Broken Dreams - The Mad Women of Mad Men
I was a child in the 1960's. Yes, that reveals my age, but it's undeniable. We girls of the 60's didn't have a myriad of after school activities, and unless "go play" counts, didn't get a lot of suggestions from parents as to how to spend our time. We'd never heard of day care, knew only a few people from divorced families, of which I was one, and we rode in cars without seat belts. We had ponies at our birthday parties, wore saddle shoes and socks trimmed and lace, and thought our mommies were beautiful even as we breathed in their toxic second hand smoke. Adults were in a different dimension from our worlds and the two rarely intersected.
Every Sunday night, I can now watch my childhood in living color and remember what it was like to live in a world of smoke and mirrors that appeared to be one thing but was in reality something quite different. It's called Mad Men.
Mad men brilliantly portrays life in the 1960's and the fragility of the paper thin facade that surrounded it, like the walls of a crumbling fort designed to protect its frightened inhabitants. Somehow, Sally Draper touches that little girl inside of me who saw and felt too much but was told to go watch tv and be a good girl.
I've written about it before, and by now, unless you live in a cave, most of you have at least heard of the AMC original phenomenon or, like me, you too have become addicted to the lives of its complex, multi-faceted characters. Don Draper is the painfully dapper and mysterious creative art director who has a love hate relationship with women as well as himself, Pete Campbell is a desperate little boy trying to prove his worth, but doomed to be perfectly average, and Roger Sterling is a sad but mesmerizing compilation of all that was dysfunctional about mid century executives.
But it's the WOMEN of Mad Men who move me. They represent the real women who paved the way for the women's rights movement and broke down barriers for generations to come. And as ancient as the 60's seem to us now, we, as women, oddly identify with the three very different main female characters who somehow manage touch a sensitive cord in all of us.
Behind the Curves:
JOAN HOLLOWAY HARRIS
Joan, played by Christina Hendricks, is one of the most intriguing characters in Mad Men. Perhaps it's because she has mastered the art of appearing amused or concerned as she pretends to listen to the boring men around her as they pontificate on their many accomplishments and woes. Or, it could be because she refuses to crumble under the oppression she faces as a woman every day and toughens her resolve with every disrespectful comment thrown her way. She plays the game well and hides her intellect and abilities according to an outdated play book that she has come to know too well to abandon.
Yes, she's known for her curves, but it's her strength and her enviable ability to bite her tongue that I admire most. She has what is referred to in The Velveteen Rabbit as a "knowing expression" and never needs words to tell exactly what she is thinking. Though she has used the age old guile of womanhood to get ahead in life, it has ultimately betrayed her by limiting the extent at which those around her would take her seriously. She struggles with the role of wife to a disappointing choice of husband, former mistress to a man who rejected her, and career woman trying to reign in rude little boys playing office.
But Joan is all knowing, all seeing and discreetly keeps it to herself. Perhaps she is most threatened by Peggy, the girl she hired who refused to follow her advice and then succeeded in spite of it. Janie Bryant uses paradox to dress Joan in clothing that shows her curves but screams for the right kind of attention at the same time.
Behind the Bows:
PEGGY OLSON
If there was ever a character of complete contradictions, that would be Peggy, played by Elizabeth Moss. Since Season I, prim little bows of every variety have adorned her neck to artfully disguise the rebellious wild child that lives just below the surface. Though her clothing suggests a docile, compliant, sometimes borderline homely girl, Peggy is a force to be reckoned with. Talented, intelligent, and stubborn, she refuses to use her sexuality as a tool and rejects the societal norms imposed upon women of her age.
She made history at the Advertising agency by fighting her way into the executive offices of the firm, but has never been accepted as an equal. She bravely navigates, without a compass, the unspoken code of male domination. Peggy is determined to understand, experience, and conquer the male experience, while maintaining her female identity. We identify with feeling that there is always a symbolic club that refuses to offer us membership into it's exclusive world. Acceptance eludes all of us at one time or another.
Peggy's neutral appearance keeps curiosity seekers at bay. She keeps the bows tightly tied to remain obscure enough to do exactly what she wants without attracting attention. But those who take the time to look beneath the surface of this seemingly simple woman would be shocked and amazed at the volume of experiences she's managed to squeeze into her young life so far.
Behind the Hair:
BETTY DRAPER FRANCIS
The blond beauty who's crown grows a little dimmer every season. Betty, played by January Jones, represents the girl who played by the rules set by her mother, and her mother's mother, and was awarded with the ultimate betrayal. She looks like a perfect trophy wife one day and a debutante the next. Once hopeful and starry eyed, she now oozes melancholy and anger with every smoke filled glance.
Although arguably the least sympathetic of the female characters, Betty might deserve our sympathy most of all. She is a product of a generation that demanded perfection, and told the prettier girls that finding a good husband was their only hope for happiness and the only tangible proof of their self worth. Her clothing is the personification of the perfect female of the time - Sexy without being gauche, elegant but sophisticated and appropriate without being boring.
Betty dresses for the part that her generation demanded she play. Still a child herself, she is frustrated as a mother and resents the life she's been doomed to live. One understands from the first season that Betty is perhaps the saddest character, and like the very children she resents, raised to be seen but not heard.
I'll be sad when Mad Men comes to an end. I just want to keep watching, through the 1970's and the 1980's in a desperate attempt to understand the human condition, and perhaps my own life experience. Mad Men is one of those shows that will leave us wondering. What will happen to Sally? What will become of Joan, Betty and Peggy?
Perhaps those of us who were children of the 60's need to look no further than our own lives to get the answers we need.
Posted by DRESS at 10/17/2010 10:02 AM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: christina hendricks elizabeth moss vintage clothing vintage dress joan mad men mad men january jones 1960's clothing vintage 1960's betty draper peggy mad men
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: christina hendricks elizabeth moss vintage clothing vintage dress joan mad men mad men january jones 1960's clothing vintage 1960's betty draper peggy mad men
LOVED this! I look forward to your blog and this is one of my favorite entries so far! You have beautiful insight!
I found you on twitter - love your website and was really happy to see that you have a blog. I too love Mad Men and relate to the women! Thank you for the thoughts.
WOW - you nailed this! I thought I understood Mad Men but you've brought it to a new level - loved it..
Thanks Jeanette!
I am loving this series too Lisa, and grew up in the same era as you. Your entry on the three women is wonderful.
My friends and I did a test on the Mad Men site to reveal which character we are....unfortunately, I came out as Pete Campbell!!
Hi Sue! I hope to one day hop on a plane and fly over to meet you - I think we have a lot in common! Although, I'm afraid to take the test because I'd probably come out as Pete Campbell too..ugh..
Lisa - I loved this entry! We've missed you at the Vintage Fashion Expo-hope you'll exhibit next time!
Hi Patricia! We'd love to do the show again.. we miss meeting customers in person! Thanks for loyally following my blog!
Great entry! Very insightful. I am truly thankful, as a woman in her 20's for all the women that came before me and blazed trails so that I can be who I am. Now I need to stop reading and get caught up on Mad Men!
I really love this - I feel like you wrote what I feel and don't have the talent to describe! Thank you!
Great post. I love the show, and it took me a while to realize that the character I most identify with is Sally. I was the same age as the character is on the show, and when Sally sat there watching Illya Kuryakin on The Man from Uncle, I completely understood!!
Hard to believe that Sally is now 55 or 56!
Really love all these stories.. have been reading them daily. Please add more if you have any… Thanks a lot again for this awesome work.
a very inspiring sroties…great thanx to you and to all the people who develope this site. keep going and good luck.
great site! I am supporting it!! Will definitely come back again – having you rss feeds also,