Peggy Olson's role in AMC TV Series "Mad Men"

The AMC Mad Men series is set in the 1960s and focuses on an Advertising agency called "Sterling Cooper" on Madison Avenue of New York. The show is very popular winning and being nominated for many awards for its historical authenticity, directing, and acting. The characters depicted in this show are mostly wealthy and high class and the show is driven by the actions of the men in the show. The women in the show are often shown as weaker or simple minded and only thought to be able to perform simple tasks such as being a housewife or a secretary at the agency. These women are taken advantage of sexually and are almost always bowing down or complying with the actions that the men take upon them. This is the trailer of for season one of Mad Men and even in this short clip it can be seen how women are objectified and men are abusive of the power entitled to them by their job https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7NChV93LBw.

Peggy Olson is a women in the show that starts out in the agency as a young secretary that is still finding out the way things are done in this workplace. Originally she is the secretary of the agency's best creative mind Donald Draper and almost immediately feels that it is a part of her job to become somewhat a sexual object at Draper's command, this can be seen briefly in the trailer where she caresses his hand on his desk while giving a sort of hesitant look on her face. She is shot down by Draper in this attempt and is told to keep it professional between them two likely because Draper doesn't find her appealing. I personally believe Mad Men isn't promoting that women should be willing to put themselves in a position to be used by men of power for sex but instead challenging the idea and highlighting the wrongness of the concept. Later in the show the agency realizes Peggy provides a useful perspective from advertising because she is a smart girl and contributes largely to the agency's success in landing big companies that produce women's products. Yet still after her role in the agency is increased, she is still put in her place because she is a woman and consistently being pursed by coworker Peter Campbell, who at one point in the show gets Peggy pregnant. Interestingly Peggy hides this pregnancy from everyone likely to keep her status at the agency and possibly to seem more like a man by not letting a child get in the way of her moving up in her career, just as a man would not have to deal with a child possibly hindering their career progression. Olson is a good representation of the challenges women face in the corporate world because there are a lot of barriers that she must avoid in order to try to keep up with men that she is just as, if not smarter than, in the agency.

Another interesting situation in the show is the main character Donald Draper and how he has taken the identity of a fallen officer in the Korean war he took part in so that he would not be seen as a coward for running away from the dangers of the war. He takes the dog tags of the real Donald Draper and cuts off his relationships with his poor family so that he can effectively live as another man and absorb the power that comes along with it. Unintentionally his brother recognizes him one day and Draper pays off his brother to never attempt to come in contact with him again to preserve his image. Draper is married with two kids but like all the other men in the agency he goes out to have affairs with multiple other women possibly challenging the other idea that men have to be sexually dominant in order to fulfill their role as men in society. His wife becomes suspicious of his actions and eventually divorces Draper wrecking their family household. In my opinion Mad Men does an excellent job in showing that being this type of person isn't what it is all set out to be and every action has a consequence. This shows that keeping up an image just because you feel like it is your job is not worth losing a lifetime's worth of memories and relationships that will never be able to be recreated and this internal conflict takes a toll on Draper's conscious, changing him as the series unfolds.

Stereotypes of a Black Male

Throughout American history, black males have been attached with stereotypes that they must fight through in order to be successful. Some of these stereotypes include laziness, criminal nature, and uneducated. Although these stereotypes do not apply to everyone, they do apply to some but it is not by nature. it is caused by the rough environment they were born into. Usually these environments are surround by drugs, violence, and poor schooling, making it very difficult for a black man to make it out of a current living situation and be successful.

Rappers J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar are very good at identifying these stereotypes and providing perspectives from which these stereotypes can be observed in their albums Good Kid M.A.A.D City, Born Sinner, and 2014 Forest Hills Drive.

2014 Forest Hills Drive

Good Kid M.A.A.D City

Born Sinner

These three albums contain songs that accurately describe heavy influence's on a black man's character and shape him to become a person that may fit into a stereotype. In 2014 Forest Hills Drive it is "Tale of 2 Cities", in Good Kid M.A.A.D City it is "The Art of Peer Pressure", and in Born Sinner it is "Mo Money Interlude".

In "Tale of 2 Cities", Cole contrasting the perspectives of someone who has only lived in Fayetteville, North Carolina (or better known as Fayettenam) and another who has gone to New York city and has seen the bigger picture. Growing up in such a small town where there are limited options, someone may partake in criminal activity just to get by because they have no other option as Cole explains when he says. "They robbin' niggas on the daily, Can you blame a nigga that ain't never had things?".

In "The Art of Peer Pressure", Kendrick Lamar describes a day with his friends in Compton, California and how they are riding around acting recklessly and luckily escape the cops after a home invasion. Kendrick is not inherently a violent or reckless person but the influence of his friends is too strong to fight off and he gives into the temptation, conveyed in the lines "I never was a gangbanger, I mean I was never stranger to the folk neitherI really doubt it Rush a nigga quick and then we laugh about it That’s ironic ‘cause I’ve never been violent, until I’m with the homies".

In the "Mo Money Interlude", J. Cole is describing all kinds of money, not currencies but "party money" and "dope money". Here Cole is addressing the things that blacks tend to blow their money on. In this money interlude Cole addresses how blacks don't know how to act when they receive large sums of money and they end up blowing it, he says "Blacks always broke cause we don't know money Spend it 'fore we get it and could never hold money,". Then feeds the systematic oppression theory when he says "money control niggas white man control money laughin like 'yea yea my nigga get yo money'".

Double Standards

It is no secret, that in our society there is a double standard between men and women. It can be seen in multiple aspects in our society; an example being, a man in a position of authority in a company and exerting himself by being assertive, is seen by most as a man just doing his job. But if a woman were in the exact same position and carrying herself in the exact same fashion, she would be seen as a "bitch" or overusing her power. Double standards also exist in instances where a group of people are fighting/lobbying for equal rights in some cases. If men are fighting for equal rights for a group of people they are usually seen to be activists, leaders, etc. But if women are fighting for the rights of other women, they are sometimes mistakingly called "feminists" and are told to know their role and not be encouraged to stand up for what they believe in. These are just a few examples of how double standards play a role in our society but the double standard I will analyze in this post is the double standard of men and women when it comes to sexual encounters.

Why is it that when a male is known to have a number of sexual encounters, he is "the man" and receives praise from his peers but when a woman has the same amount of more sexual encounters she is seen as a "slut" or a plethora of other negative slurs? If man or a woman have the same number of sexual partners at any given time, they both have an equal chance at infection or disease assuming that it is unprotected. Also, they are risking unintentional pregnancies with unprotected sex, anything that can go wrong for a women as a result from sex can just as well happen to a man, yet there is still this disparity when it comes to having multiple partners.

There is a multitude of sex-related concepts that used to be supported by most of society but are now seen to be outdated, but it is possible this particular double standard concept still lingers because of the images media promotes of men with multiple sex partners, and women with multiple sex partners. For example, Los Angeles rapper ScHoolboy Q has a radio single called "Man of The Year", where a good part of the lyrics are references to how women can't control themselves around ScHoolboy Q, contributing to the idea that he is the "Man of the Year". The complete annotated lyrics can be found here. You may also view the "Man of the Year" music video here. A lot of the hip hop radio stations prefer to play songs that carry these messages because they usually are ear candy to listeners but it is possible that subconsciously these messages are extending the life of this double standard.

Ab-Soul, a rapper originally from Carson, California, details a story of a double standard from the perspective of a young male possibly in his late teens and another perspective from a woman of the same age in his song "Double Standards" from his album "Control System". Ab-Soul highlights the irony in this double standard from a neutral point of view. The first verse details the point of view of the young man and how his friend group is taunting him and pressuring him into cheating on his long time girlfriend because going on dates makes him a "queer" and otherwise "soft". This is found in the lyric "His fellas in his ear, You acting like a queer, you going on dates we tryna get this cake!", meaning that while he is spending time with his girlfriend he instead should be out trying to find ways to make money with his friend. He goes on to the next verse and describes the same event from the perspective from the girl. In verse three, Ab-Soul goes on to the third verse to summarize society's view of sexually active girls by saying "See the moral of the story is, she a ho he a pimp. Old girl'll forgive her man but her girlfriend's cut off like Edward's hands", meaning that guys get the benefit of the doubt but girls are shunned and seen to be tainted from situations in the story Ab-Soul tells about. To see all the lyrics to "Double Standards" you can look here.

To conclude, it is entirely possible that media is having a huge effect on how society views sexually active females because media, music in this case, has a history of glorifying men and diminishing women.