Are we mad?

I recently rewatched the first few episodes of Mad Men. To cast your memory back (I’m sure it’s been a while), we’re introduced to many of the characters that played centre stage for the six seasons in the first episode. 

In one scene, Joan who heads up the secretarial department is showing the new gal, Peggy the ropes. She walks Peggy around the office giving her the ins and outs of how things work. 

“He may act like he wants a secretary, but most of the time they're looking for something between a mother and a waitress,” Joans explains to the eager Peggy and her notebook.

And because women were only regarded for their looks and little for their talents, Joan encourages Peggy to “go home, take a paper bag, cut some eyeholes out of it. Put it over your head, get undressed and look at yourself in the mirror. Evaluate where your strengths and weaknesses are. And be honest.”

Joan (left) and Peggy (right) discuss what the men of the office really want.

Joan’s advice is to show more leg, be sexier to bag a man, give away any career dreams (and maybe get a bottle of antidepressants as a consolation prize). Wow, just wow but as we know from history, women have only existed as an instrument for men’s pleasure. 

Back in the '60s being sexy was all about how you looked and it had little to do with intelligence, curiosity or even humour. Intelligent or confident women were seen as those who would die spinsters. They weren’t women who would stay home, do your ironing, have steak and ice cream whipped up for you and serve you an old-fashioned while dressed in their waist-cinching pastel-coloured dresses and perfectly applied burnt orange lipstick. 

We have undoubtedly progressed since the Peggy’s of the world were tapping at their typewriters with their perfectly their sweet smiles but watching this scene with Joan and Peggy made me think about all the times others have equated my sexiness with the length of my hemline, giving little regard to anything else. 

I witnessed and lived a Mad Men-esque sexism when I entered the media industry at 18–“Your tits look good in that top” wasn’t an uncommon phrase to hear coming from the mouths of the industry executives. I, like many other women, have experienced varying degrees of the “you’re here for my viewing pleasure” attitude. I once handed a man my CV which he glanced at then looked me up and down and said “You’re hired”. No interview, no reference check. This was only 20 years ago.

The blatant sexism may have been forced aside now but it still exists everywhere. It just feels more hidden, like a snide comment under the breath. 

I’ll always love the nostalgia and voyeurism of watching reruns of shows like Mad Men but I also wonder, in 60 years will people look back at today in disbelief at how much leg we still had to show?