Mad Men Seasons 2-3

[meganbmoore]

This is a show I find difficult to post on, I think because I neither think that it’s either brilliantly feminist or something that encourages women to put up with sexism. I think it’s an excellent work of deconstruction about an idealized time period, particularly when it comes to the idea of the happy and perfect 60s housewife, but that making most of the plotlines and POVs center around the sexist men keeps it from being as successful for me as it could be otherwise. Mind you, if asked if I consider it sexist or feminist, I’d say it’s a feminist view of a sexist world, but in many ways, it’s also very much a second wave feminist viewpoint (that is, one specifically concerned with sexism that heterosexual white women face from heterosexual white men with other considerations, though sometimes acknowledged, being far secondary), and also one that I sometimes think sees itself as commenting more on sexism women no longer have to deal with, without a lot of awareness of the sexism women still have to deal with. So while I appreciate it a lot and find it very involving while I watch it, I don’t love it the way I want to.

Some more spoilery comments:

1. In the first season and even season 2, I would have said I wanted Betty and Don to work things out, because while being with an honest and faithful Don was probably what would have made Betty happiest, being without him probably would have made her happier than being with Don as he is. By the end of season 3, though, I don’t think I could believe she could be happy with Don again. I may have cheered when she kicked him out in season 2.

2. Independent of his family and the cheating, I was mostly OK with Don’s actual relationships with other women, until season 3, where his pressuring the teacher into an affair really made him drop in my eyes. Until then, I thought the relationships were entered into equal grounds.

3. I disliked Pete and Peggy’s relationship in season 1, but I love her basically eviscerating his patriarchal ambitions without even really considering it as doing that to him.

4. Speaking of Pete, there are times I almost don’t hate him. Then I remember that he’s kind of all about the agonies of being an attractive, intelligent, educated white man in the 60s who is gainfully employed and from a relatively affluent family. Though I do kind of…uhm…adore him and Trudy. In a “you two are so snobby and awful and in 30 years you will be shamelessly plotting against each other” way.

5. The office scenes lost a lot of life after Joan quit.

6. The ending of season 3 was kind of brilliant, but made me sad because they left most of the women at the office when the main characters left…

Comments

[lea_hazel]

I pretty much agree with everything you say, but I mainly love the show (despite its laxness in certain areas) and get a headache just thinking about the viewership. Especially when it comes to things like the sexism women supposedly don't have to deal with anymore. I remember an interview where female staff writers commented that they lifted some of Peggy's interactions from their personal (and recent) experiences, but I don't think that's something most viewers see.

[lady_ganesh]

I still haven't seen Season 4. Pete is such an interesting character because he's not really particularly likeable or sympathetic, but the show does a brilliant job of showing how the universe has shaped him into being what he is, so you do sympathize, a bit, to a certain point. (And then you stop.)

And I agree, the office lost so much life when Joan left. I was so happy at the last episode.