Don't get me wrong, I love the show Mad Men. In fact, it's one of my favorite shows of all time (how about that finale... SUCH a cliffhanger). However, the one thing that I cannot stand is the way characters' masculinity is proven over and over again. Don Draper, Pete Campbell and Roger Sterling are typical men's men. All three assert their masculinity through their frequent affairs (all are married), especially Don Draper who will screw just about anything in a skirt. When it is revealed that a coworker at Sterling Cooper is gay, they mock him in a further effort to prove their masculinity.
Even more puzzling, perhaps is the way that the women on the show are dealt with. When Betty Draper suspects that Don is cheating on her, she is shown to be a "crazy" woman as she ransacks his office for proof of his affairs. When she finally leaves him for another man in the Season 3 Finale, he calls her a whore. Why is it that Don, who is as promiscuous as they come, is manly for his conquests while Betty, who leaves Don for a man who actually loves her, a whore and a crazy woman? Joan Holloway, your stereotypical sexy secretary, marries the man who date rapes her, sending the message that love (or rather being with someone) is more important for a woman than her safety.
I know that some of the sexism in the show is there because the show is set in the early 1960s, but I think that most of it is problematic and very troubling.
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