Liz Lemon + Don Draper = ROFL
I was just about to commence stress-baking when I came upon early footage of Mad Men‘s Jon Hamm’s arc on 30 Rock. You can watch it at Videogum. I laughed so hard I almost threw my back out – but then that’s probably because I share an Achilles’ heel (or two) with Liz.
I’ve drunk the Mad Men Kool-Aid
Why?
1) Textile porn. Slate.com film critic Dana Stevens identified textile porn as a sub-genre of the royal costume drama in her review of Elizabeth: The Golden Age, but I think the term more than applies here. Can I help it if mere pictures of early-’60s clothing won’t sate me, now that Mad Men has piqued my curiosity? Can I help it if I need to see people moving around in those poofy skirts and slim suits? To know how they fold and ripple and layer on all different body types? Can I? Can I?!
2) Oral Fixation. I wasn’t prepared to regress five decades plus four Freudian stages of psychosexual development when I rented my first Mad Men disc. The above picture is pretty misleading: If these people aren’t chain smoking, sipping whiskey from gold-rimmed tumblers, or sucking down oysters … then they’re probably dead! (Hey, um, also, should I be concerned that I can’t start an episode without a cocktail and a snack?)
3) It’s really about women. Or just as much about women as men, a fact which makes the show’s title pleasantly ironic. We’re still reckoning, I think, with the gender dynamics that began to evolve in the early 1960s, when Second Wave feminism reared its head. In 1960, the FDA approved birth control, giving women power over their reproductive organs. Capable of avoiding or putting off pregnancy, women could fulfill lives and functions outside of the home. But that possibility made a lot of men and women tense. (Judging by the way Michelle Obama has had to play down her position as a kick-ass lawyer in addition to being mom and wife, I’d say it still makes us tense.)
Ad man Don Draper’s process of engaging the question Freud was engaging at conferences long before — What do women want? — in his work and his home life is what makes Mad Men so fascinating to watch. (Oh, who am I kidding? It’s a wet dream for critical studies and communication dept. types.)
4) Jon Hamm’s John Ham. Finally, Jon Hamm totally won me over with this. Seriously, I snorted.
