Hi lucky8! It is a show set in a historical time where misogyny was more accepted. Our society has come a long way, but, unfortunately it still exists.

Shows like Mad Men are about tension, and that's tension from a variety of different things. I fully understand feeling uncomfortable and unhappy with such tension. Not eveyone wants tension in their "entertainment" or, rather, it varies from person to person which types of tension are acceptable or unacceptable in their fiction.

Misogyny, like racism and religious bigotry, was ingrained at that time and taken as a given--meaning that everyone did it on one level or another and few people were aware that they were doing anything wrong. This creates tension, but what's likely really getting to you is the awareness that this misogyny is going to be unrelenting. After all, such practices and glass ceilings didn't start going away till twenty years later--so we all know full well that Peggy, for example, is never going to get a fair shake.

That's depressing, but it's also honest and true to the time. Which is why, in the end, I'm glad that they're showing it. Why? Because too many people wonder why we have anti-discrimination laws. Too many poo-poo such laws; mock and make light of them--they ask "Why? can't I have a calendar of nude women on my wall? What's wrong with calling a co-worker "sweetheart?' Can't anyone take a joke?"

This show does an excellent job letting people who aren't women or black, or who weren't around during such times, understand how insidious such racist/sexist practices can be. It makes the viewer identify with these women and FEEL their discomfort, it makes the viewer understand how demoralizing such practices can be, how they can make a woman or someone of another race or religion feel powerless and abused. It makes the viewer realize that such practices, down to those "sweetheart" nicknames, are not and never were "harmless." Not when their intent was to make sure that the person so nicknamed was never seen as a human being, as an adult to be respected and treated as an equal.

So while I appreciate that what you're seeing is unrelenting and bound to be depressing as it's going to be almost ten years before women are burning their bras and demanding equal rights and ten more years before they actually achieve some of those rights...I still applaud this show for not softening or shying from this important and, yes, demoralizing reality of how it was. I applaud this show for powerfully and rawly showing the viewer why we should never let anyone try to shame or bully us into believing that anti-discrimination laws are unnecessary, or, worse, that it was a happier time for all back in the day before such laws.

And I especially appreciate it at a time when women running for high office are still being judged according to sexist stereotypes rather than whether or not they have been good political leaders.

Misogyny was an accepted practice then, as it was in the 70s and 80s. And it still goes on today. Just depends on the industry you work in on how rampant it is.

You nailed it for me as well. It is becoming so dark that I can hardly watch either. And the dog thing, a real dog lover would have never done that.

This show needs a lighter side!

Imagine what it was like to LIVE in 1962 as a woman or black person!

That's the point...if you ever hear anyone talking about "the good old days," they're probably a white man that misses when he was completely in charge of everything...sounds a bit familiar from certain groups these days...LOL!

I could hardly wait until the show was over with on Sunday. I agree with Donnaann that a real dog lover would never just let a dog out and let him go into the night, and if I see Don and Bobbi humping in bed again I am going to throw up. Come on, give the audience a break. And, the last scene with Don in the bathroom haunted by his past. Please, the only good thing Sunday was watching the brilliance of Pete and Peggy and the electricity that fuses their relationship. I really am bored with the show, the darkness needs to find some light and air.

I loved the show...in that dark masochistic way. Not everything has to be all happy all the time. This may be the writers telling us not to be so quick to think things were better back then--now that we are more enlightened 45 years later, we would feel very stifled and oppressed if we were magically popped back to 1962.

It makes the viewer realize that such practices, down to those "sweetheart" nicknames, are not and never were "harmless." Not when their intent was to make sure that the person so nicknamed was never seen as a human being, as an adult to be respected and treated as an equal.

====================
My first boss that did exactly this; I'd come home and recap this nonsense to my mother and she'd go, "Oh, he's just being nice."

NICE?

And here was another mad thing he had: "Come over here and give me a hug..." Still by far one of the biggest creeps I worked for.

By donnaann on September 2, 2008 8:56 PM

You nailed it for me as well. It is becoming so dark that I can hardly watch either. And the dog thing, a real dog lover would have never done that.

This show needs a lighter side!

Then stick with sitcoms.

right on nokomis!

If you're tense and depressed watching it, try living it. Many of us did, and still do though the misogny has gone somewhat underground (except to make a reappearance during elections.) It's less blatant, definitely not PC these days, but not gone, alas.

Sorry, forgot to add ... and speaking of creeps, during the earliest days at one of my first professional jobs I was taken aside and warned to never, ever, get caught alone with a certain manager - especially with him between me and the door. He was the original dirty old man, a groper of the first water. I always "managed" to drop off my invoices etc. when I knew he wouldn't be in his office. His behavior was well-known, right up to the top, but tolerated- even smirked at - because he had been there for a long time and was considered (by the guys, not us) as "harmless."

What scares me most about racism, gender bias, age bias, weight bias, is how incidious it has become in the workplace.
In the Mad Men days it was all "out there", no hiding it. I'm not saying that was right...but people knew what to expect.
I hope I'm making sense with this.

Basically, people today are able to take legal action against peers, and bosses in the work place, so I think most of us feel as though the bias and harrasment of the MM days are gone.

Harrasment, racism, gender, and age discrimination are illegal. However, they are sometimes difficult to prove.
I think they have been replaced by work place bullying, which is not illegal.

Work place bullying is a big issue, especially for women today. I have been a victim of bullying, and most people I work with have been victims.

The playground bullies of yesterday are the workplace bullies of today. The difference is they are craftier, and almost always get away with it.
And in today's work world we are so afraid of losing our jobs, we put up with it. If we complain, it gets worse.

OK that's enough from me, I'm depressing myself!!

I agree, it's becoming a bit too dark for me too. I want to be entertained, not made to feel uncomfortable. Well, hey, everyone is different. They are losing me.

60schild,
Great post. I agree.

hi 60'schild!...
Bravo to you for saying some things that needed to be said, and that bear repeating from time to time.

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