The Alternative Feminist

This week’s Mad Men was not my favorite.  The most interesting storyline was between Don’s new secretary, Dawn, and Peggy.  Thus far, Peggy has largely been our heroine.  She’s been the plucky young woman fighting her way into the Madison Avenue boys club.  Sure, she’s arrogant, but we’ve been telling ourselves that it was okay.  It was necessary for a girl fighting an uphill battle in a man’s world.  We cheered when her smugness toppled Stan as they stood naked, eye to eye.  We saluted her when she stood up to Don last season, voicing her disappointment at the absence of a parade in her honor for her GloCoat kernel.  But Weiner doesn’t let it end there – because in life, it never does.  Arrogance and condescension mean one thing when Peggy’s hurled them at the establishment white male power structure.  But when hurled at another less privileged than she, it takes on an entirely different tenor.  I don’t know about everyone else, but I cringed through the entire apartment scene…then I got angry….then I remembered this is just at television show.

Peggy’s jackassery manifested itself long before she reconsidered leaving her purse unattended and within reach of her black houseguest.  The moment that scene began with Dawn cheerfully talking about her family, Peggy was purely awful to Dawn.  She began by telling Dawn that she identifies with her, then refused to hear much from Dawn herself.  In due time, it occurs to her that since Dawn is technically a woman, Peggy can recreate her in her own image.  But when Dawn expresses no interest, with a genuine, “I like my job,”  Peggy unilaterally decides that it’s because “copywriter’s tough.”  Then she confides her ambivalence about her career to a coworker, as if she were her childhood mammy, only to conclude the evening with suspicion about leaving her purse with one of those blacks with whom she, less than 5 minutes ago, expressed such solidarity  (Activity:  Count how many stereotypes Peggy invoked in that single evening).  Am I the only one who thought Dawn just might prefer to face the dangers of the streets to enduring any further indignities from Peggy Olson?  I wondered.  Did Dawn even really stay and rise early the next morning?  Or was she sufficiently disgusted to leave a polite note and quietly make her way, in the dead of night, back to the safety of Harlem?

Mad Men has not done a good job with race thus far, and it remains to be seen if it ever fully improves.  But what I thought was pitch perfect was Peggy’s attitude towards this black woman.  The black woman couldn’t get a word in edgewise in narrating her own story.  And when finally instructed: “you can talk” could only muster a “I’m trying to…” before her character, her story, her ambitions, her point of view, were once again being written for her in Peggy’s head.  To Peggy, it doesn’t really matter who Dawn is.  Because the arrogant Peggy already knows.  She’s just like me….she wants to be like me…..Project!!!….that’s too hard for her…..she might steal my purse…does that make me a bad person?  (Trick question:  Do any of these thoughts actually have anything to do with Dawn?  Or do black women merely exist as potential do-gooder projects for, trusted confidants to, then potential burglars of white women?)   The question is: Did Weiner deprive Dawn of her personhood?  Or did Peggy?  That’s a question that’s open for discussion.  But my feeling is that it rang quite true for Peggy to behave so poorly.  One need look no further than last year’s hit film The Help, or, for that matter, The Blind Side to see a tale of white women usurping, and drowning the voices of African Americans – using their lives not as complete human stories of their own merit, but instead as mere backdrops to their own self-reflective musings.  It’s a tradition as old as America itself, and I couldn’t help wondering if that was what inspired the slumber party.  If so, that’s mighty perceptive, and brave, of Weiner.  I’d still like to know more about Dawn as an actual person, but I suspect the best way to achieve that is to breathe life in to her outside of the office.  Perhaps the folks of SCDP can’t ever interact with a human they don’t perceive to actually exist outside of their own stereotypes.  Perhaps that’s been Weiner’s point of view on race all along.  Black people cannot exist in a world full of people who can only see in them reflections of themselves.  Who knows?

In other news, I’m growing increasingly bored with Don and I’m happy for Joan.  I wonder if Mohawk actually wanted to see work by Monday, or if Pete was up to a few tricks.  There was quite a nice smirk on his face as he was leaving for the weekend.

I’ve predicted, this season, that Roger is foreshadowing Don’s future, and Ginsburg’s double-pitch certainly makes it seem like Don’s days as numero uno are numbered.  Michael’s hungry, where Don is complacent.  Michael is young where Don is old.  I wonder if Michael:Don :: Pete: Roger.  I’ve already posited that Megan:Don :: Jane:Roger.  (I realize that I’m dating myself with these analogy notations, but what can I say?). We shall see.  But during this episode, Mr. Ginsburg certainly grabbed my attention.  I wonder what else he’s got up his sleeve this season.  Time will tell.

Wooo!  This week’s episode was a tough pill for Betty sympathizers.  But I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t a subtle clue that season 5 will be Betty’s redemption.  I can’t help but wonder if Weiner will finally give Betty what’s due to her, and fill out her character justly, addressing the complexities that lie beneath.  I just can’t see any other reason for treating Betty’s cancer scare this way.  I genuinely felt pity for Betty. The scene that kills it for me is the final one – where she knows she’s cancer-free and has already lamented that she’s “just fat”, then chows down on Sally’s ice cream with no self-awareness, accountability, or shame.  All I saw was childish glee.  It was definitely cringe-inducing for this Betty sypmathizer.  But I wondered if she isn’t nearing rock bottom so she can rise again, and shock the hell out of everybody.

It was so infuriating to watch both Don and Megan be so cruel to her.  Don was so dismissive when Roger suggested that perhaps “she’s a fighter?”  And Megan’s “she just needed a reason to call you” was just plain mean and hateful.  But what I love is how aware Betty is about all of it.  It was so poignant of her, when thinking about her death’s affect on her children, to observe: “they’ll never hear a nice word about me.”  Boy was she ever right.  Don and Megan are not the sort of people you want to rely on to pass on your memory to your children, especially Gene (who’s too young to be left with many memories of his own.)  I just can’t get over how utterly despicable it is to essentially accuse a woman of growing a tumor just so that she can get a small piece of your new husband (why anyone likes her, I’ll never know.)   Well, I think her comeuppance is on its way.  At least that’s what I’m hoping.  I’m really rooting for this scare to jolt Betty into action and show everybody that she’s not just some dumb, angry housewife.  That there’s some fire beneath it.  We’ve seen tightly-controlled embers in the past (which, to me, is evidence of a self control and strength of will unrivaled by anyone else on the show – even Don).  And I want to see it roaring to life.

Moving on.  Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce has a couple of hew hires!  Welcome aboard Dawn and Michael!  We finally have a bit of diversity at SCDP.  I personally think Dawn is adorable (I loved her ’60s winged eyeglasses), and I’m hoping we’ll get to see the actress who plays her shine with some great writing and interesting storylines.  My prediction is that there will be some friction upon Joan’s return.  And we’ve already gotten a glimpse into Michael Ginsburg’s personal quirks, and I must say, I’m very much looking forward to a clash between him and Peggy.

I know I said last week that I was growing bored with these characters.  But Betty’s cancer scare has created new hope for me.  I never thought that Don Draper would become one of the most boring characters.  But I can’t say I’m terribly interested in Don’s getting older storyline (not until it clashes with Betty’s will I much be interested, I suspect), his may-december relationship with Megan, Pete’s advancement on Roger’s status or anything about Harry.  But this episode did make me feel that this show still has some life left in it – we’ve still got Peggy, and thrown Michael Ginsburg into the fire with her, Dawn, Joan, Betty, and I’m hoping Sally will show up with some interesting episodes this season – she’s growing up.  And for that, I’m optimistically looking forward to the future.

My oh my, after a year and a half (a few months in SCDP time), it seems that nothing much has changed for our friends at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.  Peter is still brooding about Roger;  Harry is still a crass boor; Roger is still morose; Lane is still restless at home; Stan is still a jackass; Peggy is still awaiting satisfactory credit and a parade for her hard work; notwithstanding her induction into the new mommies club, Joan remains tethered to SCDP headquarters in heart and mind;  Burt Cooper is still in the lobby; and Don has managed to walk down the aisle, with Betty 2.0.

I can’t say that I was underwhelmed with the season 5 premiere.  But I can’t shake the creeping thought that I’m growing bored with these characters as time goes on.  I recognize Matthew Weiner’s position that, while times change and circumstances change, people, at their core, mostly do not.  But watching these characters circle around the same drains for years is starting to seem monotonous.  And the year-and-a-half hiatus has not made my heart grow fonder for watching the same old folks parallel their past mistakes with the same old choices.

I had a sense, at the end of season 4, that Don married Megan for the same reason he married Betty.  In a flashback scene sometime earlier in the series, Dick described his enthusiasm for Betty while asking Anna for a divorce in anticipation of proposing to the former.  He wore a goofy grin and gushed about how “happy” Betty was.  As if he could grab a bit of that happiness for himself simply by making her Mrs. Draper.  Well, he couldn’t, and her happiness dried up something fierce over the 10 or so years they were together.  Don neglected Betty.  He neglected his family.  He didn’t seem to realize that marriage can sap the freshness from an ingenue quick, fast, and in a hurry if that marriage is isolating and lonely.  I’ve always maintained that Betty is misunderstood.  Don was a horrible husband, and she was stuck in a miserable marriage – of course she’s angry.  Who wouldn’t be?  Well, I hope Megan was taking notes, because that’s exactly where she’s headed.

As I said before, Megan is little more than Betty, version 2.0.  Sure,  she’s a new model for the ’60s – international, sexy, young, and short-skirted, with makeup tricks a bit more Liz Taylor in Cleopatra (1963) than Grace Kelly at her height (circa 1954).  But underneath the veneer of freshness, she’s the same young, idealistic pretty armpiece- only in a shorter skirt and gogo boots.  She has ambitions, same as Betty did (recall her working as a model, when she really didn’t have to.) She wants to be part of Don’s professional life (recall Betty saying as much after their dinner with the Utz’s and Barretts).  She’s sweet, and takes care of him, and he’s attracted to her youthful glow.  And let’s not forget that she throws a childish tantrum with the best of them (“You don’t deserve this!  All you get to do is watch!”)  Sure, instead of leaving her on a shelf in Ossning, they live in the city, and she gets a job at SCDP, but it seems things are already beginning to fall apart.

Within 3 months, she’s already made herself an office laughing stock – and is mumbling about it “not working out”.  She’s already not fitting in as part of Don’s work identity.  It was clear after their romp following her tantrum.  Don resorted to his trademark Draper-esque moves to soothe her.  Honestly.  He’s closer to Peggy than anyone, save for Anna, but dismisses her and the rest of the staff (who risked their careers to follow him into a startup) as “those people” whom he doesn’t want in his home?  I smelled B.S. and a phony attempt to soothe a petulant wife by withholding truths about his relationships with others in an attempt to make her feel special and close.  Well, he’s already starting to feel a bit distant.  He doesn’t attempt to make Megan understand his complex feelings about and relationships with the others at SCDP.  He only tells her what she wants to hear, while he retreats into himself.  Sound familiar?

I suspect that, should Megan become a mother, the “working wife” experiment will fall by the wayside, and she’ll find herself exactly in Betty’s shoes.  And will her passions, and desires be fulfilled?  Will she be okay with that?  I see little evidence that the story ends much differently.  But we shall see.  By-the-way, did anyone else think Roger’s toast, in addition to being cruel to Jane, was a bit of foreshadowing?  ”The only thing worse than not getting what you want, is someone else getting it.”  Well, he did get what he wanted in Mrs. Siegal-Sterling.  It’s simply that she’s out-of-fashion.  And Roger’s bored.  Well, it seems parallel to Don’s pattern.  Betty was the fashionable wife for the ’50s when they married.  But now he’s got one for the ’60s – and he will soon be as dissatisfied with his upgrade as Roger.

My first impression is that I really don’t like Megan.  She sleeps her way into a career, puts her sexuality on display before her colleagues at an ill-conceived birthday party for Don, then gets pissed because nobody takes her seriously.  How could they?  At every turn she insists they not.  She made a fool of herself, shimmying her way into the SCDP hall of shame all by herself just like a big girl, then became angry at everyone from Harry, to Peggy, to Don for noticing.  Nothing aggravates me more than an absence of accountability, and boy did Megan’s actions fit the bill.  In this episode, she was nothing more than purely grating (don’t even get me started on her “you don’t deserve this” self-objectifying while cleaning in her undies – or the fact that she slept her way into copy writer-hood, then accuses everyone ELSE of being cynical.  I’m all but gnashing my teeth over here.)

It occurred to me that she doesn’t know Don at all.  And she brings only youth and sex to the marriage.  I don’t think that’s the way a marriage works, and I think she and Don will soon find that out together.  In planning her ridiculous surprise party, Megan seemed to have no idea that it would only embarrass Don when everyone else seemed to.  Nor does she understand how to be a wife.  Megan seems not to know the difference between making your husband look good and making him feel good.  She’s under the impression that if other men see her as a wanton sex object, Don will feel lucky and grateful to have her.  Well, marriage doesn’t work that way.  Putting ones sex on display rarely makes her husband feel good.  It only makes it clear that he has married an idiot.  On a personal note, I know that my husband feels the most fortunate for the things I share only with him – and that includes my sexuality.  As women, our sex appeal may be explicit, but shimmying all of it in the face of your entire office is just embarrassing and stupid, and I can’t think of a single man who would like to experience that, or feel good about it.

Don tries to reach out to Megan, hinting at his childhood and the history of his birthdays, and she will hear none of it.  She insists that he must like surprise parties, and watching his wife make a fool of herself before his employees and partners.  She seems to think that as long as she knows his real name is Dick Whitman, she knows everything about him.  But obviously that’s not true.  Perhaps this will flesh out more as the season moves on.

As for Pete and Roger.  I find it ironic that Peter insists that Roger is trying to squeeze him out, when he is the aggressor.  It is also noticeable that Roger still does well with the reps from Mohawk airlines.  It seems that he’s not entirely useless yet.  Pete doesn’t like to drink and do business, and he’s not much fun.  Well, as long as clients identify with Roger, he’s not dead, yet.  I think it’s  bit too soon to send him off on an ice float

And speaking of Campbell, did anyone else notice how Cosgrove outlined a strategy for the firm’s success, while Campbell spent the episode angling over the status associated with his office?  Well, I  think it perfectly illustrates why Kenny was promoted over Pete at the old Sterling Cooper, and I wonder whether Campbell won’t face a similar fate once the firm stabilizes and matures.  He’s just too selfish to ever put the agency first.

That’s all for now.  I hope everyone enjoyed the new episode.  Zou Bisou Bisou!