If you've never seen the show, I'd suggest you checkout Mad Men tonight (Sunday) at 10 p.m. on AMC with later viewings later in the week.
This is the beginning of the third season and it's a look at a New York advertising agency in the 1960s and also a look at what America was like when men were the executives, women were the secretaries, minorities were invisible, smoking and drinking in the office were common and the wives of the executives stayed home even if they had college degress while their husbands chased skirts.
If you were old enough to remember those days, the show will bring back memories. If you're too young to remember those days, you'll get a look at an America that no longer exists.
HBO to its regret passed on this show so you can see it on basic cable on AMC. It's worth a look.
Spanko Brunch 2.0 #567
5 hours ago
I watched half an episode and was enraged! I think it brought back too many memories of those days of powerlessness, having to tolerate insulting behavior and pretend everything was OK. Thanks, but I don't want to live through those days again! I've heard others who like it, too. Maybe I'll give it another try sometime, but for now, I'll stick with this century!! Meow
ReplyDeleteMeow: I can understand your feelings but I find it interesting to see how far we've come. Back then, my wife could be told right to her face that she wasn't getting a job because she was good looking and might flirt with the men and there was nohting she could do.
ReplyDeleteUnbelieveable in this day and age.
FD
I get angry thinking about that period of time. I hated how anyone who wasn't a rich WASP male were treated. When I hear someone saying how much they miss that time period or want to change laws to force us back to then I walk away-I don't want to waste my time with someone like that. I won't even get into how Nam was fought by the poor...
ReplyDeleteYou obviously picked a good series to bring all this up. Lash
Good points, Lash. A lot about the good ol' days wasn't that good. We still have a ways to go but we live now in a much better society.
ReplyDeleteFD
haven't watched it and don't intend to LOL - as first, I don't watch TV but second, just reading this infuriates me. As professional journalist in a male world back in the 70s and 80s it SUCKED big time. The crap I had to put up with was unbelievable; the sexism, the misogoney, the absolutey unbelievable CRAP - so glad we have come a little further today.
ReplyDeletethe only good thing was as it was necessary for a women to work TWICE or THREE time as hard as a man to get any respect, and all that did was improve my skills!
Selkie: Times have changed because there are a lot of women in newsroom these days. But they used to work mainly on the sooiety pages.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I remember back in the day when a PR person brought a woman into a wire service newsroom and she took off her dress and showed off her underwear. To say it again, times have changed.
Congrats on not watching TV. I watch too much but shows like Rescue Me, Dexter and the Glenn Close lawyer shows are interesting.
I'll go out on the ledge here..I like Mad Men, and am hoping they replay the episode since I missed it tonight. I wasn't around during that era and so I didn't live through it like some of you have and I like seeing how it was, it helps me appreciate what I have now.
ReplyDeleteMeasha
FD, It was shown here in the UK (not sure if still showing). Watched it once and I must agree with Meow and Selkie. Having worked in an office were all managers were men, I heard and saw quite a few things and certainly wouldn't not want to go back to those day.
ReplyDeleteMind you I do like Jon Hamm :)
Ronnie
xx
Florida Dom, Ok, I own up to being shallow sometimes :). And yes, people like me were at the bottom of the bottom of the totem pole and no I would never have survived as a wife during those times.
ReplyDeleteBut,,,
I love the fashion and the Machiavellian nature of some of the players. Looking at the lives many are forced to live, the reason for the rise of civil rights and feminism are self evident.
In this lifestyle there are plenty of people who claim they want to go back to that time in the world. Not, me, I know a bad deal when I see one. I just was a good seamstress who can make me those dresses. And the shoes, don't get me started on the shoes :) CD
Honestly FD,
ReplyDeleteI've often wondered if wasps miss those daze... As a woman and mother of daughters, I don't and won't but when I worked in the South just a couple decades ago, it seemed an underground stronghold. KayLynn
KayLynn
Measha: I agree with you. Even though I wouldn't want to go back to those days, it's entertaining to remember what it was like then and see how far we've come.
ReplyDeleteRonnie: Not surprised to hear a woman saying she likes Jon Hamm. He's perfect for that role. I've been meaning to google him and see what else he's been in.
Cultivated: I don't think it's shallow to enjoy the show because I do but you made a good point that the show shows why the rise of the civil rights movement and feminism was just around the corner. I think our society has changed more in the last half century that society changed in the past in hundreds of years.
Fun: I think even the South has changed. And what I find interesting is that some young women today will say they're not feminists but they take for granted all the changes that feminism helped cause in our society.
Wow...I love the show! I don't watch TV shows thinking I want to live them; just like I love Weeds and I hate drugs. But it's a funny show.
ReplyDeleteAnd Mad Men is amazing in it's attention to detail and nostalgia.
I grew up in the 60's, I was little but I remember some of it. It makes me feel good to see how far we've come, both men and women. I love watching the characters evolve and grow, as they learn to understand each other beyond the stereotypes. I love re-living the Kennedy era and the Space Race and the clothes. And the smoking, so funny how everyone would smoke like crazy, even the women while pregnant. And the non-stop drinking. So interesting; how far we have come!
Oh and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that Joan, the main admin person, is a big-hipped, curvy woman and the men all think that's hot. Not the stick-thin boy look that men supposedly like today. And the women are obviously really intelligent and just starting to realize their power.
Lots to love about this show.
It's "hawt" for some of us to think about being subjugated or subjugating another, depending upon our preferences, but I don't think anyone would really think it's "hawt" to be subjugated in the workplace, at least, not for real.
Maybe in fantasy. I have some pretty intense fantasies in that area. :)
But never in real life, in my real job. I'd hate that.
Great show. Those of you who refuse to watch it, loosen up and try more than one show before you slam it. See the message they are bringing. It's actually pretty cool, a slice of our history.
To refuse to watch it because you think it was wrong to think that way back then would be like refusing to watch anything about African slavery in this country because you think that was bad, too.
It's great to see the changes and great to see how those changes started. :)