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The Mad Men Finishing School
Frank Ockenfels / AMC
With Mad Men returning for a third season on Sunday night, former assistant Emma Pearse reflects on how the swankiest show on television taught her that fetching coffee and making her boss look good is all part of being a femme fatale.
The day I spent $100 on a shirt dress made from simple, white cotton was the day I knew that my obsession with the women of Mad Men had gone too far.
The next day, I showered, exfoliated, applied rouge, and, standing in front of the mirror in my bra and camisole as if I was Mad Men’s Peggy Olson on her first day as a prized copywriter, pinned my frizzy locks. Then I slipped into my dress, strapped on a pair of summer flats (not very Mad Men), and went my usual 45-minute route from Brooklyn to my midtown office.
It’s twisted, but watching the heckled, thwarted women of Mad Men made me want to be a better assistant, and not (only) because I wanted to dress like them. I wanted to be them.
It’s twisted, but watching the heckled, thwarted women of Mad Men made me want to be a better assistant, and not (only) because I wanted to dress like them. I wanted to be them. On the surface at least—and surface was powerful in those days—these women (even the secretaries) are femme fatales.
Frank Ockenfels / AMC
The Mad Men women embodied the best of sixties womanhood but were also setting the groundwork for third wave feminism: They could smoke and drink without tarnishing their lipstick; they (at least, Joan) could bed a handsome man without losing face; they could look a man they reviled in the eye and let not an inch of it ooze out. Poise and control was a woman’s prerogative then, and as Bobbie Barrett pointed out to Peggy early in season two: “Be a woman; it’s a powerful business if it’s done right.”
To be clear, I was a terrible assistant, so really the only way to go was up. When I was hired as the assistant to the editor in chief of a weekly magazine, both he and I knew that I took the job with one goal in mind: The end of my assistantship. It’s not that there weren’t parts of me pumped for the chance to work for a celebrated and preposterously talented man. And however perverse it is, I’d always carried a secret fantasy of spending my days as a preened, proper and preposterously competent secretary, a dream that was so nicely and (appropriately) controversially realized by the 2002 movie Secretary, in which Maggie Gyllenhaal dresses in darling vintage and performs her menial tasks with fetishistic ritual.
But in the end, I didn’t have the stomach for what I felt was basic submission. Some days, it took all my might to smile and say, “Of course,” rather than scowl and quietly curse when my boss–or, for that matter, any of my male superiors—asked me for anything, from a meeting time with the boss man to photocopies of semi-confidential documents. I couldn’t much see the necessity of asking me to do certain tasks so much as I had a pinching sense that they were asking me to do things simply because they could. One could call it a persecution complex. Or call me a spoiled brat. But try as I might, I couldn’t breathe away the feeling that with every warm photocopy came proof that I was not where I wanted to be. And I didn’t stop there: Every cup of coffee, every lunch reservation, was proof to me that women and gender politics were not where they should be.
Watching Peggy and Joan was a reality check—and a needed injection of “can do” enthusiasm. On the one hand, these characters made me grateful that I was not surrounded by men who considered the world “one big bra strap just waiting for you to snap it open,” as Draper described Pete Campbell’s outlook. But also, the Mad women’s attitudes inspired me to face my reality and do my best—just as women and men have been doing their best with their realities for centuries. It was Joan’s brassy resolve, Peggy’s eagerness, Betty’s frosty competence.
Even if they were relegated to the kitchen and the typewriter, the women in Mad Men owned their place. There is a scene in which Don takes Betty to a hotel for Valentine’s Day and, after failing to perform, calls for room service and bungles the ordering job, Betty takes the phone and sucks on her cigarette. She says: “Do you have anything special? How about this, I’ll take the half avocado with crab meat salad and a rare petit filet. Two place settings.” This woman has class and knows what any moment calls for.
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
Justice Clinton?
As vice chairman of Public Strategies and president of Maverick Media, Mark McKinnon has helped meet strategic challenges for candidates, corporations and causes, including George W. Bush, John McCain, Governor Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong, and Bono. McKinnon is co-chair of Arts & Labs, a collaboration between technology and creative communities that have embraced today's rich Internet environment to deliver innovative and creative digital products to consumers.
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Emma Pearse is a contributing writer at New York magazine.
griddler
Nice piece ... but i wouldn't be too quick with the whole bit about how 2009 is so far away from what these women went through.
I'm a female copywriter and i'm here to tell you ... i've been added to accounts based on my looks--and told so, i've been offered scotch at 10 in the morning, been invited to "naked fridays", offered champagne and chocolate, received pornographic emails and i have actually watched a secretary peel an orange for her boss--a daily ritual. A Russian friend of mine found her personnel file and it included information on Russian mail-order brides. And don't get me started on the inter-office affairs.
Also ... I wouldn't be too hasty on that "all the scandalous tasks that make it fun are gone" part, either. The advertising world still has perks. I don't drink gimlets, but I have certainly had my share of liquid lunches.
GPatton
Griddler: Hope that Scotch you're offered in the AM is the good stuff, Black Label or Pinch, not some inferior brand. And as for liquid lunches, I'd wager you like classic martinis, gin with just a whisper of dry vermouth, right? George Patton
Ritarita
Excellent
George Patton.
You don't even have to pretend
To be clueless.
boilinabag
time for your photos to go viral!
StellaRay
Been there done that, griddler. Left the agency world and became a free lance writer years ago. But I still have some great friends from those days, and we're not together long before another outrageous memory cracks us up----like the art director who talked most of the young female assistants and interns into having their bare asses xeroxed. Then he put the results into an artful chart that allowed everyone to guess whose ass was whose. Yep, It's still the good old days in advertising agencies.
griddler
Ha! I can imagine this as if it happened to me. I'm sure by "artful" you actually mean the real definition of "artful": marked by skill in achieving a desired end especially with cunning or craft.
I also have fond memories among the negative ones. The creatives always have a way of making those long hours worth while. And I wouldn't trade them for anything.
LindaInAus
Griddler,
Don't be so quick to think your job now is anything like back in the '60s.
My husband is 81 years old, I'm a little younger, and I remember well what it was like to be a secretary back in the day.
The show does not portray things very accurately. You younger gals don't know the differenct. You're buying into all of it.
Newsflash: The entire atmosphere in America was TOTALLY different. Just because you have certain similar duties now, means nothing. What you can't see on TV, is that secretaries, well everybody back then, was marinating in hate and fear.
This was BEFORE the Equal Rights Amendment. Black women were still "N*ggers" to be ignored or made fun of. Maybe you don't remember separate drinking fountains, but I do. Back then, the atmosphere was so TOTALLY male. Men, men, men.
THey did all the talking. You better shut up if you're just a secretary (read female). Which mean "girl" and that was not just a label. They really SAW you as a stupid little girl.
To be a secretary back in the early 60s was HUMILIATING. So you think things are similar because you share a drink with your boss? No. Because now, you're in a completely different environment. ONe that is halfway fair. More logical. Not bathed in denial as bad as the early 60s.
Back then, it's NOT like things were equal, you were the same you that you are now. Nope. It was a whole other world you can't even imagine Griddler.
You have no basis for comparison apparently.
Back then, the proper place was to be ashamed. For starters, be ashamed you had boobs. If you were proud you had boobs? You were obviously a slut or a whore, or both.You would be treated as such, and probably get raed by your boss after everybody else left for the day.
You young women don't have a clue what you're talking about. None.
jblum8156
I was an editorial assistant in 1962 also. I remember being thrilled because when my boss took me for a working lunch with some associates, the men listened attentively when I dared to make some little comment. Later, my husband said, "Don't be silly, they're only listening because you're 22 years old and good-looking."
Moffat
I watch Mad Men but it is sometimes painful since I have worked as a secretary/admin assistant for way too long. I've worked for high-powered lawyers, so maybe that is difference, but Mad Men's dialog seems so restrained. Most offices I've worked in have lots of heated arguments, disagreements --voices are raised constantly; items are thrown across rooms and at subordinates. Talk about peeling an orange for a boss, I've had to sharpen a box of pencils every Monday for an attorney, even though sharpener is electric and he doesn't even write anything in pencil. Why do these jobs have to be so draining and demeaning?
KateTheGreat
It would be great training for every executive and manager to serve as an admin/support staff member for at least 6-12 months. They'd never treat their staff like SH#@ again, and if they did - there would be no doubts about them having a sadistic personality warp, rather than chalk it up to "being clueless".
Reminds me of people who treat service people like SH#@ having never worked one of these jobs in their lives -- when I worked in IT/Engineering, the people I went out to lunch with were the WORST tippers...none had ever had to work making $2.25/hr with tips to make ends meet and wanted the waitstaff etc. to be their personal slaves, and would leave NO tip at the slightest "offense". Ugh. Same attitude of some managers.
AngelaM
I cannot watch that show because it makes me sick. I'm old eough to have lived it and there was nothing glamorous about it. Being treated like a servant and paid peanuts. These are the 'good old times' only to people who are too young to have been there or too old to remember. I fall into neither category.
LindaInAus
Yes, you are so right. I was a secretary when I got out of high school in 1963 and it was a demeaning, humiliating job. Even among the best companies around the otherwise "nicest" men, you were still just a GIRL. Just a secretary (read: retarded). They were not the good old times. If you didn't live through it back then you are clueless about the entire thing. Yeah, AngelaM, the show makes me sick, too. I started to watch one time, but I was overcome by such a wave of horrible feelings I had to change the channel. Today's women can't even imagine marinating in hate like that.
Dylan111
Personally, I think it is the best show on TV because it is so realistic--even if we don't like what it portrays; however, there is also great satisfaction in knowing that so much changed for the better, particularly in terms of how far women have come (even if there is still a long way to go). And I think it is very instructive for younger Americans to see what life was like not all that long ago, so that they can appreciate the enormous social changes of the last 50 years.
I really can't wait for Sunday night and the first episode. My only complaint is that 13 episodes is too short. But I suppose it is better to always leave the viewer wanting more.
LindaInAus
REALISTIC??????? How OLD are you?????
I'm 66, was a secy. back then, and believe me IT's NOT that realistic! Not at all !!!
Granite
Things have changed somewhat. Back in the late 90s I worked for a company that was predominantly male. Most of the 15 or so guys that worked there had been there since the 60's and hadn't heard of the women's movement. Another woman and I started there at about the same time and were the first new hires in a decade. There were only 3 women who worked there, they had been with the company as secretaries since it started and they hadn't heard of women's lib either.
The men were very dismissive of the "gals" who worked there. A couple of them would vent on any woman when they were having a bad day until the poor woman ran crying to the ladies room.
One tragic day the worst of the offenders sent all three secretaries to the ladies room in tears and set his sights on the new female engineer. The look on his face was priceless when she looked him dead in the eye and and said, "This issue doesn't concern me. If you have a problem with Mr. Clarke's specs, I suggest you take it up with Mr. Clarke," and she walked away. I swear, I heard a loud clang when his jaw hit the floor.
As long as men and women work together there will be sexual innuendos from the most juvenile of the men. But overall most men have gotten the message that women have working brains.
griddler
This is a fantastic story that will stick with me until the end. Thank you for sharing it.
djanimaequeen
Glamorizing the past when the n-word was a household term and women got backsides smackd daily. Honey you desperately need a life.
DrFitz
I couldn't agree more. I thought this reaction piece must be snark, it's so pathetic. I actually like the show, but only in a "watch a glossy trainwreck" sort of way. There is NOTHING about it that I find appealing as something I wish was around these days. Nothing.
maddymappo
I finally watched a few episode and found it slow moving and boring. The men drank and the women simpered and seduced. So what.
Veronicaxy
I love the series and the female characters but there is one really true false note in how they portray the office dynamics.
When a woman like Peggy would begin to rise in status and become one of the guys, a woman like Joan would not be providing helpful motherly advice and support so much as doing everything possible to sabotage her and make her look like an idiot -- in a way so artful none of the men would either care or notice. The fact that Joan bucked up and began to treat Joan with professional respect was remarkable, and all too rare.
In the real world Peggy would have quickly become ostrasized by nearly every woman in the office for daring to rise above her station, let alone them.
I worked in advertising offices at the beginning of my career and agree that very little has changed. When people ask me how I can work in a highly competitive tech company I say it's half as stressful as my life in creative agencies, with double the respect.
griddler
My sister works in a tech company--and I think we would both concur. She gets double the respect.
GeraldFnord
I liked watching the series, but soon grew tired of it; I realised that it was pure nostalgia/fetiche---what can I say, but that I reached puberty with a combination of early 'Sixties femmes fatales and late-'Sixties 'hippie chicks' (excuse the term-of-art, the art in question being 'The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers') in my head.
Oh well, at least it makes the younger women today look less attractive to me, helping to avoid Idiocy and the Occasion of Idiocy....
Thank you.
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