While most recaps focus on the entire aspect of a show, this one’s going to be a little bit different. As this is a feminist blog deconstructing images and portrayals of women in pop culture, why spend an entire post rambling on about the men of Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Price. Instead, these recaps will focus on the women of Mad Men – the main ladies: Peggy, Joan, and Betty, and any new additions or guest stars – hence the title “Mad Women.”
Betty
Considering the amount of anger Betty has shown toward Don since the divorce, it was good to see her smiling; (I don’t think we’ve seen her smile all season, much less because of something that Don did. It was really good to see him doing fun things for Sally.) I was surprised to see Betty confronted with protecting Don’s identity and doing so. It looked like it bothered him much more than her. I think she’s becoming slightly wary of Henry, with him working long hours; hopefully a big difference between him and Don will be honesty.
Peggy
No thoughts on Peggy this week, she was completely absent from this episode.
Joan
After the episode earlier this season where Joan visits her doctor, I was surprised to see the topic of abortion come up again this season. (Its not the first time the topic has been addressed on the show, Betty considered and discussed it with Francine when she became pregnant with Gene at the end of the second season.) It was curious how Roger wanted Joan to keep the child, but didn’t discuss or consider how she would support herself or the baby, with her husband off at war. I wondered if she was so calm about the situation because she’s been through it before, and if he caught on to that. The contrast of how abortion was treated then versus now wasn’t very big. It is still a very taboo subject, despite the fact that it’s been legal for over thirty years.
Toni, Faye, Sally
I don’t know why, but I never took Lane for being socially progressive in his dating life. The scene where Lane introduced Toni to his father was a bit awkward to say the least. While he tried to play it off like it was nothing, I think she understood the racist undertones in his fathers excuses. I’m curious whether he’ll do what his father says going forward, or stay with Toni, and continue his life in New York.
I wasn’t surprised to see that Faye was not upset by finding out that Don Draper isn’t who he pretends to be. She was completely supportive and comforting of him while he fell apart and revealed his secrets. Additionally she doesn’t care who he wants to say he is, it doesn’t matter if he still wants to be Don Draper or would like to start being Dick Whitman. It was a really big moment for him, considering only Anna (who’s now gone) and Betty know. I think Faye will be incredibly good for Don – she’s strong, independent, and speaks her mind without hesitation.
Leave your thoughts on Faye’s reaction to Dick Whitman, Joan and Roger’s future, and anything else from this episode in the comments.
What year is this? 1880? 1922? 1957? 1963? 1978? 1982? 1997? 2010?
Well, according to the titles, it could be any of those years because not much has changed. Gender socialization is alive and well, folks. My former student, Jessie, wrote this after coming across more of the same:
Isn’t it lovely how Scholastic Books is publishing books that enforce gender-segregation (complete with “girl” and “boy” colors) which essentially maintain: little girls should be solely concerned with physical appearance and maintaining a relationships. Is adventure and greatness not suitable for little girls? I flipped through each of the books and found sections on “How to dress like a celebrity even if you’re not one” and “How to tie knots”. Guess which one was for little girls.
We often begin projecting socially constructed gender expectations on children before they’re even born, decorating the nursery in a specific color scheme. As soon as that child enters the world, the color codes, pierced ears, head bands on nearly bald heads and other clothingitems designed for infants erect the gendered foundation that will provide the template for much of their lives. Add in toys, books, cartoons and video games and that foundation sprouts a framework for their identity, their relationships with others and their world view. Throughout this process of gender socialization, beauty (with a disturbing increasing emphasis on “sexiness“) and relationships are emphasized for girls while independence and adventure are emphasized for boys.This trend continues well into adulthood through various agents of socialization, primarily the mass media which advertises normative masculinity and femininity.
Boys and men could learn a thing or two about cultivating and nurturing relationships. Enough with the lone adventurer- lets raise sensitive, strong and emotionally attuned boys and men. Simultaneously, beauty and relationships aren’t enough for girls and women. We need to redfine girly, offering our girls intellectual and physical challenges beyond the vanity and devalued emotional work.
We have much to gain from offering a full range of choices to boys and girls and valuing them equally.
It’s official. As Kim Kardashian approaches her 30th birthday in October, she is joining the ranks of women such as Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Simpson: modern-day spinsters. There’s no comparable expression for men, such as 49-year-old unmarried George Clooney, who has traipsed around the globe parading a rotating bevvy of babes. Oh wait, he’s a bachelor.
Tuesday night’s season premiere of Glee may have been one of the most offensive hours of television I’ve watched in a long time. It seemed like every minute or two they would make another sexist, racist or homophobic joke. I was afraid Glee was going in a bad direction after the first few episodes of season one but none-the-less I kept watching. I understand the popularity surrounding Glee because it’s a fun show with silly over the top characters, and I’m kind of a sucker for musicals, however the offensive stereotypes masked in humour as well as continuous tokenizing has taken it’s toll. The season two premiere had me enraged.
Glee is a show that stars mainly white characters with a secondary cast of token “minorities” which is illustrated by the fact that only the white cast members were featured on the cover of Rolling Stone. The show is notorious for tokenism. It does so by including a limited number of individuals from oppressed groups to make a TV show (or workplace) “feel” more inclusive while maintaining the status quo. In this case the status quo is white and heterosexual. Token characters are usually relegated to a secondary or sidekick role. In Glee, nearly all the secondary characters are tokenized even as the writers attempt to cover it up by “special episodes about –insert oppression here–”.
There were so many problems with the season premiere that it would take me pages and pages to write it all out so here are my top 5 issues.
#1 TRANSPHOBIA & HOMOPHOBIA
In this episode we are introduced to Sannon Beiste (pronounced Beast – I CANNOT believe they had the nerve to name her Beast), the new female football coach at McKinley High. Immediately Beiste is made ridiculous because of her name, her appearance, her gender and her profession. The writers used all this to make jokes at her expense playing up her perceived sexuality and gender identity without ever mentioning it. Although Beiste does not necessarily self identify as lesbian or transgendered the writers are clearly playing on transphobia. I’ve already seen posts on the internet inquiring about the actor’s “real” gender. They did attempt to add complexity to her character by bringing in a bit of a back story which I appreciate but it doesn’t make up for endless homophobic and sexist jokes. Also they consciously chose to name her Beiste, a “butch” and monstrous name to match their casting, costuming and writing of the character. They clearly did this to create a hyper stereotyped caricature of a masculine or ‘butch’ woman with endless possibilities of homophobic and sexist jokes. Characters on the show that have a non normative gender presentation and don’t fit neatly into traditional “male” or “female” identities are often ridiculed; this even happens with Sue, the villain that everyone loves. Beiste is initially made fun of by other characters and framed as an outsider. Later the audience develops more sympathy for her through Will as he begins to see that she is a “person” too despite her monstrous appearance and behaviour. Although we are supposed to have more tolerance and some measure of sympathy by the end of the episode, she is still an over the top stereotyped, caricatured “other”.
#2 “FAKE” SEXUAL ASSAULT & RAPE
I’m so tired of the fake rape plot point in TV shows. Writers often use it because it provides a seemingly unpredictable twist in the narrative, but in this episode it’s just played for comedy. It’s another case of writers having fictional women use the fake accusation of rape or assault to destroy an individual as a personal vendetta. Sue convinces Brittany to accuse Coach Beiste of sexual assualt in order to get her fired. Although it is clearly and obviously a plot point played for laughs, the pervasiveness of this trope creates an environment where real women are thought of as suspect when reporting rapes and assaults. In the real world these sorts of false accusations are extremely rare especially in contrast to the real world epidemic: 1 in 6 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.
Last Sunday, the new series Boardwalk Empire premiered on HBO. While watching previews, I wondered if the show would address the fact that a large force behind prohibition was the Women’s Temperance movement. I was surprised and happy to see that it was addressed in the first five minutes of the first episode. Nucky Thompson (played by Steve Buscemi) is shown speaking at a meeting for Women’s Temperance, about how evil alcohol is, and how great it is that women no longer have to fear their drunk husbands. If you saw the commercials, it’s obvious Nucky controls the Atlantic City Boardwalk, and part of that role is keeping the booze flowing freely during prohibition. The upside for him is that he now gets to charge astronomical prices for a simple cocktail.
While most recaps focus on the entire aspect of a show, this one’s going to be a little bit different. As this is a feminist blog deconstructing images and portrayals of women in pop culture, why spend an entire post rambling on about the men of Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Price. Instead, these recaps will focus on the women of Mad Men – the main ladies: Peggy, Joan, and Betty, and any new additions or guest stars – hence the title “Mad Women.”
Betty I find it more and more difficult to be a fan of Betty as this season progresses. I understood where she was coming from by leaving Sally with Don after he called her, but I completely disagreed with the approach she took. Her annoyance at every single thing Don does is getting tired. I think the writers are spending too much time on the surface of her behavior, and not enough with the issues that lie underneath.
Joan
It was interesting to see Joan’s reaction to her husband (Mr. Asshole) going off to war. Also, while Joan was chastising Roger for wanting to take her out after buying her the at-home spa treatment, she was wearing his “favorite dress.” (He made a comment to her during the Christmas party episode, telling her to wear the red dress with the bow.) It made it somewhat unsurprising that they got together again a few hours later.
While most recaps focus on the entire aspect of a show, this one’s going to be a little bit different. As this is a feminist blog deconstructing images and portrayals of women in pop culture, why spend an entire post rambling on about the men of Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Price. Instead, these recaps will focus on the women of Mad Men – the main ladies: Peggy, Joan, and Betty, and any new additions or guest stars – hence the title “Mad Women.”
I always use a quote from one of the female characters of Mad Men for the title of the recaps. However, Don’s line to Peggy during last week’s episode was too good not to use.
Betty
During last week’s episode I couldn’t help but think that Betty has married a cross between her father and Don. Instead of getting to the root of her issues, she keeps marrying controlling men who treat her like a little girl, so she continues to act that way. From the end of the episode it seemed clear she’s desperate for the picture perfect suburban life that only exists in the advertisements Don creates for a living. I think from the dinner, it’s obvious that she still isn’t over Don. While she divorced him, and moved on, it pained her to see him doing the same. From her conversation with Francis I think she’s beginning to become concerned that Henry is just another Don in a different suit – she’s spending her time being the trophy wife at important dinners for his career, and waiting in the kitchen for him to get home.
Peggy
I think Peggy is my new favorite character of the series. Her reaction to Joey’s sexist behavior and attitude was excellent. I was surprised that she gave him a chance to apologize to Joan, and I was glad that she fired him. It was fantastic that Don told her to do it herself, I think it was power she didn’t realize she had yet.
This is just creepy. Plastic surgeon, Dr. Michale Salzhauer, launched a new app for iPhones allowing users to “Heidi” themselves by choosing from a menu of surgical treatments similar to the 10 procedures Heidi Montag endured while under the knife last year. This follows his previous app, iSurgeon, one of several do-it-yourself-first editing tools used by plastic surgeons to promote their services. Apparently, the plastic surgery industry has been hit by the recession and the ability to see what you might look like post-op is a way to strike up business.
In an age when younger women are seeking cosmetic surgery and the new horror show, Bridalplasty, the show that Jennifer L. Pozner calls “a headline-baiting reality show combining the desperation and body dysmorphia of Fox’s cosmetic surgery competition The Swan with the unbridled hyperconsumption hawked by wedding industrial complex series such as TLCSay Yes to the Dress, and WeTV’sBridezillas and My Fair Wedding with David Tutera,” debuts on E! and even Heidi Montag has expressed regret about her procedures, the last thing we need is yet another way to bait women and profit off their insecurities.
Thanks to Karina O for bringing this to my attention.
Your breasts may be too big, too saggy, too pert, too flat, too full, too apart, too close together, too A-cup, too lopsided, too jiggly, too pale, too padded, too pointy, too pendulous, or just two mosquito bites.
If you’ve seen Killing Us Softly 3 or Killing Us Softly 4, the two most recent installments of pioneering scholar and media literacy educator Jean Kilbourne‘s video series examining images of women, sexism and sexuality in advertising, you’ve heard the copy of this famous ad for Dep styling products. The underlying message of this ridiculous ad is that-surprise-no matter what our breasts look like, they’re not right and in need of improvement.
We all know that ads exist for one sole purpose- to sell products by appealing to our emotions and socially constructed desires. In a culture that has an insatiable breast fetish, our breasts have consistently appeared at the top of the ever-growinglist of unacceptable body parts and there’s always some product to fix our pesky problem areas or avoid them in the first place with “preventative maintenance.”
And here we’re offered Kush Support, the miraculous sleep support for big breasts. Because now we don’t have too merely worry about their size, shape and degree of perkiness but we can fret over the potential chest wrinkles big breasts create as a result of sleeping on our sides. And because of our increased insecurities and body anxieties, we’ll buy a cheesy plastic cylinder that actually looks like a cheap dildo and our problems will be solved!
In addition to criticizing the negative aspects of being a gamer girl, I plan on writing about positive portrayals and treatment of the female gender in the gaming community. There are some pretty kick ass companies out there making games that feature smart, non-sexualized, independent women.
Gears of War wasn’t the first third-person shooter game I played, but it definitely piqued my interest in the genre. (Previously I spent most of my time playing racing and skateboard games.) I became interested in Gears via the online options – playing Horde and Annex are among my favorite ways to spend a weekend. The first two games of the franchise only featured one female character – Anya Stroud, the control contact for the COGs. Anya is smart, non-sexualized, and a valued member of the COG team. In the upcoming Gears of War 3, Anya will be on the combat side of the COG team, along with a newly introduced character – Sam Byrne.
During an interview with G4, Cliff Bleszinski, Design Director of Epic Games, explained the reasoning behind having playable female characters in the latest installment. ”There’s more female fans in that franchise than a lot of other shooters…We wanted to depict the women as…tough, more like Jim Cameron women. Like Sarah Conner, like Ripley from Aliens who are tough, and not like girls on the cover of like, Low Rider magazine.”
The fact that the team at Epic Games decided to listen to the female fans of the game, and made these characters badass and non-sexualized is something I can appreciate. I’ll find out if Gears of War 3 lives up to my expectations next April when the game is released, but for the time being, I’m feeling pretty hopeful about it.
#2 “FAKE” SEXUAL ASSAULT & RAPE
