A bit off track for the blog, but I thought I’d share Ta’ Neishi Coates’ post on the date/fiancee rape seen in the AMC show Mad Men last night. It was an incredibly disturbing “look away” moment for me, but one that had the desired effect of jarring me back into the reality of patriarchal, hegemonic America in the 1960’s. The show is so lush and stylish at times that you lose that core message in the series: under the contented veneer of traditional roles lies raw, potentially damaging and explosive, power. My mind then wandered to whether we’ve come all that far in 40 years as far as date rape is concerned.
Comments 1
Kenneth M. Kambara — October 25, 2008
I find these "period" dramas to be interesting, since, like sci-fi, they can make statements about contemporary issues in ways that contemporary programs cannot. I've been following the cop drama Life on Mars, which juxtaposes BOTH the 2008 that's familiar to us with an urban pre-Miranda NYC 1973 full of blatant and unapologetic police brutality, racism, and sexism.
I found that episode to be interesting. Joan occupies a position of uneasy power in the agency, often wielding it like a club as a queen bee archetype. She's a good example of how office politics play out in reality, in that the org. chart doesn't really dictate who has real power. Given that the Joan character has been an emasculating presence, I wonder how they might deal with the effects of the rape in the future (one episode left this season). Also of interest to me is how Joan and Peggy have such different approaches to office politics, yet both decenter the male power structure in their different ways. Talk about tangents...