Posted on 05/15/2015 1:04:25 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The final episode of AMC’s “Mad Men” this Sunday heralds the end of a TV era. The show’s seven seasons covered the turbulent decade from 1960 until 1970, dramatizing changing styles and social mores in the lives of “Mad Men” and women, or professionals in the Madison Avenue advertising industry.
For those who aren’t regular watchers: A lot of the show’s male characters spent their time chasing young women around the office and a lot of the female characters spent their time trying to land or keep a husband.
Critics have consistently lauded the series, not just for its entertainment value but also for exposing the dark underbelly of a prosperous, conservative era.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Which is why my birth mother immediately put me up for adoption and a married couple adopted me at three months through Lutheran Social Services. She never contemplated keeping me and raising me as a single mother.
I was born in ‘65, by ‘72 I could make a mean whiskey sour, gin and tonic, or Manhattan and no one thought anything of it. These days dad and grandpa would probably not be eligible for unsupervised visitations from the CPS yet.
Good times...
That’s what feminism talked about in the ‘60s, the idea that women should have choices in life, and women should have the choices of how to live their lives.
Feminism seems to have gotten away from that concept. Feminists nowadays preach about women having careers and all that, and say little if anything about women who might choose motherhood and being a housewife.
I kind of liked it. I am just old enough to have some memory of the tail end of the 60’s. I’d watch it and think “oh, wow, that world into which I was born is REALLY gone, isn’t it?”
Being respected, desired and cherished doesn't just happen for no reason. It will take some effort on the writer's part.
The New York Post’s Heather Robinson seems to have quite a following in the conservative talk show circut. Three hosts I monitor, two local the other nationally syndicated, all picked on on this topic and devoted at least a segment (15 minutes) of their show to this.
I love it, too, but not much conservatism going on in the series.. or in real life either as I saw it as a tyke back then.
They certainly were.
Those little suits designed to show off a woman's shape, worn with heels...love the look.
I grew up about 30 miles outside of New York City and started my career there in the early 1960’s. I never enjoyed a TV series as much as Mad Men, especially in the early years. The show accurately portrayed life in and around NYC during that era. The past few seasons of the show have gone downhill and the time has come to wrap it up.
I consider myself to be very fortunate to have started adulthood during that era. The wife and I celebrated our fiftieth last year and it’s all still good.
ME TOO. And I loved it.
Very classic.
You’ve come a long way baby!
Women didn’t curse. Ladies didn’t chew gum. Other than sailors, tattoos were in another universe. Women in slacks, were for very casual wear. Jewelry was subtle for everyday, for formal wear it could be spectacular. Hats and gloves for daily shopping was well every day stuff. And damn it us gals could and did wear mink coats and furs. I miss the America of my youth.
The feminists looked down on "housewives" back then, too. My mother faced criticism from "feminists" when she stopped working [a paying job] to be home with her children in the late 60's and 70's.
Ironically, when she was a child, her own mother worked. So did her grandmother. They HAD to work. They worked factory jobs and as babysitters for wealthy families. But, my mother yearned for her own mother to stay home.
Meanwhile, most of the "feminists" of the 60's and 70's grew up in higher-income/middle-income families with mothers who stayed home. They didn't know what it was like for their mothers to have to work. So, they came up with these lofty ideals about working. ;-)
For the record, not only did the women in my mother's family always work, but some were very successful... and I mean in the 1940's and '50's... and especially in real estate. One ran her own business. Others worked with their husbands in business. They all were tough, smart, and knew how to handle money. They would've walked all over the "feminists" of the 60's and 70's. ;-)
Were things better then?
I love that look as well. Pity that too many women in my generation are slovenly in their dress.
“They’d have never put up with the “sexism” of the era.”
Back then, it wasn’t considered “sexism”; it was just life and the way things were.
As much as I think Mad Men is meant to attack more than romanticize the era, it does show a lot of things the country has lost.
It really highlights the disconnect current generations have from our civilization’s past. I for one, mourn that loss.
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