In between “Leave it to Beaver” and “Yellowstone,” there was a time when tv set about deconstructing masculinity—and some of the best shows were created by men.
I was excited to read what you have to say about Mad Men!
I first streamed the series when I was lying in bed dealing with illness, compounded by surgery and radiation therapy - so giving less than full attention to the show which I found fascinating, but through a filter of only slight recognition even though I grew up during that time, because my experience was across the country in a sleepy desert town...
I'd recently been thinking about watching it again, now I'm eager to get that started and see what you've pointed out here - some of which has me in tears this morning, remembering not very fondly the world of daily blatant chauvinism in the workplace, decades ago yet so recent, really - and realizing how that experience had me so ingrained with the normalcy of it all, that I didn't even register a reaction to the show or to my own memories...
from watching my father shave and being told "boys don't like girls who ask too many questions", to gritting my teeth when going in to work and seeing certain cars in the parking lot, which meant who and what I'd be dealing with that day that had nothing to do with my job and everything to do with the men who owned those cars and how they'd be pressuring me and my female co-workers into boosting their male egos by "flirting" with them and more, pressure to acquiesce to their demands for a date - which always, ALWAYS was expected to end in sex.
And Susan... what put me over the edge is the admission you made of your own complicity... recognizing the shame with which I remember how while I fought against that relentless pressure, at the same time I spent hours doing my hair and makeup, shopping for clothes to make me attractive, reading stupid magazines and books about how to catch a man.. and I considered myself a feminist!!
Whew, what a time travel nightmare. I became a beatnik in 63 so had only a few years of attempting conformity.
The first show I designed costumes for, while still in high school. was "The Crucible." Now I am mentally trying to stuff Arthur Miller, Monroe, and Salem witch trials into the same box.
Politics of that time notwithstanding, it was the show's aesthetic capture of those times, of that culture, the ubiquitous cigarettes (on a gradual way out), workday boozing, clothes styles, that moved me the most, especially at the end, when parting with these amazing characters gave me a little pang, feeling like I was parting with my own youth.
I was excited to read what you have to say about Mad Men!
I first streamed the series when I was lying in bed dealing with illness, compounded by surgery and radiation therapy - so giving less than full attention to the show which I found fascinating, but through a filter of only slight recognition even though I grew up during that time, because my experience was across the country in a sleepy desert town...
I'd recently been thinking about watching it again, now I'm eager to get that started and see what you've pointed out here - some of which has me in tears this morning, remembering not very fondly the world of daily blatant chauvinism in the workplace, decades ago yet so recent, really - and realizing how that experience had me so ingrained with the normalcy of it all, that I didn't even register a reaction to the show or to my own memories...
from watching my father shave and being told "boys don't like girls who ask too many questions", to gritting my teeth when going in to work and seeing certain cars in the parking lot, which meant who and what I'd be dealing with that day that had nothing to do with my job and everything to do with the men who owned those cars and how they'd be pressuring me and my female co-workers into boosting their male egos by "flirting" with them and more, pressure to acquiesce to their demands for a date - which always, ALWAYS was expected to end in sex.
And Susan... what put me over the edge is the admission you made of your own complicity... recognizing the shame with which I remember how while I fought against that relentless pressure, at the same time I spent hours doing my hair and makeup, shopping for clothes to make me attractive, reading stupid magazines and books about how to catch a man.. and I considered myself a feminist!!
Whew, what a time travel nightmare. I became a beatnik in 63 so had only a few years of attempting conformity.
The first show I designed costumes for, while still in high school. was "The Crucible." Now I am mentally trying to stuff Arthur Miller, Monroe, and Salem witch trials into the same box.
Politics of that time notwithstanding, it was the show's aesthetic capture of those times, of that culture, the ubiquitous cigarettes (on a gradual way out), workday boozing, clothes styles, that moved me the most, especially at the end, when parting with these amazing characters gave me a little pang, feeling like I was parting with my own youth.