gaze, but Joan is also a victim of this masculine lust, as I will
describe later.
As office manager, Joan has quite some different responsibilities because she manages
the secretary and telephone rooms, she assists the managers, organizes meetings, and helps
new girls at the Sterling Cooper office. So she is more or less the head of the secretary. As the
embodiment of sensual femininity, she warns other girls at the office against the existing
sexism on the work floor, and advises them about how to use their femininity. Thanks to her
role within the company, her looks, intelligence, and experience, Joan gets to enter the
manager’s offices and can talk to them at another level than other female co-workers. She
even gets very personal with director Roger Sterling because the chemistry ends up in a
recurring love affair.
So Joan is the sensual character on Mad Men and the audience learns about her affair
with Roger, she is obviously not inexperienced with sexuality. Her life changes in season 2,
because she gets engaged with a young doctor. During this season, there are signs that
indicate that Joan is not going to have a very happy married life. In the episode ‘The New
Girl,’ Joan speaks with Roger about her engagement:
Roger: So Joanie, I hear congratulations are in order.
Joan: Yes –shows her ringRoger: Marriage. Don’t know why you’d want to join that club baby.
Joan: Hasn’t stopped you from having a good time.
Roger: How old is this guy?
Joan: He’s 34.
Roger: What’s wrong with him?
Joan: Nothing –smiles-
100
Lilya Kaganovsky, “12. ‘Maidenforum’. Masculinity as Masquerade,” Mad Men, Mad World. Sex, Politics,
Style & the 1960s, edit. Lauren M.E. Goodlad, Lilya Jaganovsky and Robert A. Rushing (Durham and London:
Duke University Press, 2013) 246.
50
Roger: Well, I think it’s nice to hear the story of relatively young love.
Joan: Are you being a concerned daddy?
Roger: I tell you the same thing I told my daughter. If you put a penny in a jar
every time you make love in the first year of marriage and then you take a penny
out of the jar every time you make love in the second year, you know what you
have? A jar full of pennies.
Joan: I envy that girl having you to give her away. I’ve always been faithful to
whomever I was with. And despite your jokes, I always assumed you were
unhappy with Mona, not the whole idea.
Roger: You aren’t just another woman Joanie.
Joan: Well, it doesn’t matter now, does it? I fell in love.
Roger: -sights- Makes me sad. Just another reason not to come in to work.
Joan: I’m not going anywhere.
Roger: Yes, you’ll see…Can I give you a couple of paddles for good luck?
- Joan looks meaningful to him and walks out of the office – (‘The New Girl,’ 2.5)
This conversation suggests that Joan is not the type of woman that is made for marriage, even
though Joan feels that she is ready for it. Roger also implies the consequences of getting
married; the sexual activities decrease and she will go away from work (and become a
housewife). Joan’s reaction and voice also suggest a degree of uncertainty about her marriage,
although she tries to deny that (‘I’m not going anywhere’).
Throughout season 2, we get an impression of Joan’s future life as a married woman.
Greg Harris turns out to be traditional and demands her to give him something to drink when
he wants (‘A Night to Remember,’ 2.8), and, while Joan is reading soap-opera scripts for her
work, he states that she should watch them instead of read them. The episode ‘The Mountain
King’ is even more disturbing for Joan, because it underlines Greg’s conservative ideas about
marriage and sexuality. While they are making out, Greg notices Joan’s experience and he
shows that he does not like having a woman with a sexual past. It is even getting worse when
Greg shows up at the Sterling Cooper office. He notices that Roger seems to know a lot about
Joan and this makes him suspicious about her past. Greg convinces Joan to get him a drink
from a manager’s office and starts to make out with her. She rejects and the scene ends up in
Greg raping Joan, because that is ‘what she wants.’ After the sexual intercourse, Greg and
Joan pretend that nothing had happened and Greg’s dominance over Joan is sadly illustrated.
When Peggy later tells Joan that she is very lucky to have a fiancée like him, Joan agrees and
reinforces the illusion of a happy marriage (‘The Mountain King,’ 2.10).
51
During the third season, it becomes clear that Joan and Greg are finally married. Joan
has indeed changed her life; she gave up her job at Sterling Cooper and became a housewife.
But as the season continues, the audience gets more and more signals of a problematic
marriage. After Joan gave up her job to start a family, Greg tells her that he did not get his
promotion and that Joan has to get back to work again (‘A Guy walks into an Advertisement
Agency,’ 3.6).
Joan is an example of the pressure that the traditional family life brought to women and
Joan is positioned in the middle of the traditional ideas and the more progressive lifestyles.
When Joan meets her doctor for a fertility check, her doctor refers to the possibility to join her
husband who is about to leave New York for an US Army training. In that case, she could
work on the fact that she is ‘still not pregnant at her age.’ Joan does not react enthusiastically
but says that they ‘have a plan’ (‘The Good News,’ 4.3). When Greg eventually leaves New
York to serve the US Army in Vietnam, Joan escapes from her unpleasant marriage and ends
up in Roger Sterling’s arms. She gets pregnant from him but tells Greg that the baby is his
(‘The Beautiful Girls,’ 4.9).
Season five shows the return of Greg from Vietnam, but it turns out that he volunteered
to go another year in the military. Joan’s family life will once again be destroyed and she
eventually decides to leave him. She believed in the perfect, happy family life, but this idea is
never realized (‘Mystery Date,’ 5.3).
The fifth season has a very unpleasant ending for Joan and this ending combines her
sexuality and her wish to get the best for her son and the company. It is now clear that many
male colleagues and business partners are attracted to Joan, who returned to the office and
now has a job as director of agency operations at the office. Roger of course, partner Lane
Pryce, but also the head of the Jaguar Car Dealer Association, an important client for the
company. This business man has a meeting with Joan’s colleagues Pete Campbell and Ken
Cosgrove, and this man makes clear that he is very interested in ‘the dynamic redhead’ and
suggest that they might have a deal when he gets to spend a night with Joan. While Ken
rejects this idea more or less (‘she is married’), Pete knows that this is business and tries to
convince Joan and does this quite arrantly:
Joan: What happened?
Pete: Well, we were having dinner with Herb Rennet. I think you met him the
other day, from Jaguar. Handsome guy…
Joan: I don’t remember any of them.
52
Pete: Well, I don’t know what to do…He basically pledged he wasn’t going to
back us.
Joan: Why not?
Pete: Turns out he wanted something we’re not prepared to give. Something very
unorthodox.
Joan: What does he want?
Pete: Uh…I feel like I shouldn’t even bring this up. In fact, I don’t know how to
bring this up, but we’re going to lose Jaguar. Unless an arrangement is made, and it
involves you and, well, Herb.
Joan: How did that come up?
Pete: He said he was crazy about you and then he just asked. And then I thought
we were past it, but right before we put him in a cab, he said it again and it was
quite conditional…a night with you or no vote.
Joan: Well, I’m sorry to hear that.
Pete: Anyway, if you can think of some way to break the news to the company that
we’re out of this, I’d really appreciate it.
Joan: You’re really unbelievable. I’m married. How would you feel if someone
asked Trudy?
Pete: I didn’t bring this up, he did. If you’re not interested in the deal at all, I
appreciate…It’s just…It seems to me that there’s something that could be worth
the sacrifice. We’re talking about a night in your life. We’ve all had nights in our
lives where we’ve made mistakes for free.
Joan: You’re talking about prostitution!
Pete: I’m talking about business at a very high level. Do you consider Cleopatra a
prostitute?
Joan: Where do you get this stuff?
Pete: She was a queen. What would it take to make you a queen?
Joan: I don’t think you could afford it.
Pete: This was an act of desperation. I hope I haven’t insulted you. That’s all that
matters to me.
Joan: I understand. (‘The Other Woman,’ 5.10)
What happens in this scene is that Pete considers Joan’s sexuality to be the perfect weapon to
get the Jaguar deal. Business is more important than the woman’s sexuality. Pete later
arranges a meeting with all the directors of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and argues that they
should send Joan to the Jaguar man, and give Joan a great amount of money. Don strongly
53
rejects this idea and protects Joan, but the rest of the men get convinced that they should try it,
even though some of them still think it is dirty business. When Joan has a conversation with
Lane Pryce, she makes clear that $50.000 is a nice amount of money for her. Although Lane
has troubles to accept this situation, he underlines that this money can do good for a single
mother. The men seduce Joan by saying that this is good for her and good for the company
and she eventually goes to Herb. The result is that the Jaguar deal is signed and Joan becomes
a partner of the company with 5% shares (‘The Other Woman,’ 5.10).
Joan is an ambiguous character. She has quite a good job at Sterling Cooper but she
makes a regressive move in the light of feminism by returning to the home life when she
marries Greg. Her traditional husband brings her back to a typical 1950s household, while the
audience knows Joan as a professional woman who does not belong at home. It also becomes
clear that her marriage will not work, even though Joan denies these feelings (she does not
even talk about the rape for a long time), so the contradictions between her expectations and
reality are great. Joan is a character with nuances. She is neither the determined career woman
who is willing to give up her family life like Peggy, nor the typical housewife like Betty. But
perhaps most importantly about Joan, she is a typical example of a ‘to-be-looked-at-ness,’
which portrays her as very sensual, strong and pretty, but also vulnerable for sexism, rape and
abuse because the male gaze and lust is constantly following her.
What the three main women of Mad Men have in common is that their sexuality
became more prominent in the 1960s. But at the same time, their sexuality makes these
women vulnerable on Mad Men. Betty feels society’s pressure to hide her feelings about
being pregnant. She secretly opens herself as a woman with sexual desires but cannot express
it, just as her husband Don can when he cheats Betty with other women. Peggy and Joan both
face sexual comments made by their male colleagues, but dare to present themselves as sexual
active. But Peggy cannot choose for her baby, while Joan is sent back to a traditional family
life and faces troubles in her marriage. So looking at these characters, it is safe to say that
Mad Men portrays women and the dynamics of gender in a very interesting way.
54
Conclusion
Mad Men is a very interesting research project and production because it takes the audience
back to the American society of the 1960s, while it is produced according to the current high
standards of television making. I discussed the specific production context of Mad Men and
explained the term ‘Quality TV’ according to ideas of media scholars. Mad Men perfectly fits
into these ideas: the show ‘aspires towards realism,’ ‘has a memory,’ ‘tends to be literary and
writer-based’ and has a ‘large ensemble cast,’ to name just some of the characteristics of
‘Quality TV.’
Also, Monique Miggelbrink’s and Jason Mittell’s ideas about complex narration and
Newman and Levine’s points about the rise of the television author are applicable to Mad
Men. These production-related characteristics of Mad Men make it possible for the series to
portray the characters and their experiences in a detailed way, which gives them depth and
space for development. Miggelbrink also argued that complex narration is Mad Men’s way to
depict the 1960s. By playing with narration, the characters become historical agents because
the audience sees history through them and catches the zeitgeist of the Mad Men-era.
Furthermore, the show stresses personal experiences and ‘the private aspect of history’ rather
than showing demonstrations by feminists, or the March on Washington and other major
events from the 1960s. Or, as Miggelbrink stated earlier in the second chapter: ‘The
characters exemplify climaxes and turning points in history of that era, as they live through
them in their everyday lives.’
So the series provides space for a deep and extended development of characters and
narration, in which creator Matthew Weiner was able to put in his experiences, interests and
fascinations. One of his fascinations was the portrayal of the Mad Men-era, but not only the
cliché and good aspects of the decade, but also the ‘huge and drastical cultural changes,’ and
characters that are going through these changes.
These conditions make it possible for the show to provide a well-developed historical
context. Extending Weiner’s idea about characters that are going through these historical
changes, I looked at three main female characters to explore the dynamics of gender within
Mad Men’s historical context.
I explored the context in which Mad Men takes place, regarding gender and feminism.
I first discussed the concept ‘gender’ based on ideas of well-known ‘gender-scholars’ like
Judith Butler. According to Butler gender is a concept that involves a masculine or feminine
55
identity that is ‘constructed through time, and instituted in an exterior space through a stylized
repetition of acts.’ This ‘performativity’ thus shows what we expect femininity and
masculinity to be like, in a certain context. Although people preferably have to stay within the
culturally determined heterosexual matrix, it is possible for women to show a so-called
‘counter-femininity.’ With the risk of being not accepted or even ‘punished,’ women tried to
change the norms in the 1960s, so that the feminist wave of this decade can be called a
counter-femininity. After all, feminists were looking for new norms, standards and acceptance
for women.
I have explored the domestic situation of the average (middle-class, white) American
woman in the 1950s. An ideal and normal image of the woman would put her in the centre of
her family life, creating a comfortable home for her husband and children. Women were often
kept in the domestic atmosphere and the women who did have work outside the home, mostly
did a lower-paid, stereotypical, gender-related job. The situation of the ‘stereotypical’1950s
woman was reinforced by media images; it was especially reflected and repeated on television
or in magazines. These images were often circulated for consumerist purposes because
advertisements were able to tell housewives exactly how they could be the perfect, feminine
housewife using certain products to reach perfection.
However, it became more noticeable that many women were not as happy as the ads
showed. The 1960s would become a decade of feminism and the quest for equality on the
work floor and in society. The feminists showed how their position at home was not always
satisfying, as Friedan pointed out, or how they were subordinated on the work floor. Women
realized that there was more than a household. This is also a point where the counterfemininity becomes visible because the situation for women had to change and the life of a
woman should not be restricted to being a housewife. Another aspect that was subject to
change was sexuality. The sexual revolution was very important for the 1960s because it
helped women to get even more (sexual) independence and control over their lives.
So with the analysis of the female Mad Men characters in mind, how does this
historical context relate to the ‘historical agents’ Betty, Peggy and Joan? I have analyzed
these characters because they are the main characters whose lives were extensively developed
throughout the seasons 1-5.
Betty is the typical, stereotyped 1950s housewife, whose daily responsibility is to take
care of the house holding, and to provide a comfortable home for her husband and children.
She would fit into Betty Friedan’s image of a housewife who is seemingly having a good life
(according to the norm), but has deep, confusing uncertainties. For the outside world, she has
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everything a woman can wish for, money, a pretty face, a successful husband, and three
healthy children, but we learn that Betty has problems. Her marriage with Don does not turn
out as it should be and she is not cheerful about being pregnant of her third child. Instead, she
discusses abortion with her doctor, although this is done in a very secretive way. With Betty
as our historical agent, the audience experiences the life of a housewife who initially fulfills
the heterosexual matrix because she does what is expected from being feminine in the 1960s.
However, as an agent, Betty also shows the struggles that women in the domestic sphere had
in the 1950s/1960s. Betty never showed ambition to find a job (she does not have to, as a rich,
classy woman), but the development of her character, including all her psychological
problems, strongly suggests a ‘Feminine Mystique.’
Peggy is therefore a brilliant contrast to Betty. She is the ambitious young woman who
is determined to be successful at the Sterling Cooper office. She is a very good historical
agent because the audience sees reflections of feminism in Peggy’s character. In fact, Mad
Men depicts feminism on the basis of her development: the series does not show actual
demonstrations by feminists. She starts as a very shy, inexperienced girl at the office, doing
stereotypical ‘female’ work as a secretary, but as Mad Men continues, she becomes stronger
and more confident and notices that she is ‘subordinated,’ as the feminists ‘in real life’
pointed out. And just like the feminists, the audience becomes aware of the different positions
between men and women. Peggy’s development, by means of complex narration, shows how
Mad Men relates to the historical context of gender. This is even reinforced by Peggy’s
decision to choose for a life without a baby because a child would make her career and life
more difficult.
The third and last character that was analyzed was the elegant ‘Marilyn Monroe’-ish
Joan. Her appearance is strongly connected to sensuality. She is the ultimate ‘male gazeobject’ and may be a good symbol for sexism and masculine lust. Just like Betty and Peggy,
she has struggles with the norms and expectations for women at work and in the domestic
sphere. Betty is the stereotypical housewife, Peggy the feminist ‘counter-feminine’
professional who adapts her femininity to her professional surrounding, and Joan is
somewhere in-between these two, in the middle of the spectrum. She knows what ‘a good
wife’ is like and she prepares herself for domestic life. Unfortunately, she does not end up
married and happy, and Mad Men suggests an awkwardness when we see her as a housewife.
She is a good example of the clash between the traditional norms and the modern emphasis on
sex. Joan is also a symbol for the sexism and abuse that the feminists referred to, so gender is
for Joan, too, an important aspect of her life. To a certain extent, she exhibits an ‘alternative
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performativity’ as a female, since she has a good job and has status on the work floor, but she
gets punished for being so sensual and for having a sexual past. Her husband and her male
colleagues punish her, an illustration of the slogan ‘men are pigs’: the ease with which these
men rape and ‘prostitute’ her is a way for Mad Men to show the tension that exist in the
dynamics of gender. Sexism can happen in extreme forms and women really had problematic
positions.
The gender spectrum in the Mad Men 1960s context can eventually be depicted as followed:
Domestic sphere
‌
Professional sphere
Betty
+
Joan
Conservative ‘Feminine Mystique’
Professional manager
Peggy
Progressive feminist
Sexual self-confident,
but vulnerable for abuse
This figure shows the dynamics of Mad Men in its specific, historical context. Each female
character represents another part of femininity, but they eventually complement each other.
Betty’s situation looks even more conservative when she is portrayed next to Peggy or Joan
and Peggy looks very liberal in comparison to Betty and Joan. They each tell a part of the
1960s gender-dynamic. Betty is the representation of the problem; women who are expected
to stay at home. With Weiner’s accuracy in mind, it cannot be a coincidence that she shares
her name with the feminist-writer who described her life in The Feminine Mystique. Joan is
another indication of the sexism rampant in society; she gets many comments on her
appearance and her sexuality is problematic. Peggy, finally, represents the solution to these
issues and the representative of feminism; she asks for equality between her and her male
colleagues, the kind of progress that feminists were looking for.
So what is Matthew Weiner actually showing on Mad Men? The first chapter made
clear that Weiner really wanted to portray in the show society ‘as it was in the 1960s.’ He
really cares about showing the cares and struggles people had back then, while in the
meantime the contemporary audience can still relate to the characters’ thoughts and attitudes.
Change is essential for Mad Men, as Weiner stated: change because it is set in another era
where things were different, and change because the structure of the show allows him (and his
58
production team) to carefully develop and change the main characters. As I showed in this
research, Peggy is an excellent example of change in terms of emancipation, unlike Betty.
Although Mad Men is not necessarily a show constructed around emancipation and feminism,
and Weiner states that ‘it is about how it was back then,’ one can argue that Mad Men is on
the feminists side. It gives a great insight into the struggles and difficulties women had at
home or at the office. Psychological issues at home and sexism and inequality at work, it all
gets detailed attention by means of the development of Betty, Peggy and Joan. Without their
memories, feelings and actions, the (problematic) position of women would have been a lot
more invisible.
On the other hand, the criticism that bell hooks and Brian Ward had about The
Feminine Mystique is also applicable to Mad Men. We see three white, educated women with
Betty, Peggy and Joan, but there remains a big question mark about ‘the other women.’ What
about all the women who are not white, not from the middle-class and not educated? How
would Carla, the Afro-American maid from the Drapers, feel about this era? Did she get
entangled between feminism and the Civil Rights Movement and does she have more
sympathy for one of these movements? Or what about single mothers who had to work for
their family, did they also face problems with sexism and work rules? Mad Men would
probably get an amazing new dynamics if these women were also covered, so that gender
would be connected to social class and ethnicity with more variety, especially since the series
added a very detailed documentary about the connection between feminism and the Civil
Rights Movement to its bonus features.
Mad Men actually tells a very detailed story about the world of females. It could have
shown the protests of the feminists, but chooses instead to create individual historical agents
and depict the daily life of three different females, and the changes and developments they
went through. Mad Men has a lot to offer as a history-conscious media product. The Mad Men
world is carefully created and approaches 1960s politics and society intelligently, giving
characters depths and meanings. Apart from feminism, one could also research the show’s
exploration of racism and the Civil Rights Movement, or the 1960s (inter)national politics, or
social norms and morals, or even capitalism. This research covered the seasons 1-5, but the
show will eventually have 7 seasons. However the lives of Betty, Peggy and Joan will unfold,
Mad Men will guide them, and the audience, through the decade.
59
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<
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<
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