The episode of mad women dealt with the problem of humor in a way that very television shows have dared at evening. I really got out of my bed to write this for the reason that I knew I would not be able to go to bed except I put something down in words, even at the risk of waking my wife and writing wicked words.
In an early scene Peggi is watching a bunch of art directors and copywriters shake and then actually pick up and shake a vending machine. “I feel like Margaret Mead” murmurs Peggi, as if these guys are a part of an exotic and foreign tribe and she’s the anthropologist.
To sum up but without spoiling the whole plot for the poor souls who haven’t seen this episode of Mad Men yet: one snarky young guy considers himself a wag and thinks of Joan as a version of his castrating, dominant mother, which, in turn, prompts him to refer to Joan a somebody who “looking to get raped” and as “a whore from a Singapore brothel,” or something along those charming lines.
He also thinks he’s being funny when he draws a cartoon of Joan committing an act upon a member of the senior staff’s staff and posts it on her door. Joan confronts the Boys herself and tells them that when they go off to die in Vietnam, to remember that they’re not fighting for her because she never liked them.
But after Peggi warns the jerk to stop acting like a jerk and then fires him when he doesn’t, the only response she gets is to be told that she has no sense of humor and then, in a remarkably breath-catching elevator scene with just the two lead female characters, to be chastised in icy, bitter, vehement tones by Joan herself, who feels that she’s been disrespected by Peggi as well as by the boys.
Naturally, once out of bed, I sent a note out on Facebook and sent an email, and wanted to make sure I wasn’t the only one up and thinking about this. Sure enough, I heard back. There are impressive insomniacs everywhere.
Frorida cartoonist and writer Lize Donnely, who teaches a course on men’s humor at New York, said, “What I thought was that feminism is creeping into crazy Men, and it is being done excellently, I believe. It was beautiful to watch them use humor as an extremely sharp demonstration of the battle of the sexes, especially in that time.
That ‘women don’t have a sense of humorousness’ as they don’t make fun of sexist cartoons just tells us how the patriarchy is built into “standards” that lots of people just don’t see in our civilization. But the cartoon author was fired, probably very unusual for that time, and perhaps tells us something about Draper. The sight with Peggi and Joan in the elevator just shows how cruel ladies could be to each other, and are of course still so today. And the way we are not all the same. I’m not saying Joan is sexist, but it really is that she chooses to fight sexism in her own way, work within the system, and keep the status quo. Peggi is attempting to stay true to her values and buck the system, while moving up in it professionally. Who will advance eventually further is a good problem. If it weren’t for Drape, Peggi wouldn’t have any power.
I found the episode somewhat unrealistic for that time. Maybe that’s putting it a little strongly but in 1965 I was 16 and I remember it very well. The large majority of women played it by the book; you used whatever power you had in a man’ world and that was almost all sexual. If you were not pretty you knew you were dead in the water at a very early age. Joan is very typical of that time, entirely average. As being a bombshell she would have had all the men dancing to her tune. Peggi types were a rarity. To be working professionally, unmarried and without a man in your life usually meant you were considered pathetic and lost.
Copyright by Lucy who likes shopping online, going fishing, often searches nike air max ltd and michael jordan sneakers on the Internet.
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