Mad (Wo)Men 6x09: "Why didn't you say something?"

A lot happened in the world of women on Mad Men this week. I’d equate this episode with an episode in season 4 which I thought was called “The Women” but seems to have been retitled “The Beautiful Girls”.

Peggy Olson: Stuck in the Middle Again

‘Stuck’ has multiple meanings for Peggy this week. Not only is she still stuck between Don and Ted at work, but she’s stuck in both her relationship with Ted and literally ‘sticks’ Abe. (But that comes later.)

Don, Ted, and Pete are meeting about the Fleischman’s account. Don calls Peggy in for her opinion, but poses her with a rather old-fashioned question. Don assumes Peggy is the one doing the grocery shopping and asks why she would buy margarine: purely for the taste or would she base he decision on taste and price.

Don may not think of Peggy, per se, in a typical housewife role, but it does reveal Don’s thinking as rather old-fashioned. He’s accustomed to Betty, in her housewife role, or Sylvia, also a homemaker, as opposed to the woman he’s married to: a working, successful woman, Megan. But we’ll save the Betty vs. Megan debate for later.

When Don comes by Peggy’s office to check on the boards for the presentation, it’s clearly just an excuse to give her a hard time about not picking a side when he called her in earlier. Peggy calls him out on it, saying there’s not a right or wrong answer, there’s simply Don’s approach and Ted’s approach.

“I don’t know how I became in charge of turning this into a collaboration,” she tells him. “Isn’t that your job?”

Other than being stuck in the middle at work, Peggy also has to contend with her two romantic entanglements in this episode.

Her primary being with her boyfriend, Abe, with whom she recently moved to the Upper West Side. The neighborhood is still a little rough and Peggy comes home to find Abe was attacked outside the subway by two punks. Abe won’t comment on his attackers’ race, however, claiming they live in a police state.

Abe is viewing their neighborhood as a new social experience he can write about, but Peggy is more practical, simply worrying about their safety. When he asks her to help him type, after his arm is injured, she tells him she plans to sell this ‘shithole’ of an apartment and refuses to help him, going to bed.

Peggy and Abe have held rather different worldviews since they first met and just a few episodes ago, seemed accepting of each other’s viewpoints, but the Upper West Side apartment seems to be the boiling point for Peggy.

However, she did state she hates change, and Peggy’s life is going through a lot of upheaval. Not only did things at work change when SCDP and CGC merged, but things at home changed, too, when she and Abe decided to move.

Not to mention her rather newfound feelings for her boss at CGC, Ted. Ted complimented her work and they shared a kiss. This week, Peggy and Ted finally discuss their encounter. When Ted brings it up, Peggy says she assumed they were forgetting about that. She says she did. “Well, I haven’t,” Ted confesses. Ted asks if that’s all him. Peggy says she thinks about it. Ted says they can’t and besides, they both have someone.

“I didn’t know you felt this way,” Peggy says.

“I don’t want to, that’s the point. Now I realize I never should have brought it up.” Peggy asks if he would rather she work somewhere else. He says no.

Despite her feelings for Ted, they aren’t the reason things fall apart with Abe. In fact, Abe is the one who breaks up with her. After Peggy accidentally stabs Abe in their apartment, which in and of itself might be an event of note. Peggy treated drugged Stan’s stab wound last week, before drunkenly sharing a kiss with him. This week, she stabs her boyfriend. Perhaps just a coincidence both injuries were stab wounds, but perhaps not.

In the ambulance on the way to the hospital, Abe claims Peggy is too careful and worries too much and he never knew that until they moved. Peggy, in shock from what she’s just done and what Abe is saying, asks, “Are you breaking up with me?” The scene ends before we get an answer, but when Peggy later shows up at work, she tells Ted that things are over with Abe. Ted tells Peggy she’ll find someone else.

As Peggy leaves Ted’s office to get to work, she sees Don arrive. Don asks Ted how the meeting with Fleischman’s went. Once the men fill each other in on the account, both go into their separate offices, leaving Peggy in the middle of the hall, stuck between both of them once again.

Betty (Draper) Francis

Betty has lost the weight. Although she was briefly in last week’s episode, back to her original blonde hair, during the scene where Don returned to find the apartment burgled, her weight loss wasn’t revealed until this week’s episode.

Since Betty essentially lost the weight for Henry, I did a quick calculation. Henry told Betty about his decision to run for office in April of 1968. Since Bobby is attending summer camp, we can assume this is August of 1968, meaning Betty’s weight loss occurred over the summer.

Although Joan is a sexual character, no female character places as much worth on their looks as Betty does. In earlier seasons, she talks about how her mother made her conscious of an early age about not gaining weight. Betty then worked as a model until she met Don and even after having three children, kept her slim figure.

In this episode, Betty is enjoying the attention she’s receiving from men because of her weight loss. A man who is attending a fundraiser for Henry flirts with her, saying he wants to spend all night with her, and Henry is jealous, asking Betty about it in the car later. Even Don, the ex-husband, finds his attraction to Betty has returned.

Her weight loss seems to have given Betty her gumption back, as after visiting their son at camp, Betty returns to her room and leaves the door open for Don, if he wants to come in. He does.

“What did you think when you saw me?” Betty asks as Don’s kissing her.

“That you were as beautiful as the day I met you,” Don replies.

A strange thing to notice six seasons into the show, but seeing Betty and Don together again made it clear how very Rock Hudson and Doris Day they look together. Odd how Don also has a hidden life, although much different than the lifestyle Rock Hudson was hiding.

Betty and Don seem to understand each other better now than they did when they were married. After they sleep together, they’re in bed together talking, and Betty comments on how she’s happy with her life. She says she knows she can only hold Don’s attention so long and she expresses pity for Megan. “She doesn’t know that loving you is the worst way to get to you.”

The next morning, Don wakes up alone, and when he finds Betty in the camp cafeteria, she has been joined by Henry. Don takes a table in the corner, but watches Betty with Henry. She does seem to be happy.

Megan Draper

Megan is now playing twins on her soap opera and in her first scene of the episode, she’s taking criticism from the soap opera’s director over a PA system, in front of the crew and her fellow cast mate, Arlene. The director refers to her as “honey”.

Megan worries about keeping her part on the soap opera as well as worrying about keeping her husband’s interest.

When she voices her concerns about her work to Don, he isn’t the most sympathetic ear. Instead of eating dinner with her, Don tells her he wants to lie down and watch TV instead. His only reassurance to her is: “Tomorrow’s another day.”

Since Megan doesn’t have Don to confide in, she invites over her cast mate, Arlene, when Don is away visiting Bobby at summer camp. Arlene tells Megan Don is old-fashioned and isn’t entirely comfortable with having a successful wife. “He’ll get used to it,” she advises.

“I think he did. And I think he got used to me not being around and having a bunch of problems he couldn’t solve,” Megan says. She tells Arlene she’s lonely.

When Don arrives home from the weekend, he finds Megan out on the balcony. “I missed you,” he tells her.

Megan confesses she misses him all the time. “I don’t know where you’ve gone, but I’m here. I keep trying to make things the way they used to be, but I don’t know how. And maybe that’s stupid or young to think like that, but something has to change.”

Don admits she’s right. “I haven’t been here.”

Joan Holloway

Joan seems to have gone from a sex symbol of the Sterling Cooper offices to a mothering figure. She is forever cleaning up the partners’ messes, even though she is a partner herself. It makes sense that Joan has made this transition, as she is now a mother herself. In this episode, she listens as Pete confides in her about his mother’s condition.

But Joan also struggles with the idea of a father figure for her son. While Joan’s mother is present, helping her daughter care for Kevin, Joan’s own father has never been part of the picture. It may have been mentioned in an earlier episode, but most likely he’s either deceased or left Joan and her mother when Joan was young.

Bob Benson, who escorted Joan to the doctor’s when she had stomach pains, now seems to be a frequent presence in the apartment. He is waiting, dressed in swim attire, as Joan packs up to take her son to the beach. When the doorbell rings, Bob answers it, expecting it to be Joan’s mother, but comes face to face with Roger. Roger is just as surprised to see him and doesn’t even recognize Bob outside of the office.

Roger tries to pretend he’s there on professional business and takes the hint when Joan tells him it can wait until Monday.

At the office, Roger drops by Joan’s office, giving her Lincoln Logs for Kevin. “You can’t drop in on me like that,” Joan tells him.

Joan says Kevin’s father is Greg. “But I’m here,” Roger replies.

“For now. But everyday Greg is some hero out there and I’d rather him think that is the man in his life,” Joan explains to Roger.

Joan understands that Roger wants to be around, but she knows better than to count on him. Roger only is there when it’s convenient and Joan, out of anyone, knows that from experience. Joan thanks him for the gift and opens the door for him to leave.

What's Wrong with 'Female' Directors?

Sarah Polley

We don't specify a musician as a 'female musician' or a writer as a 'female writer'. Do we really need to say 'female directors'?

In the past few weeks, there seemed to be a sudden rise in the use of the phrase by critics, entertainment reporters, and bloggers. What gives?

Yes, it's extremely important there be more women in the entertainment industry and exposure for those women getting their start is invaluable. Whenever there's a story acknowledging Hollywood has a numbers problem in terms of women produced, directed, written, acted, etc. films, people should cheer those articles. The problem continues to need to be discussed. 

But every time it becomes a topic of discussion, especially in relation to someone's work, isn't it taking away from the hard work that's already been done? 

As director Jane Campion recently said while discussing the issue at Cannes, "What's very difficult when they come to a festival like Cannes, it's always like 'oh so you're a woman director'. How many guys get 'oh so you're a male director?'. It would be lovely if people just said, 'oh you're a director, congratulations on your film'."

Jane Campion

For those working inside the industry, labeling themselves as 'female' is viewed as minimizing. Campion, Kathryn Bigelow, among others, simply want their work to be viewed in the same way one would view a film by Martin Scorsese or David Fincher, their fellow 'male' directors. They want a level playing field. 

Campion thinks the question about whether the film industry is tough for 'female directors' is a tired one. "Put all your energy into making an amazing piece of work because women can obviously make as good a film as guys. Kathryn Bigelow has shown quite clearly that, even taking on topics like action movies and war films, she can make the best films in the world," Campion advised young filmmakers.

Bigelow, too, is adamant about considering herself not as a 'female filmmaker' but a 'filmmaker'. When she won the Academy Award for Best Director in 2010, she stated in the press room: "I long for the day when the modifier can be a moot point, but I'm ever grateful if I can inspire some young, intrepid, tenacious, male or female filmmaker, and have them feel the impossible is possible." 

Kathryn Bigelow

In a Hollywood Reporter roundtable, Patricia Clarkson talked about the lack of strong roles for women, saying even female directors did not always work on projects which featured strong roles for women. While there should be more well-written parts for women (an issue discussed here), expecting the women in the industry to write and direct these films places a burden on women as artists.

There's not an expectation for men to write about men, why should there be the same for women? Women should be able to write films or books or sing or direct films about whatever they wish, same as men, but somehow they are burdened with the additional mantle of what they 'should' do as a woman in an industry which is already tough for women. 

Since Bigelow is a woman directing 'guy films', many reporters have tried to peg her down over the years, but Bigelow never lets herself be pigeon holed and steers the conversation away from gender, back to filmmaking. 

When asked by Charlie Rose why she's drawn to directing 'action' films, Bigelow answered, "I actually look at it from the standpoint of character. However, I often find myself drawn to characters who find themselves in extreme situations and have peak experiences. I think as a filmmaker, I believe the medium can be very experiential. I can transport you to any location where you can actually have a physiological response to that location, so I'm drawn to characters that allow me to push the medium in that direction. I suppose there's an artistic challenge there that is kind of exciting to me." 

To those who work inside the industry, it seems the 'female' label has a different resonance than it does to those who are outside the industry, looking in. Yes, Hollywood keeps proving itself as a place which still does not look upon woman as equals. There are plenty of stats to back it up--the network upfronts being the most recent incendiary--but there are plenty of artists who have fought against those odds and made it.

Looking at the industry as women, let's hope the field will continue to expand to include new artists. Looking at the industry as an artist, however, let's try not frame everything by that 'female' modifier.

Elaine May

Mad (Wo)Men 6x08: "Because it's my job!"

This episode of Mad Men was more trippy than the episode where Roger took LSD.

While most of the guys in the office take an injection of an "energy serum" from Jim Cutler's doctor, Peggy remains 'sober' while working on the Chevy account.

Don catches a glimpse of Peggy comforting Ted over his partner's death from cancer. Ted's secretary shuts the door, so the audience doesn't really know what happens between Peggy and Ted.

Peggy's patient and listens to Don's energetic, mostly non-sensical rambling. "That was very inspiring," she replies to one of his speeches. "But do you have any idea what the idea is?" He doesn't.

The drugs make the passage of time seem lightning fast, so before Don knows it, it's Saturday. Everyone seems to change outfits a million times, so it's confusing what day it is.

Later, the creatives are goofing around in the lounge. Stan is still high from the injections and Peggy is drunk. They have the genius idea for Stan to stand under a drawing of an apple and for Ginsburg to throw Xacto knives and pencils at the drawing, over Stan's head. Peggy flinches as Ginsburg is about to throw. "Don't hit his eye." Ginsburg hits Stan in the arm with an Xacto knife.

Peggy examines Stan's wound and although he claims he can't feel anything, Peggy takes him to the bathroom to wash out his wound. She staunches the bleeding with a homemade tourniquet. Stan, still drugged, keeps kissing her cheek. "I want you to stop," Peggy tells him. Stan says she doesn't think she really does. "I have a boyfriend," Peggy offers up weakly. Stan ignores her and kisses her, a long kiss.

Stan tells Peggy his cousin was killed in action in Vietnam. Peggy clearly feels awful and they talk about it a little. She talks to him about knowing what it's like to feel loss. She tells him he can't mask it by using drugs and sex.

The chemistry between Peggy and Stan has been there since he appeared in season four and the way their friendship has developed is one of the best parts of the show. It's unclear if Peggy has ever considered Stan in a romantic way before, though. Later, when she finds him already ignoring her advice, by fucking the I Ching girl in the office, she seems pretty annoyed. "I'm going home!" She announces loudly.

Although her storyline was just as wacky as Don being on drugs, it's clear how much everyone who works with her closely respects and adores her. Even if they often express it in a physical way, like Stan, there's also a mutual respect and trust between the two of them. Ted is attracted to her physically as well, but also because she's so good at what she does. Even Ginsburg comments on her skills. The men's attraction to Peggy is different than their attraction to Joan might be, however. Joan is not respected for her work and still viewed as a sex object by most of the men at the agency. The guys find Peggy attractive because of her hard work and less to do with her physical attributes (although Stan does compliment on her ass.)

Speaking of Joan, you could say everything falls apart at the office when Joan isn't around since she was missing this week.

Despite everyone at SDCP on drugs, Sally's storyline was scarier this week. Since Don is bouncing off the walls at work, he forgets his kids are visiting that weekend. Megan watches them, but she has plans Saturday night, so she leaves Sally in charge of her brothers.

Sally is reading in bed (Rosemary's Baby) when she hears someone out in the living room. It's clearly a woman who is stealing things from the apartment, but she spins an elaborate story, and manages to convince Sally she knows Don.

By the time Don comes home and finds out about the robbery, everyone is there: Megan, the kids, Betty and Henry, and the cops. Betty, of course, flips out about Megan leaving the kids in the apartment alone. Megan apologizes to Sally, but Sally, having just been through an ordeal, snaps at Megan (who she usually adores) and Don: "I want to go home!"

The next day, Sally and Don speak on the phone. Sally comments that she doesn't know anything about her father. Don's quiet for a long moment before telling her she did everything right. He tells her he left the back door open, so it was his fault.

And it's true, he did. He left the service entrance to the apartment open, because he's been sneaking down to stand outside the service entrance at the Rosens, listening to Sylvia. While on drugs, Don thinks he's found the 'answer', not for the Chevy account, but how to win her back.

Possibly the robbery or his sobering up makes him see things more clearly, because the next morning, as he's leaving for work, Sylvia gets on the elevator at her floor, and the two ride down to the lobby in silence.

No Peggy Olson: Elisabeth Moss and Rape Culture in Top of the Lake

Posted over at Lauren C. Byrd

Mad (Wo)Men 6x07: "I'm really glad you're here."

Even though this episode was mostly about Don controlling Sylvia, we’ll concentrate on the main female characters in the show first.

Honestly, the best thing about this episode was the Peggy and Joan reunion. As Joan shows Peggy to her new office (Harry’s old office), the two women catch up. “I’m glad you’re here,” Joan says.

“Well, I’m glad you’re here,” Peggy replies sincerely.

Olson and Holloway Agency has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Joan, in typical Joan fashion, is organizing the newcomers in the office due to the SDCP and CGC merger. It’s a big undertaking, but Joan doesn’t seem harried at all. She’s been through a lot of changes at Sterling Cooper and now SDCP.

Ever committed to her work, when she starts having stomach pains, she’s hesitant to leave the office during such an important transition for the company. But Bob (James Wolk) finds her ill and convinces her she needs to leave to see a doctor. He accompanies her and even tricks the nurse into allowing Joan to see the doctor sooner.

When Bob drops by Joan’s apartment the next day, her mom drops hints about Bob’s attractiveness. Joan isn’t convinced he’s interested so much as he’s worried about his job. With all the new people from CGC, a new hire would be the first to go. In fact, in a later scene, the SDCP and CGC partners are in a meeting to discuss staffing cuts. Joan saves Bob’s job by saying he works on a lot of accounts with Ken Cosgrove, so he’s already familiar with big money clients.

Peggy, meanwhile, is getting used to being back in the offices of SDCP. When she comes in, she says hi to Stan and Ginsburg, her old creative team.

The first new account they tackle is Fleischman’s margarine. Since Don is missing, Ted starts the meeting without him. Don, when he returns, isn’t too pleased about it. Don makes a peace offering of booze, which then proceeds to get Ted drunk, because no one can drink like Don Draper. When Ted wanders out to the creative bullpen, clearly intoxicated, Peggy has to mediate the incident. Don proceeds to have a creative meeting of his own, which Ted is too drunk to attend.

Already, Peggy is feeling sidelined by Don’s behavior, which placed her in an awkward position during the creative meeting where her former boss (Don) got her current boss, Ted, drunk.

The next morning when Don comes in, Peggy is waiting for him on the couch in his office. She brings up the Ted situation. “I hoped he would rub off on you,” Peggy tells Don. “Not the other way around.”

“He’s getting everything he wants. And you’re obviously on his side,” Don replies.

“Why did you do it at all if there are sides? You could have just tried to hire me back. You never even asked me to lunch.”

What Don did to Ted was uncalled for, but Peggy seems to be leaping to conclusions about her importance to Don. She can’t admit she’s upset about the merger, just as Don was upset when she left. Don and Peggy have always been honest with each other, sometimes brutally so, and this is no exception. Don chides Peggy for thinking the merger was all about her, with a rather insulting comment: “…just so I could have you in this office complaining again.”

Although Don’s comment was unnecessary and Peggy’s advice for him to grow up and move forward is smart, Peggy might be a little in the wrong here. She needs to not referee Ted and Don from the sidelines. Let them get in their own pissing contests if they want to, because it will probably end in mutual self-destruction.

Mad (Wo)Men 6x06: "I don't like change."

Crossposted at Lauren C. Byrd.

Peggy Olson

Oh, Peggy, Peggy, Peggy.

Since day one, Peggy is a female character to root for (her hard work and moving up the ladder at work), but her romantic choices are questionable at best. First there was Pete, who seduced her first at her apartment and then in his office. Then there was Duck, who wanted to woo away her copywriting skills to a new company, but whose alcoholism still plagued him. Now there's Ted Chaough, Peggy's superior who hired her.

After spending the last couple weeks winking at Chaough's possible attraction to Peggy, it was unclear whether Peggy returned the sentiment. This week, there's a late night kiss in his office, and it's still unclear. But then Peggy imagines Chaough in place of her boyfriend Abe and it's clear the feelings are mutual.

Peggy and her boyfriend Abe's move to the still developing Upper West Side proved challenging for Peggy. She's used to more creature comforts and isn't as comfortable in the environment as Abe. "I don't like change. I want everything to stay the way it was," Peggy tells him. An interesting statement considering they are living in a time of change (1968) and Peggy chose to make a change in her career by moving to CGC.

It also explains her attitude towards the shift at work later. While in Detroit to pitch for Chevy, Don and Ted decide to join forces and combine their fledgling agencies, but only if the pitch for Chevy is successful. When Ted returns from Detroit, he invites Peggy to his office to hear the news, where she is surprised to find Don sitting on a couch in the corner of Ted's office. Peggy tries to wrap her head around the idea of working for Don again, but she agrees to come aboard the new endeavor.

It makes sense the show wants to bring Don and Peggy back to the same room, since their dynamic was one of the best things about the show before. But like everything else, it's changed. Don probably still holds a tiny bit of resentment about Peggy leaving SDCP, Peggy got in to pitch for Heinz without Don knowing, and now Don's basically stolen Chevy from CGC. The rivalry is heating up!

Joan Harris (Holloway) 

This episode contained storylines for the women which placed them directly in Don's orbit. Don has a dinner with Herb, the sleazy Jaguar salesman whom Joan slept with at the end of last season in order to secure Jaguar's business with SDCP (and to elevate her to partner), and rather than putting up with Herb's bullshit because he's a client, Don does what Don wants to do and fires him right then and there.

Of course, Don being a creative mind, doesn't worry about how this will effect the firm monetarily. As Pete points out, he's already rich, so Don doesn't think about money. Don's always had a very moral outlook in the advertising industry--about the only place where Don has morals--especially compared to his colleagues. In this case, it's unclear if the dinner incident with Herb is what sets Don off.

To give Don the benefit of the doubt, he knows Joan's attitude towards Herb, and then Herb comments on Megan's appearance in front of Don. Maybe Don simply wasn't turned off by Herb's need to step on creative's toes, but by Herb's attitude towards women. From a feminist perspective, this seems an odd argument to carry, since Don is in his own way disrespectful of women, including Megan.

When Joan finds out Don dropped Jaguar without considering the detriment to the company, she's personally offended. "Honestly, Don, if I could deal with him, you could deal with him. And what now? I went through all of that for nothing?"

Don tells her not to worry, he will win this. She turns back to him. "Just once I would like to hear you use the word 'we.' Because we are all rooting for you from the sidelines, hoping you'll decide whatever you think is right for our lives."

Joan felt Don was her only ally with Jaguar, because he was the only one of the SDCP partners who told her not to sleep with Herb, but it was already too late. Joan's decision to sleep with Herb has irrevocably tangled her personal and professional lives together. While Joan is mad at Don, who she thought best understood her situation, she's also mad at herself for her choice.

Megan Draper

Since it's Mother's Day, Megan's mother Marie is visiting and Megan confesses to her she doesn't know what to do about Don. "He's so far away that sometimes when we're alone, I feel like I'm making conversation." Her mother advises her that dressing sexily will fix the situation. And temporarily, it does.

But Marie also brings up the fact that Megan's life has changed. She's becoming recognized--two girls in the elevator ask for her autograph--and Don may claim he's comfortable with it, but he may feel Megan belongs more to other people than to him.

Of course, it could be argued Marie's view of Megan "belonging" to Don is rather old-fashioned. Especially considering Marie doesn't seem to "belong" to anyone.

Although Megan's acting career is burgeoning, it's odd seeing her sit by Don's side at a business dinner, polite and agreeable. In that situation, it's hard not to compare her to Betty Draper, the dutiful wife by her husband's side.

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