My spouse and I have been watching Mad Men… recommended to us by his man crush, The Sports Guy. (I really MUST do a whole post some time on the influence a single columnist has over my spouse… “The Sports Guy” is definitely the other woman in this relationship).
In any case, Mad Men is set in the early 1960′s in the Madison Avenue advertising world. Now, as the daughter of a women’s libber and a gay man, I was raised without much preconception for gender roles. Probably more so than most people my age. Nonetheless, I would guess that nearly any woman of my generation would be shocked to see the role women play in the show. They are disposable…potential great rides or cars that need tune-ups. Clearly, things have changed in the last 50 years.
And yet, I simultaneously wonder how different they really are. After Michelle Obama’s controversial misstep on “pride”, several sources tell she’s been carefully controlling her image – Crafting herself into everyone’s dream mom…. dog walker, child raiser, organic gardener, clear supporter of her husband’s agenda. Hmmmm…. why does this remind me of the women on Mad Men? I find it a bit maddening…. though I credit her intelligence, as her approval ratings have done a complete 180. Still, this woman is part of why I voted for the man…. and I certainly wasn’t considering her organic gardening qualifications (and I’m even a composting / organic gardener - but come on!)
And yet… there is something to things staying the same that isn’t all bad. The “telephone line through time” as the Indigo Girls would say. I’ve been reading Tolstoy lately… Anna Karenina. It’s shocking to me how on the mark a man writing in the 1870′s in Russia can be in regards to some of my feelings as a woman and mother. And it is affirming and comforting to know that much is as it was… more than a hundred years later and across continents.
Do we ever really make progress? We moved from legal discrimination of blacks to legal discrimination of gays… and one day soon, that will be gone too. But we’ll find someone else to oppress…. and even with progression (like that of women) – how long does it take before our secretly held, deep-seated beliefs actually change – and someone like Michelle Obama can stop carefully crafting herself into a 1960′s version of a 2009 woman?
I guess I’m relieved I didn’t work in the 60′s… at least not on Madison Avenue… So that’s part of my answer. But progress isn’t always what it seems either. Maybe it’s the two steps forward, one step back phenomenon. It’s frustrating, to say the least….
