"Mad Men"

“Mad Men” is an hour-long drama that airs on AMC Sundays at 10pm. It is not a show aimed at college students, which a viewer can tell by their main sponsor being Viagra. The show follows the life of an advertising executive at work and at home during the turbulent times of the early 1960’s. The creators of the show chose an anxious time between 1950’s conformity and the late 1960’s activism. “Mad Men” does have strong plots, and great writing but many viewers enjoy nostalgia. Like “Leave it to Beaver” reruns many baby boomers watch to recall ‘simpler times.’ These people were sadly mistaken when they witnessed the bigoted, chauvinistic, and ignorant workers of the Sterling Cooper advertising agency, where the main action takes place.
At first, a viewer may be surprised at the blatant sexual harassment towards the women in the secretarial pool. The 60’s are not a time too distant, less than half a century, and it is amazing how much has changed in the way women are treated. These women worked in a male dominated office where they are expected to do much more then keep appointments, and answer telephones. As this clip shows women were expected to play several roles. Joan, the head secretary, explains to Peggy, the new girl, how to be a great secretary. Along with playing wife, and mother these women were trained to lie to their boss's wife when they are out of the office, at their extra long lunches. These women dealt with sexual harassment on a daily basis which did affect their work, like Peggy in the second episode of season one. These are things that today would be settled in human resources, or with an out of court settlement.
These two clips are just a sampling of the accepted torture these women dealt with to receive a paycheck. They accepted their circumstance and used the little power they had to their advantage, like the telephone operators “losing” phone calls. Another comedic aspect of the show is the characters’ ignorance of a healthy lifestyle. There is an abundance of chain smoking and alcoholism. My favorite scene, includes a woman smoking, and drinking liquor (in the middle of the afternoon) and at the end of the scene she stands to present her third trimester (yes, pregnant) belly.
I was curious whether this was true or a severe exaggeration of the time. According to Bob Levinson, he is recently retired, but has spent 20 years in the media and television departments at an advertising agency in New York, starting in 1960. There is some controversy, but he insists the unhealthy lifestyle, and relationships toward women are facts (NY Times). There are comments after the article, which include a man attesting to the three-martini, all male lunches he witnessed. It is amazing that a show could stereotype, and explain a time in the United States so vividly. This show seems to exemplify gender in popular culture. We are now entertained by the ignorance of just how bad the oppression of women actually was.

The Nw York times article can be found here.