The Dynamics of Gender in Mad Men's Female Characters
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
When men were men. And women were skirts. Vacuum cleaners, lipsticks and office desks: The dynamics of gender in Mad Men’s female characters Master Thesis American Studies Annemieke Conijn 5733944 Universiteit van Amsterdam July 2014 [email protected] Index Introduction p. 3 2. Mad Men as a cultural media product p. 5 2.1 Mad Men as a ‘Quality TV’ production p. 5 2.2 Complex narration p. 11 3. Mad Men in a historical context: Analysis of female Mad Men-characters: Betty, Peggy and Joan p. 17 3.1 Femininity as a concept p. 17 3.2 Analysis of Mad Men p. 19 3.2.1. Betty Draper/Francis p. 19 3.2.2 Peggy Olson p. 36 3.2.3. Joan Harris/Holloway p. 49 Conclusion p. 55 References p. 60 2 Introduction Within popular culture, there seems to be a fascination for the past. Quite some cultural products deal with several historical topics or try to portray a certain era. Movies like Django Unchained or 12 Years a Slave and television series like Happy Days and That 70’s Show are examples of these historical products that were created in another era. One of the most rewarded (and rewarding) examples of these ‘historical’ products in the contemporary television landscape is the series Mad Men, a series that deals with the late 1950s and the decade of the 1960s. Mad Men has been a research topic for historians because of its historical background and its accuracy. These historians take Mad Men as a reflection of American society and debate how it reflects history. Historian Beth Baily, for example, sees the series as one in which history is ‘a main character’.1 It is a television series that deals with ‘hot topics’ from the 1960s, such as the emancipation of women, capitalism, civil rights movement, the Cold War and the presidencies of Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson. The series was created in 2007 by Matthew Weiner and shows us the world of a successful advertisement agency in New York City, in the late 1950s and the 1960s. This agency, Sterling Cooper (Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in later seasons), is a site for though business, sexual affairs, glamorous and charismatic people, and many, many, many dollars. The private life of the characters shows a world outside the office and portrays ‘ordinary’ sub- urban lives with their partners and children. Since it takes place in another time period, it offers the audience a fascinating insight of that era. The well-created and detailed world Mad Men portrays is why historians like Baily praise the series for its use of history and its historical accuracy. I have to admit that I am a huge fan of the series and I love the world of creative advertising and smooth salesmen. Main character and creative director Don Draper is actually one of my favorite television characters ever because he is a skilled businessman and knows how to get important business deals. But watching the series for quite some years now, I noticed that the series does something very interesting with its main female characters. I was fascinated by the differences between them; I admired Betty for her pretty and ‘feminine’ appearance, but at the same time, I supported Peggy for standing up for herself in a world that 1 ‘In Mad Men, History Is a Main Character’, Newswise. September 17, 2009. 3 is dominated by men. I appreciated Joan for her professional attitude, but felt deeply sorry for her when she became the victim of sexism. With this ambiguous feeling in mind, I decided to further research the ‘deal about women’ on Mad Men. In this thesis, I will examine the series and look at how the dynamics of gender exactly works. By ‘dynamics,’ I mean the situation of gender as portrayed on the series and the susceptibility to social and economical change. How does Mad Men portray the lives of women and how does it relate to these to their historical context? This particular curiosity encouraged me to come up with the following research question: How does Mad Men portray the gender dynamics in its historical context as a contemporary media production? To answer this question, I will first look at the production of Mad Men as a television series to get an understanding of what kind of product Mad Men exactly is and why this series is made the way it is made. I will discuss Mad Men as a so-called ‘Quality TV’- production because this type of television making, influences the way the past is portrayed in Mad Men. This will be outlined in the second chapter. In the third chapter, I will look at the historical context of Mad Men regarding femininity and feminism. What did it mean to be a woman in the 1950s and 1960s and how did they live? Why did the Second-Wave feminists gain prominence in the 1960s and what where their arguments? The concepts ‘gender’ and ‘femininity’ will be explained on the basis of well-known ‘gender’ scholars such as Judith Butler and these concept will be put in the 1960s context, on the basis of the rise of the Second-Wave feminists. The fourth chapter includes the analysis of three important female characters from Mad Men. These characters, Betty, Peggy, and Joan, their lives and struggles are analyzed. These findings are connected to the historical background of Mad Men. This thesis will of course be closed with the conclusion in which I will discuss the research question. How do these women live their lives in the 1960s and how does Mad Men play with the gender ideology of this era? 4 2. Mad Men as a cultural media product In this chapter, I will introduce Mad Men (2007 - ) as a contemporary media product that can be labeled as a so-called ‘Quality TV’-production, and I will point out how this type of production has influenced the way Mad Men represents history. 2.1 Mad Men as a ‘Quality TV’ production The American television production Mad Men premiered on June 17th 2007 on AMC and is as of 2014 still a running show in the United States and other countries, including The Netherlands where the show is broadcasted by broadcaster VARA. Matthew Weiner, also famous for his work on the award winning show The Sopranos, is the creator of Mad Men and is therefore an important person in the television industry.2 Before analyzing a series like Mad Men, I want to discuss the context of the series in terms of production and appreciation. Since the introduction of television as a site for the production of fiction, the medium has developed tremendously. As of 2014, there is a type of television production that can be labeled as ‘Quality TV’ and Mad Men can be considered to be such a production. Although the term ‘Quality TV’ does not have a very specific and objective meaning, television scholars usually use the term to indicate the improving quality of television series. The ‘Viewers for Quality Television Organization’ describes it as something that ‘enlightens, enriches, challenges, involves and confronts. It dares to take risks, it’s honest and illuminating, it appeals to the intellect and touches the emotions. It requires concentration and attention, and it provokes thought. Characterization is explored (…)’3 The American media scholar Robert Thompson has summarized several characteristics of ‘Quality TV’ that originated from debates that other media scholars had about what ‘Quality TV’ is. Among them are the following: ‘‘Quality TV’: can be defined by what it is not. It is not ‘regular’ television • usually has a quality pedigree. These are shows by artists whose reputations were made in 2 “Mad Men”, International Movie Database (IMDB), accessed August 29, 2013, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804503/. 3 Robert J. Thompson, Television’s Second Golden Age. From Hill Street Blues to ER (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1997), 13 5 other, classier media, like film • attracts an audience with blue chip demographics. The upscale, well-educated, urban- dwelling, young viewers advertisers so desire to reach tend to make up a much larger percentage of the audience than of other kind of programs • tends to have a large ensemble cast. The variety of characters allows for a variety of viewpoints since multiple plots must usually be employed to accommodate all of the characters • has a memory. These shows tend to refer back to previous episodes. Characters develop and change as the series goes on and events and details from previous episodes are often used or referred to in subsequent episodes • creates a new genre by mixing old ones • tends to be literary and writer-based. The writing is usually more complex than in other types of shows • is self-conscious. Oblique allusions are made to both high and popular culture, but mostly to television itself. (…) Both the classier cultural references and the sly, knowing jabs at television serve to distance these programs from the stigmatized medium and to announce that they are superior to the typical trash available on television • has a subject that tends toward the controversial. (…) The overall message almost always tends toward liberal humanism. Jane Feuer stated that ‘Quality TV is liberal TV’ • aspires toward ‘realism’ • is usually enthusiastically showered with awards and critical acclaim.’4 What becomes clear from these characteristics, also according to Thompson, is that ‘Quality TV’ has more or less become a genre on its own because it has this set of characteristics and as viewers we know what to expect, just like we have expectations when we watch genres such as westerns or police shows.