>Do feminists secretly want to be Betty Draper?

>I have to admit, lesbians doing the deed surrounded by kitschy 60's decor sounds awesome to me. Somebody needs to email that idea to the ladies at Crash Pad.(Also, I am the worst feminist ever. Not only have I never watched this show, but the only Joss Whedon material I've seen is Dr. Horrible.)

>He actually used the word breathtaking? I thought to Spearheaders that meant choking a bitch.

>It seems he's had passing exposure to the strain of indie-punk culture that relishes the aesthetics of the 50s. It's true that some people into that (cough) are feminists, but not all. You know, like vintage clothes, straight bangs, leather jackets, Buddy Holly glasses. It's really more a rock thing. It's worth noting that the aspects of the 50s that are revived with Gen X hipsters are the ones that were in direct opposition to the mainstream culture. Hip sorts tend to be interested mainly in cultural markers that were threatening to the dominant adult culture at the time, and/or exposed the hypocrisies of the era. So yeah, you see an interest in cheeky pin-ups, rockabilly, stuff like that. But 100% of that stuff is stuff that would not have been part of Betty Draper's existence.

>A secret 1950s room? Really? Is that right next to the soundstage where they filmed the moon landing?(Also, I am the worst feminist ever. Not only have I never watched this show, but the only Joss Whedon material I've seen is Dr. Horrible.) Meh. Whedon's feminism is highly overstated, especially by him. Now I love Buffy – it's one of my favorite shows ever. But still.Dr. Horrible's great, too.

>Apparantly, Uncle Elmer and Co can't get it through their heads that plenty of those feminist lesbians from the 50s and 60s are still around. I know a number of older feminists and a number of older lesbians, who *gasp* actually were around then (including a few who did a stint as a housewife). Not to mention black feminists, who certainly do not have 50s nostalgia. Ditto for poor women. I grew up in an area where not everyone had electricity and fewer had running water in the 50s. People sometimes starved to death and died fairly often because they had absolutely no medical care. 50s Appalachia, oh joy and prosperity! Trust me, even the anti-feminist women don't want to go back to that. 50s nostalgia is an activity of rich, cis hetero white folks (primarily men).

>Forget Betty Draper. I want to be whoever gets to rest his or her head on Joan Holloway's amazing breasts.

>I totally agree with briget. I'm an amateur costume seamstress and have an interest in retro and historical fashion. I absolutely love the lines and styles of older-era clothes. Part of my pleasure in watching Mad Men is seeing what amazing outfit Joan or Betty is wearing. I currently have a 1940s era women's suit and a 1950s style dress hanging in my closet that I made myself (to say nothing of the Renaissance Venetian, Victorian or classical Grecian gowns hanging next to them). Oh, and the pirate coat hanging on the chair behind me that still needs the buttons added. It's totally fine, I think, to appreciate the aesthetic of a given era without having to embrace its values as well. True, part of what fed into Victorian or Elizabethan fashion was the cultural belief that a woman's body should be tightly constrained and covered from neck to ankle – but that doesn't make the gowns any less gorgeous. And even if there is a random lesbian couple who enjoys 1950s roleplay in their bedroom… so what? It's a private power exchange scenario, and couples (or triples or quadruples) across all demographics enjoy sexually charged power exchange fantasy play.

>goldberg, I could have sworn that the first season was set in the late 50s but you are correct; it starts in 1960.

>Don Draper grew up on a poor farm in the Midwest, I'm pretty sure he grew up without electricity or running water. Peggy came from upstate New York, but I think she's young enough to have grown up with electricity. Betty and Roger were both fairly privileged, so they might have been rich enough to grow up with electricity. Many of the other characters, though, don't reveal much about their childhoods or where they grew up.

>Even the clothes– they're pretty, but they don't look particularly comfortable. No pockets, poofy, probably corseted and itchy. Oh, and those pointy-toed shoes would be so painful. Nope, no Mad Men envy here. (Unless we're talking about the men's suits, but somehow I don't think crossdressing enters into most hypothetical retro fantasies.)

>I can't imagine thinking of Betty Draper's life as anything but a cautionary tale and indicative of the reason that feminism flourished in the 60s and 70s.

>Probably the result of years and years of girdles. There's skeletal proof of this from ye olden tymes, and if you've ever read the "Little House" books Laura talks about how her sister always slept in her girdle and her mother's waist was so small that her father could span it with two hands and how she was denigrated for not wanting to sleep in her girdle every night.