Politics Daily loves the women of Mad Men.
In a brilliant Salon screed about “aspirational” looks and body image, Kate Harding uses Peggy’s objection to the Ann-Margret Patio ad as an example.
An article in the New York Times juxtaposes Mad Men with modern feminism, opening:
“Has Congress become like an episode of ˜Mad Men’?” California Congresswoman Linda Sanchez asked this week, after the House of Representatives approved a version of health care reform that contained what some pro-choice advocates are calling the toughest restrictions on women’s access to abortion since the matter of Roe v. Wade.
Danny Miller writes a defense of Betty Draper that is personal and intimate. While not a specifically feminist essay, it’s pretty clear that a lot of the back-and-forth about Betty is steeped in misogyny or, at least, in patriarchal cultural values, and I think this essay really touches on how to change and personalize that perspective.
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http://www.people.com/people/package/video/0,,203…
don't know where to put this…but a familiar masculine mug is around the 44-second mark.
now back to our more intelligent regular thread…
@1 – yum, eye candy…
Tom Tomorrow gets it regarding Stupak and others.
btw, I think Stupak might be under investigation because he has bunked in the "C" street house, which claimed it was a church, tho it's not. They're the group Jeff Sharlet wrote about in his book, The Family, that came from an article that appeared in Harper's a few years ago called Jesus Plus One.
They're theocrats, basically. They're the same group that housed the gov of S.C. and told him that it was okay that he was having an affair because he's one of the "chosen" and, therefore, can do whatever the fuck he or they want because they're doing it for the "right" reasons. They also advocate, from Sharlet's article, using "Hitler-like" and "Stalin-like" tactics to achieve their goal of a "christian nation."
Palin is aligned with this group. She's part of "third-wave" christianity that believes they are called to convert this nation to christian principles like speaking in tongues, casting witches out of towns, being "possessed" by the holy spirit or a non-holy one… in other words, these are people who are so divorced from reality that we as a nation are put in danger by their access to power.
They're also aligned with Ted (I didn't smoke the meth or have sex with that male prostitute and now I'm cured of my homosexuality) Haggert and the absolutely freaking nutty woman from Jesus Camp.
This same religious-political subset is now selling t-shirts, etc. based upon a bible verse (Psalms 109:9) that reads:
May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
Incredibly, this group thinks it's okay to pray for the death of the president who was elected by popular vote.
This sentiment was also around during the Mad Men era concerning JFK. Sometimes things don't seem to change so much. They just get different packaging… "New! Improved! misogyny, racism and xenophobia – all in one handy god package!
So–since I have pity for Betty but find her a spoiled upper-class twit, I'm a misogynistic representative of the patriarchy? Even though I was raised by a widowed mother & grandmother who worked hard all their lives & never went to Bryn Mawr?
Danny Miller's article was fine & I readily believe his mother was a smart lady. But I've never been able to consider Betty smart. She earned a degree & we occasionally see her with a book propped up in front of her. But have we ever heard her express intelligence verbally? Beyond "I have thoughts."
Let's hope Betty, the character, has a less central role next year. And let's hope hope that January, the actor, takes time for some acting lessons.
esme!
Theocrats are my fuel. They are my best reason for spending money these days. The worse they get, the more I spend.
I donate almost every day to everything they hate (lately, it's been passage of health reform — like hell those lobbyists are gonna outspend the Army of Me).
And yes, I know how they feel about my President. I also know their antipathy is almost entirely based on the color of his skin, and NOT the content of his character, which I might add is the strongest of his generation. I made damn sure of that before I elected the guy.
Don't worry about the theocrats. The louder they yell, the stronger I get … and the more my money talks.
Did you guys already link to this Jezebel post elsewhere? http://jezebel.com/5400909/bon-voyage-betty-and-o… . I thought it was a good summary and had interesting comments.
#6 – I admit I judge people based on the 'patriarchy', too. I'm a product of it – when my spouse proposed umpty-ump years ago, my first comment wasn't "oh, yes, darling" but…"well, you'd better not expect me to change my name!" (yeah, I'm a little rough around the edges)…so I kept my last name…which *is* a man's last name – my dad's… I kept it because it's on my hard-earned (through night-school) bachelors and masters degrees, because it's on my DD214 (discharge from the USMC)…it's just 'me'…
And I have to continually re-evaluate how I think about Betty…or my own mother….through this prism.
Rush mentioned Mad Men at the end of his show Tuesday. He noted that women fans of the show just love Draper, who is much more manly then men today. Draper treats the women like crap, but the female fans love him–because he's manly.
Rush is an idiot.
Mary Wells' yacht is featured in the current issue of Architectural Digest. There's a "People and Places" feature.
Rush has been pretty accurate in a lot of women's reactions to Don. And I don't like him at all.
"Let’s hope Betty, the character, has a less central role next year. And let’s hope hope that January, the actor, takes time for some acting lessons."
January Jones needs acting lessons? After receiving a Golden Globe nomination? Well, I hope to see more of her next season.
btw, Anne B. – go get 'em, tigress.
rush will use anything to try to make a point. what he doesn't really get is that women do not want to live in DD's world, they merely want to ravish him, leave him for dead and make him cry.
or something like that.
but who would want to live with a man like that?
rush also evidently defines "manly" as being an asshole, it seems. I'm not surprised by this. he has ample reason to do so.
I love Tom Tomorrow.
not_B, please don’t take the columns I link to personally. This is our feature for lively political debate, but I don’t wish anyone to take it as finger-pointing.
Here’s a true thing: The patriarchy, we’re soaking in it. We all sometimes act as tools to the patriarchal agenda, because it’s so commonplace. We are fish who don’t notice we’re wet.
During the election, I read this amazing blog post by a feminist who realized that a lot of what she didn’t like about Hillary Clinton was pure sexism. She didn’t (I think) vote for Hillary, but she dropped a whole lot of her complaints against her as she examined them closely in the light of her own feminist politics. It was so interesting to read a fairly prominent feminist suddenly realize she was being sexist. I learned so much from that. I learned, basically, that we can all learn.
I think that some of my own reactions to Betty have been sexist. I fault her more for her parenting deficits than I fault Don for his. And I find that’s been a worthwhile examination, for myself.
But not_B, if the shoe doesn’t fit, don’t wear it.
#5 tonya,
I had seen the Bon-Voyage-Betty post, thanks! I just can’t remember if it was linked here. I think so .. but as I keep getting pulled into the Racialicious link-posts (such good stuff!), it is hard to remind myself to go back a week and look for it.
Either way, thanks for posting this. For this reader it’s a gold mine.
Anne B,
I just keep liking you more and more!
I used to have a bumper sticker on my first car that said “Doing my part to piss off the radical right.” I miss that sticker!
My favorite activity on Sat morns is to lure in the religious doorknockers (cuz when they find out I’m Jewish they get excited about the extra brownie points they’ll earn from G-d), listen to their pitch (oh so entertaining!) and then proceed to logically argue Bible back to them. It’s so fun to watch their heads explode from the contradictions…
One of these days I'm hoping to see a link to a post somewhere defending Jane…
Danny Miller’s article was fine & I readily believe his mother was a smart lady. But I’ve never been able to consider Betty smart. She earned a degree & we occasionally see her with a book propped up in front of her. But have we ever heard her express intelligence verbally? Beyond “I have thoughts.â€
She is intelligent. The way she had assessed Don’s personality in “The Gypsy and the Hobo” was dead on and made me realize that she should have continued her studies on anthropology . . . or start a career in psychiatry.
It’s hard not to have sexist responses to things since that’s our dominant culture. I have to ask myself about my reactions too. Especially concerning Betty.
thanks to the link, tonya. that really clarified something to me. Don in his bare feet, out of his marriage and office, all the women experiencing their own moments of loss in a society that assumes they have no problems.
It was so much easier to watch Betty’s story when her fantasy world was funny weird instead of falling apart.
It’s easier to root for Joan because Cut Up isn’t the main character. Peggy’s initial problem this season was resolved with the move. But Betty and Don carry the melodrama of the story.
the link to the person with a mother who was like Betty was really interesting too.
That sounds like a challenge tonya.
I'm not a lawyer but I like to role play Denny Crane now and then, certainly even Jane Siegel Sterling deserves a vigorous defense.
Give me a continuance of a week and I'll be back to make my case for Janie.
McCann Erickson welcomes Sterling Cooper!!
http://www.mccannny.com/home.html
For the background, see:
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/…
January Jones needs acting lessons? After receiving a Golden Globe nomination? Well, I hope to see more of her next season.
Even established actors continue lessons, workshops & other forms of training throughout their careers. They do improv, get roles in small-time plays in LA & work on their chops–like athletes exercising between games.
I’ve never been trained as an actress, so it’s all instinct. I just let myself go into this kind of a free fall. Sometimes I feel scared, or out of my element—like everyone else knows what they’re doing but me.
http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/january-jon…
very meta gypsy, I like.
The Singularity is nigh!
Darn! Looks like McCann took down their MM intro already. Anyone still able to view it?
I get it through the link in the Times article.
http://www.mccannny.com/
Thanks, Not_B, for voicing my thoughts. As for the Globes, they gave Pia Zadora best new artist one year, in part because her husband was a powerful producer. These are not the SAG awards or the Oscars, folks.
I have always wondered what Betty would have been like in the hands of another more talented actress – the younger Hope Davis, or Naomi Watts or Patricia Clarkson. January always strikes me as a starlet dropped into a pool of stage actors. She's certainly picturesque but her lack of skill is apparent in contrast to the rest of this fine cast.
The Danny Miller piece was great.
http://www.punknews.org/article/36070
I think the character of Betty Draper is a really interesting one… she has so much potential. It's great that the writers are taking their time to let her develop. You can read my Op-Ed article about the character of Betty Draper at the following URL:
KR, we happily feature any piece that relates to Mad Men. Our contact information is featured in our About section. Dropping into our comments section, a la spam, is most distinctly unappreciated.