These are ten things I feel confident in taking away from spending my life watching Mad Men at the expense of my blog and/or health and/or academic future. I know it is fiction but, as they say, art imitates life or vice versa or something. Either way it feels necessary to analyze what I did with approximately two entire days of my life I will never get back.
She makes being online in bed look so clean
Without further ado, ten things I learned from watching Mad Men:
1. Pencil skirts are sexy.
An unforgettable moment
2. Apparently everyone cheats on one another. I seriously can’t think of one couple on the show that remained completely faithful to one another. Hopefully this is not one of those art-imitates-life moments.
They are not together. Or single.
3. All working women from this time period are super heroes. I can not believe the sexism and injustice they faced. Just kidding I can, because honestly not that much has changed. My partner still makes less than men in her current position of equal (and sometimes lesser) experience. In conclusion, all working women are super heroes. Period.
4. Femininity, when wielded correctly, is powerful. Exhibit A: Joan Holloway. I dub thee an honorary femme!
copious pictures of Christina Hendricks = never a bad thing
5. Little girls masturbating = DEVIL’S SIN HELLFIRE DAMNATION. (Little boys masturbating = normal/healthy. What is this about?? I really want an answer.) Honestly we have not come very far from 1963 on this front. Also apparently “little boy creepily asking for lock of neighbor housewife’s hair” is more okay than little girls masturbating. Creepy is the new normal.
6. When in doubt, run away, lie, and/or marry your secretary.
7. Being the only girl in the room is hard. You often get sidled with the “feminine” work, like writing ads for tampons and lipstick, or bailing your boss and his mistress out of jail. You may or may not also have to stroke a few male egos. (I didn’t need Mad Men to teach me this – spend a few summers working at a golf club and you’ll see enough sexism in the workplace to last a lifetime.)
8. Apparently people were totally cool with lesbians in 1963? Was that a thing? I know this is a TV show, but there was a gay male character who essentially got fired for being gay (and not sleeping with a client – yes, you read that right – not), yet in waltzes this lesbian and everyone is cool with it..? I mean more power to us, but I was surprised. And the show seems to work really hard to be historically accurate. Maybe it was based on the obvious discomfort with male femininity that all of these ad men had. Seriously, these guys do more asserting of their masculinity than a beer-can-smashing frat boy.
Who doesn't love a tomboy?
9. I am SO glad I never had to go to the gyno in 1963. Seriously, that guy was like a creepy father or something. But apparently everyone was super okay with lesbians back then so maybe it would be fine?
(See what I mean about creepy? And awful??)
10. Did I mention pencil skirts are sexy? Because THEY ARE.
Never a bad thing, remember?
Have you seen Mad Men? Did you love it? I’m not sure if you can tell from this list that I loved it, but I did. Are you heartbroken that it’s not coming back on until 2012? Cause I am.
Oh and p.s. – Number 11 is that Peter is a douche.
femme on a mission 
Really enjoying the blog, but this post took the cake. Love Mad Men. I wouldn’t be disappointed if they renamed it Mad Women for the remainder though. Lol. And I love Joan Holloway. I’d switch for her. Oh, and tell your partner that it’s no secret she’s worth more than the men she works with. ;-)
Adam! Hi! Glad you enjoyed it the post. You are responsible for me continuing to watch the show past the first episode, so thank you! I think that means you are additionally responsible for my delayed graduation, but NBD. Ha!
P.s. – Congrats on the ENGAGEMENT!!!
Me & Jess tried to watch it but just couldn’t get into it. I guess it’s not our type of show. Jess watches more AMC shows then I do anyway. She loves The Walking Dead & Breaking Bad. We just started watching the new show The Killing which both of us really like. Kara XOXO