Gender Representation in Mad Men

Gender representation is the way that genders are represented in the media and in society, it is always assumed that when people start to speak about gender representation that we are usually going to start talking about sexism or disrespectful behavior towards women although this isn't always the case. Gender representation is simply the way that both genders are portrayed. 

In Mad Men we are introduced to these big characters that have big personalities so it can be assumed that certain representations of them may be a little extreme. For example the men in the series are all competing to have the most power seemingly to show that they are the ones in charge. Whether that be between one man and another or between a man and a woman there is always this power struggle for the man to come out on top. This can be seen when Pete confronts Peggy. Immediately  he scrutinizes her, talking about her appearance making her feel uncomfortable her, consequently making her feel small while building himself up. It seems that the men in this show will do anything to fluff up their own ego. Whether this is through intimidation, competition or down right dirty tactics it seems that they will do anything to make sure that they come out in the place of power.

Where as women are shown to be much less in control. Due to this great power that all the men believe they have just by being men it seems they feel it is their given right to objectify women and take control of them. Which after observing some displays of this behavior in the show it comes across that women can do little to stop this. As there is pretty much no respect there. Even when a women begins to object to such behaviors the man continues against the wishes of the woman. It seems as though the men in the show that they can just walk all over women and use them for what ever purposes they see fit - even when the women clearly object to such behaviors. Again I am using Pete for an example here. When he and his fellow colleagues were in the strip club (which is demeaning to women in itself) Pete starts to pursue a woman in a way that she clearly did not feel comfortable with, which she proceeds to point out. But lone behold he continues in his behavior, in the end it takes several more protests and the woman going out of her way to move to get him to stop. It seems that a woman's no just doesn't have the same value as a mans.

Also after observing the first episode of Mad Men  it is quite evident that there is a double standard in place. Men being expected to act in one particular way while women are to act another. What is appropriate for one is unacceptable for the other. It being shown that men should be career driven while women should focus on having a family. In the instance of a man sleeping around it is simply seen as being okay as it's in their nature or just be cause their a man it's seen as acceptable. However if a woman were to be career driven instead of wanting to settle down, or if a woman were to sleep around - they would be eternally judged for it. In the show this is made clear when Peggy goes to they gynecologist, although he say's that she is making a wise decision by going on the pill he also makes a statement about nobody wanting easy  women, immediately stating that if a woman is active then she becomes undesirable for it. However if a man did the same thing then no one would so much as batter an eyelid.

This show also adopts a very stereotypical portrayal of women, they are seen as these innocent creatures playing the damsel in distress role that are quite frankly stupid. Insinuating that a woman's mental capacity is far lower than any mans and that if a woman were to understand anything then a man would have to dumb it down for her. With even women themselves buying into this when Joan is showing Peggy the type writer she makes a comment about it being so easy even women can use them. This shows us that not only do men believe that women are not capable of understanding simple things they have also convinced women of the same thing. This only worsens the prejudice of women because men are never going to take them seriously if they themselves cannot do that. However this is probably due to the society around them as if all that women are seeing is people saying that women are stupid then eventually they will begin to believe it.