Yes. Her bra straps dig into the flesh of her shoulders because they are holding up quite a lot all day long! and Joan likes the "girls" to be at attention so those straps are pulled tight to keep everything riding high. A well-endowed friend had the same problem. Amazingly I thought of this friend last evening as I watched Joan massaging her sore shoulders at the end of the day.

I saw it as more than that. She's a woman, and she's paying the price of playing the role she has in society. Much like being gracious when she is passed over for a job or when she had to jump up from the table to get her fiance a beer. The bra strap is just one more dig...

Yes. I saw the bra thing as a nice touch of symbolism and a reminder that Joan must continue the pain & suffering of being a woman in a man's world. I felt so bad for her when she was passed over for that job.

Joan wasn't passed over for the job. She was never considered as an applicant, due to her gender and her job as office manager. It would never have crossed Harry Crane's mind that Joan might have been interested in that job. Joan is a woman, and in 1962, she was basically relegated to the position she had. Maybe in 1972, that would have been a bit different, but the woman's movement hadn't really started yet.

Joan's shoulders are sore from propping up all those men at Sterling Cooper every day. Those 1960's undergarments were truly torture. I think that Joan could manage to "have it all", career, husband, and children but probably not with a doctor for a husband. She'd need someone in her own field, not someone who would minimize her job. Harry was so clueless he actually thought he was the one coming up with the great ideas.

It's also partly because she was carrying a big stack of manuscripts on her shoulder. I sometimes get welts, or bruises, from carrying a lot of books on my shoulder. The weight digs into the bra strap, leaving marks on the skin.
It was refreshing to see Joan step out of her usual element of being the office flirt- showing more of her true intellect.

My mother (who would be Don Draper's age) has, to this day, red indentations on her shoulders from wearing a bra all day (she is very well endowed). I remember them distinctly in the early 70's when I was a kid. Those "foundation" garments were torturous.

I, too, was so pleased to see a newly revealed side of Joan. To see her exhaustion and defeat at the end of the day made me feel a bit more sympathetic towards her (something I haven't felt since her horrid, racists comments to Paul's girlfriend earlier in the season).

I would love to know who came up with the idea of showing Joan sitting down on her bed and lowering the straps from her reddened and sore shoulder. Great visual. Next time they should show her soaking her feet because I am sure her feet hurt. I remember well the high heels with the pointed toes we wore in the office back them - we did not take them off from the moment we got to work until we left - except in the ladies room, of course - we could collapse on the fainting couch and kick off our shoes and rub our feet. I wish they would show a few scenes in the ladies room - they were always busy back then - crying secretaries, girls checking their stockings, fixing their makeup, their hair, exchanging gossip - some days more happened in the ladies room than in the actual office!

....Joan's entire existence and survival has been based on her beauty and sex appeal.... suddenly, she feels her own worth in a new way... and she's not so sure she wants to let go of that.

Viva La Joan.

I would love to know who came up with the idea of showing Joan sitting down on her bed and lowering the straps from her reddened and sore shoulder.

I"m gonna guess that when the DVD arrives and someone talks about this on the director's cut (or whatever) that what happened was that the actress who played Joan, wearing a period bra, found she kept getting those red marks on her shoulders and some savvy writer decided to use them.

With the benefits of 46 years of new fabrics, elastics and plastics, bras now are far easier on women's bodies than they were, though they can still leave those red marks. Back then, however, Bras were just strong fabrics and metal--in particular that little "buckle" at the shoulder to help adjust the strap. Cinch 'em tight enough to get Joan's lift and figure and you've got marks on the shoulders that, as someone mentioned, can last a lifetime.

I know this isnt totally related but my aunt told me a story once about her boss during the sixties who had the opposite challenge of Joan's endowment. My aunt worked in a law firm and had boss who ,like Joan, could sometimes be a real pain in the neck . She often wore undergarments that were false to improved her shape and on one occasion her whole left breast had suddenly "collapsed" leaving a significant indentation instead of a shapely curve. None of the ladies in the office said a word and left her to walk around with this odd shape for a better part of the day. My aunt is a real sweetheart and I just laugh and laugh when I hear this story because it was her own little way of getting back at her pushy boss.

I think there was great symbolism in that scene. Joan's shape (esp. her chest) is so admired by the men in her world, that is almost a source of power.
At the same time she pays a price for her large chest. She has to wear uncomfortable bras to support her breasts, the men in her life don't see that, and frankly probably wouldn't care as long as she looks good.
I thought that scene was great, because Joan was alone, and could finally be herself. It also showed how she suffers to be "an ideal woman" in the man's world she lives in.

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