Mad Men is a period drama featuring the American business world in the 1960's. The show is immensly popular across many generations and shows a different way of American life that many young people have never experienced. While the show is entertaining and well written, it in many ways romanticizes an era in which sexism and drug/alcohol use were widely accepted. The show, which ironically centers around advertising, is giving consumers an idealized view of the 1960s.
Sexism is a prevalent theme in Mad Men but is never really brought to the surface by writers or seen as a major issue by consumers. Most of the women in the show are either housewives, secretaires, or struggling to break into a male-dominated field. Joan, who is the main secretary, doesn't seem to have any problem with her role in the office. She realizes, in fact, that she is there not to enjoy her job, but to satisfy the men working above her. She even tells Peggy (another secretary) to stop "dressing like a little girl" if she wants to be taken seriously. She also tells Peggy that technology in the office was made to be so simple that "even a women can use it".
Betty, the main housewife on the show, is also stuck in a sexist rut. She works at home raising children, is cleary unhappy because of her husband's conspicuous cheating, and doesn't speak up for herself until she finds another man to take care of her. She is always financially dependent on some man, and it is clear that she makes no plans to change that.
Even Peggy, the most self-sufficient woman on the show, is hindered because of her sex. She has to work 10 times harder than any man in the offies to advance professionally. She realizes that she is not living up to society's standards, admitting sarcastically that "it's not as important as getting married".
In addition to sexism, Mad Men normalizes heavy cigarette use and alcohol consumption. Nearly every character on the show smokes and drinks both in their professional and personal lives. Smoking multiple packs of cigarettes a day and drinking whiskey at 10 in the morning is encouraged. Even Don (the main character), who clearly struggles with alcoholism, is always creatively on top of his game and with some new, attractive woman. Why not drink more than what is healthy when you can make tons of money and get so many women?
Mad Men should be seen as less of a nostalgic look to the past and more of a portrayal of major issures that America is still dealing with today. Most modern Americans believe that we have come very far from the days of Mad Men, and in many ways we have. However, sexism and drug/alcohol use are still very much issues today and Mad Mens should not be glamourizing them.
Just curious: Do any Mad Men watchers think the opposite of what I just said? Does the show portray the 1960s through a modern lense and emphasize its demerits as a way to make fun of/ warn against the era's ideologies?
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