![]() Her gallant doctor-husband isn’t much better than the sleazy ad men. When she gets her ticket out of Sterling Cooper-a proposal from a handsome doctor (the opposite of a sleazy ad man, she thinks)-she realizes being a housewife is a lot less fun than being in the action on Madison Avenue. “But it’s the best,” Joan whispers, her eyes bright and brimming with ambition.ĭespite all her talk about getting married and being taken care of, Joan loves her job. She’s still a believing Catholic, shocked and disappointed about Don’s infidelity. She then reminds Peggy that it’s her job to “keep his record clean here and at home.” In another scene, she leans over Peggy’s desk and says of Don, “I’ve always wondered why he’s ignored me.” It’s a boastful remark, though it hardly conceals her jealousy of Peggy, whom Don looks at differently than he does the other women in the office. And as Queen of the office, Joan feels entitled to put Peggy down with nasty comments about Peggy’s looks.Ī few episodes later, Joan pressures Peggy into telling her that Don is having an affair, then immediately chastises her for gossiping. She feels slighted by Peggy’s discomfort with male attention because she eats it up. But Peggy’s earnestness and otherness annoys Joan. It’s hard to believe that Joan’s actually threatened by Peggy at this point. Really evaluate where your strengths and weaknesses are. “Put it over your head, get undressed, and look at yourself in the mirror. “Go home, take a paper bag, and cut some eye holes out of it,” she says when Peggy sits down at her desk for the first time. So when Peggy shows up at Sterling Cooper-naive, timid, earnest, unsexy-in the show’s first episode, Joan gives her the rundown and a few secretarial pro-tips, some more generous than others. In the past 10 years, they’ve fought their way to the top-clawing, elbowing, sacrificing, evolving-as women in a man’s business, but with a dynamic (and resulting catty confrontations) that hasn’t changed since the first season: Joan thinks Peggy doesn’t respect her Peggy thinks Joan belittles her. It’s a fantastically tense scene playing off the turbulent sisterhood of Peggy and Joan. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” Peggy snaps back: “You know what? You’re filthy rich. “How do I dress?” Joan interrupts, before telling Peggy that she’s not attractive enough to be targeted by men with lewd remarks. “You can’t dress the way you do and expect-” “You can’t have it both ways,” she lectures, exasperated and slightly tone deaf. ![]() The woman who so effectively used sex to advance her career must now decide which side she’s on. “I want to burn this place down ,” she tells Peggy in the elevator. Joan remains silent, cowed and embittered. “Do you wear them, Joan?” “What’s so special about your panties?” “So you can pull them down over and over?” “Why aren’t you in the brassiere business?” When Joan politely registers her dismay (“Excuse me?”), Peggy takes over, swatting away their imbecilic and sexist questions. Times are changing, but the advertising world is still full of oafish, entitled men. Having gone from a busty, bombshell secretary to a busty, bombshell account executive, Joan is again faced with a barrage of sexual innuendos as she and Peggy pitch a proposal for a pantyhose client. So here we again find them at odds, again in an elevator, after a meeting with brutish account executives at SCDP’s new parent agency, McCann Erickson. Three and a half seasons later, the relationship between Joan and Peggy has mirrored a rapidly changing America, a country that will soon see the advancement of the “women’s lib” movement, the codifying of anti-discrimination laws, the rise of Ms. ![]()
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