Donald Draper's Life Exposed In 'Mad Men'

Some people believe that the more money a person has, the less satisfied the person is in life. Women’s emotions are not affected the same, but some women’s emotions are affected differently by dealing with different men with different income compared to other men. The show, Mad Men, takes place in the 1960’s New York, portraying the life of the protagonist, Don Draper (Jon Hamm), the Creative Director of Sterling Cooper Agency, an advertising agency owned by Roger Sterling (John Slattery). Don Draper is praised for his work, but many of the employees in the company, like Draper, are filled with arrogance and disrespect that not only the men face, but the women tolerate. The episode “Shoot” mainly focuses on how Don does not want his wife, Betty Draper (January Jones), to model again, on how the agency is trying to figure out how to stop John F. Kennedy’s campaign on the air, and how Don is trying to figure out to leave Sterling Cooper Agency and work for McCann-Erikson Firm, a different advertising agency. Throughout the episode, many can notice the men degrading and utilizing the women in the episode by making rude, sexual remarks towards the women or competing to be better than the women. Betty symbolizes a married woman who becomes more dependent as her husband becomes more successful. Betty’s expectation to be a dutiful, nurturing mother is displayed in her mother-daughter relationship. This episode’s depiction of working, single women indicates that single women are

But the most shocking aspect of this whole situation came in the form of the African American performer Bert Williams who was degraded to play roles while in blackface that made a mockery of black people and essential of himself which probably was hard for him to act out. Fortunately the practice of performing blackface ended in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Act. But there are other stereotypes that have prevailed during the 20th century and I have two which are- the angry black women and black men always being thugs. For the first stereotype a particular movie comes into mind that portrays the angry black women perfectly and that is Madea’s Big Happy Family where there was a scene of a black women character that was yelling at her baby’s father about child support and was rolling her neck, chewing gum and speaking loudly. Looking back on the scene I realize now how stereotypical that scene was and that it further perpetuated a particular idea about how African American women behave or

2.Set in an advertising agency on New York City’s Madison Avenue, the show traces conflicts among Draper and his Colleagues as well as between he and various women.

Shows like “I Love Lucy” and “The Andy Griffith Show”, you wouldn’t dream of seeing a homosexual. Homosexuality

Then there are the in-between moments where the audience sees the characters in everyday life at their place of employment. The Office is also known to have a boss that comes off politically incorrect at times. Chad Deity emphasizes that to take it a step further. I think this is a necessary component of the play because it helps the audience to get the full effect of the show. Many people think that racism no longer exists or that it does, but they are not guilty of racism. However, studies have shown that implicit racism has become increasingly more prevalent in society, (see Appendix 2). By making the reactions to the incorrect stereotypes more exaggerated, Diaz is shining a light on the implicit racism of society.

This aspect of greed is greatly represented by all characters throughout Mad Men. In the opening episode of Mad Men, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”, viewers discover the infamous Donald Draper and the challenges he faces as a high-powered ad executive for Madison Avenue’s most prized advertising agency, Sterling Cooper. Viewers see Draper visit his mistress, Midge, and after a late night arrival and early morning departure its obvious Drapers intentions is nothing more than physical relations. After Draper’s departure from Midge’s he is off to the office for his usual work routine. Returning home audiences discover Draper is married with a picturesque wife, home and children. This first episode of the series sets a tone of the greed and deceit which Draper represents. Despite his highly acclaimed and acknowledged success, Draper is not fulfilled with the seemingly perfect life he has built for himself. In another episode “Marriage of Figaro” the Draper family is celebrating daughter Sally’s birthday. Betty, Don’s physically flawless wife, requests he make a trip to the bakery to retrieve Sally’s birthday cake. Upon his journey Don decides not to return to the party leaving everyone disappointed, his family included, for his own selfish reasons. Don has virtually zero regard for anyone but his own self’s happiness. Also another key representation of greed comes in the form of Pete Campbell, a new executive of Sterling Cooper. Pete engages in relations with

When viewing this episode, many obvious controversial issues were noticeable. The issues involving race and gender were a clear showing of how many people in the world are ignorant to the issues involving race and gender in the world. Additionally, during the episode, an instructor is called into the office to educate the workers about diversity, and how certain comments are not acceptable in a workplace and public areas. Throughout the exercise, Michael – the manager – disagrees with most of what the instructor says, and decides to start his own diversity day training exercises. Michael decides to write a bunch of different races on notecards, and have the workers stick them to their foreheads at random. They then had to walk around and treat each other like they would any other person who is of that race. By using racial stereotypes to try and figure out their race, this exercise clearly promotes the use of racial stereotypes. For example, In the scene where Dwight and Pam try to guess their own races on their notecards, Pam says to Dwight (who is “Asian”), “Based off stereotypes which are completely untrue, you might not be a very good driver.” After Pam says this, Dwight responds with, “Oh God, am I a woman?” This scene displays complete ignorance

For most shows, the LGBTQ characters either a) get written off, or b) fall into heteronormative gender ideals. When a writer does decide to add a queer character seen beyond the use of the “one time experiment” episode, these queer storylines that end up formulaic and lacking substance (Kessler, p.1). These queer characters are usually depicted as either Lesbian or Gay, thus leaving the Bisexual and Transgender characters much harder to come by. In most situations characters and audiences react to bisexual characters just as Erica Hahn did with Callie in season 5 when she said, “you can’t ‘kind of’ be a lesbian.” (GREY’S ANATOMY SEASON 5 EPISODE 7). These were some of the last words that doctor Erica ever said on the show. Ironically this was

To begin with, the plot of the show is centered on a teenage boy who encounters an abundant amount of situations with most of them being racist remarks. For example, he attends an all-white school, where he is constantly bullied by his peers and as well as his teachers, yes his teacher a person of authority verbally bullies her student. She makes racist remarks about the African American community by using words such as “Black people” to associate all people of

For an example in scene one, Troy had to complain to the Commissioner of the union since only white people were hired to drive the garbage trucks in town, while the African American workers have to do the difficult work of handling the labor. “You think only white fellows got sense enough to drive a truck. That ain’t no paper job! Hell, anybody can drive a truck…” (Wilson, 1550).

She knows that they do not usually hire black people, but tries anyway. When she approaches the receptionist about the job, the receptionist immediately turns her away with excuses about the manager being away. After leaving the receptionist, Maya reflects about how even though she had never been in a situation where she was purposefully not allowed to work somewhere and the receptionist had never had to make up excuses so someone would not get the job, the situation occurs often all over the country. In the 1930s and 1940s, racial segregation is still prevalent, especially in the workforce, where Many places did not hire black people. Maya compares herself and the receptionist to actors in a well-known play because white people commonly denied black people the same opportunities that they received and black people accepted the inequality.

During an in-class discussion, Dr. Martin explained that one must look through different lenses to view things from all positions. “Positionality refers to the race, class, gender, physically ability and other positions that we occupy in life” (Tackacs, 2002). Understanding positionality allows us to see how our identities may be unique, which allows us to contrast positionalities with others. When looking for racism in commercials, it is important to look at the issue as a whole with the lenses of the people of color that are “off to the side” in these commercials. This allows you to gain a better perspective of how they view people of their own race on television networks.

For this paper, I have chosen to analyze the sitcom That 70s Show. This show follows the lives of a group of teenage friends: Jackie, Donna, Hyde, Kelso, Eric, and Fez. The show addresses many social issues of the 1970s, including: Sexism, sexual attitudes, drug use, and the recession. It also highlights many of the inventions and developments of the entertainment industry, such as the remote control and Star Wars.

At the meeting, a coworker asked the executive leading the session why the company was so focused on diversity. " He didn't say 'black people', he said, 'Why are we hiring all these different types of people and women?'" said Burns. Burns wasn't satisfied with the executive's answer to the question about diversity. She stood up in front of everyone and scolded him for displaying a lack of passion and principles.

AMC’s show Mad Men is a period drama set in the 1950s to 1960s which focuses on those that work in the competitive world of advertising on Madison Avenue in New York City, NY. The critically acclaimed show aired for seven seasons and won numerous awards, including several Emmy and Golden Globe awards. According to the pilot episode, which aired in 2007, the term ‘Mad Men” is slang for “Madison Avenue ad men”, which was coined by advertisers working on Madison Avenue in the 1950s. At the beginning of the pilot episode (titled “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”) viewers are introduced to the show’s main character, Don Draper, who is the creative director for the advertising agency Sterling Cooper. Throughout the episode, Draper is faced with the problem currently plaguing Sterling Cooper, how to protect Lucky Strike cigarette sales in wake of the public’s increased awareness of their heath risks.