Mad Men Analysis

           Mad Men is a new-ish show all about the treatment of women in the 1950's. Although it brings up some very good topics, the show itself just isn't my cup of tea, so to speak. I prefer action more than words, and the most action in Mad Men is either offscreen in the bedroom, or crashing a car into a bird bath at 20 miles per hour. To be honest, I'm only writing this because I need to in order to get credit for my english class. I would never watch Mad Men by myself, but oh well. I will now discuss some things about the show that did make me raise an eyebrow.

Betty Draper, the main character's wife, takes her precious children for a drive one day, but is distracted by her shaking hands and crashes the car into a birdbath. After a moment of shock, she scrambles to make sure her little cherubs weren't harmed in this devastating crash. Expecting the children to be bloody vegetables, she opens to car door to find them laughing in a heap. Later that night after telling her husband about it, she worries "what if poor little Sally had got a cut? She would have a horrible scar on her face for the rest of her life, and no man would want her. Maybe if that had happened, maybe it would have been better for her if she had been killed in the accident!" I really hope this isn't something that actually was an issue back in "the day". If it is, that is just really sad. It made me really realize how much the women in this time period rely on their looks to get by in life.

Another thing that caught my eye was when Pete stops by Peggy’s apartment to tell her that he was getting married, and then immediately start making a move on her, which to my astonishment, worked. This really disgusted me because I was sure she was going to say some witty remark, smile, and close the door in his face, but instead she took his hand and led him inside. He made many other attempts to hit on her, all of which failed, but as soon as she heard he was getting married, all aboard! What. The. Hell.

Don Draper, the main character of Mad Men, is a slick, successful ‘ladies man’, and I hate him. When one of the men in his office are being assholes to the secretaries or whatever you call them, Don, being the big cheese in charge, rushes to the ladies’ defense and says something subtly degrading, but only enough to make them back off. Then the ladies swoon and sigh and all that. He acts all cool and like “whatever, I respect women and anyone who is a jerk to them is beneath me”. Then he drives to the house/apartment of one of the many women he is having an affair with, while his wife makes dinner and waits for him to come home.

I think this show has the right idea to show people what it was like back then, and I’m sure there are thousands of people (mostly middle aged women) who can’t get enough of it. It probably is a great show. I just can’t tell because I don’t like this kind of stuff. These are the things that I thought should be analyzed. Ok cool I’m done.

ALL HAIL THE WICKED WORM BEAST