Gender Stereotypes In 'Mad Men'

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Mad Men
Mad Men, a television drama from Matthew Weiner, takes place in the world of advertising during a time where smoking is natural and where segregation defines African-Americans as ‘the help’. While these social issues are used to locate the show within this specific time, the 1960s was a strange and foreign time when the environment in which social interaction was defined by an entirely different set of rules. This television show takes place at Sterling Cooper agency and the main characters are Betty, Draper, Peggy, and Dom.
The series presents two women, in particular, who find themselves intertwined with this fast-moving world dominated by male figures. Peggy and Betty both work for the Sterling Cooper agency, as you watch them you …show more content…

While the audience for this language is society as a whole, its created by male writers drafting campaigns for male corporate executives. In the show’s Pilot, “Smoke in Your Eyes,” Head of Advertising Don Draper, enters a room to meet with a client, and sees two individuals one man, and one woman. It is not a coincidence that he shakes the hand of the male, although it turns out to be a woman, Rachel Menken, who is in control of the account. Don is one of the most progressive characters in the series, but his reaction to her attempts to control the account for her father’s department store is extreme. Rachel attempted to redefine the advertising campaign in her own terms, Draper turns defensive, and eventually storms out of the room saying that he is “not going to let a woman talk to me like this.” The problem is not the tone of her language, but rather that she is attempting to use what she thinks would be a good advertisement idea. Don Draper is a very appealing man, he 's a perfect blend of some of old Hollywood 's most irresistible and iconic leading men. Don also embodies a bit of John Wayne because of his protective embracement. The secret of Don Draper 's sex appeal is his dark eyes, brown hair, and strong jaw. Sterling Cooper’s motivation within the series is to use and create language which will describe a

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