Jezebel 
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New York, 8:39 PM
Sat Nov 21
25 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/13/09
There really is no way to tell what sort of human she would have become under different circumstances – but then is there ever? For all I know Betty would be just as boring in modern times, but last time I checked I didn't believe in feminism for some, or feminism for the nice, or feminism for friends only. #madmen
11/12/09
11/11/09
11/11/09
11/11/09
11/11/09
11/11/09
Joan Harris makes play-time FUN! #joanhollowaypaperdolls
11/11/09
11/11/09
11/10/09
11/10/09
She did get happier when she started working when I was in HS but was never really happy with her role.
She's very happy now. She doesn't have to take care of anyone other than herself for the first time in her life . I can't imagine being a prisoner to everyone else's expectations. Aren't you glad we don't have to be? We get to chose. #madmen
11/10/09
Furthermore, I'm sick of people painting her as a bad mother. Instead of being angry with her for that, why not look at the fact that back then getting married pretty much said "you will also have children someday." There was far less in the way of birth control. Just because Betty might've wanted to get married doesn't mean she was ready and interested in also becoming a mother, especially not quite so young. She is suffering from the effects of having no options, and her husband has been a lying, cheating bastard throughout their entire marriage. If she has "flat affect," I think it's pretty freaking understandable! #madmen
11/11/09
To be truly happy yourself you have to be able to inhabit another's shoes for more than a mile to gauge why they might be angry or abusive or just miserable. You can't just write others off as "jerks." It diminishes both of you.
We all suffer disappointments and should seek common ground, not separation and alienation. #madmen
11/10/09
The thing about Betty is...you're supposed to find her all the things people find her. Pampered. Hollow. Superficial. Cold. She is those things, because she's been made those things. Because no one has ever expected more from her, so she doesn't even know she could be more...although I think she has glimpses of it. And there are clearly embers of a need to be something...to get out...to figure out some other life than this. Women at that time were supposed to be happy little extensions of their husbands, content with a life where they were basically indentured servants. Even with all the privileges in Betty's life, she's still trapped and caged. A pretty prison is still a prison.
To me, Betty's character is all about restriction. Restricted emotions, restricted choices, restricted ideas, a restricted life. She's a woman on the brink, stuck in a world that limits her, stuck with her own limitations...stuck with a life she should want but doesn't.
The people who don't understand why she's with Henry seem to have missed the whole scene about divorce then. Even if Don doesn't fight her, he hasn't exactly proven himself to be trustworthy. She has no career, and though she's clearly educated, the only job she had was modeling. She's not really in a position to effectively navigate the world. And Henry is, in every way, a far more transparent man than Don. He lives his life in the public eye, working for a politician. He's not in a position to lie and mislead her the way Don was.
Betty is, in many ways, what the stereotypical "childish" woman comes from. Because women were treated like children. By partners, by the law, by society. It shouldn't be shocking to anyone that some people can't just snap out of that. And the whole point of her character is exploring where a person like that comes from, and what they do. I find it fascinating because it's so unlike me.
I think hating her is convenient. Because admitting that women are, in a lot of ways, still expected to be like her is scary. And we resent it. And we resent women like her because they didn't just get out of it. Because we want more agency than that. And identifying with Betty, even in a small way, must feel like admitting that there's still something compelling in that version of womanhood. Otherwise I don't see how anyone could go around defending or forgiving Don as a character while condemning her. #madmen
11/10/09
11/10/09
I really like this assessment - and I think I end up defending her a lot because of it.
As for January Jones's acting ability - I'm kind of excited to see her this weekend in SNL, just to prove she can do something than 'ol frozen, deadened-soul-face-lady (I've never seen her in anything else.) #madmen
11/10/09
11/10/09
Personally, I don't hate her, and I don't identify her primarily as a privileged person in her world. Her husband has a lot more privilege and agency than her, and he treats her terribly.
The "She should just leave" crowd, which turned into the "Henry Francis is just another Don Draper; she should just leave and be single" crowd, is misguided in my opinion. Note how much more receptive the lawyer was to her prospects when came in with HF. She would lose her kids for sure without another husband and she doesn't want to do that. She has no assets to her name, not even her father's house, not because she hasn't been working, but because she's been laboring for free for Don for all these years. She couldn't get hired anywhere, even for peanuts as a secretary. She has no credit, she couldn't get a loan, what would you have her do?
As for her and HF not knowing each other for long, the long courtships of today were not the norm then. Part of the reason for this was the economic imperative for women to marry, and part of this was the social and legal barriers to premarital sex, including the illegality of abortion and restricted access to b.c.
Henry Francis is not dismissive of her thoughts and desires. He treats her like an adult, and so far, he's been honest with her. He seems not to need to be married to advance his career, as Don does. I hardly see where the comparison is between the two men. #madmen
11/10/09
Betty's problems represent conflicts long before and long after the 1960s, so why are we pretending that Betty should have made a choice to leave without support, when we all know people who feel just as trapped in the 21st century? Some laws may have changed, but some attitudes haven't. #madmen
11/10/09
It amazes me that the attitude proliferates among Jezzies about a woman fifty years ago. #madmen
11/10/09
How can you tell he isn't dismissive of her thoughts and desires? They have had like 20 minutes of screen time this whole season. I understand the justification for her leaving, but Henry Francis isn't awesome just because he isn't Don Draper.
And I was never in the "she should leave him" crowd because any marriage she gets into in 1963 is going to be some level of what she has now. #madmen
11/10/09
In the conversations they've had, he's consistently taken her seriously and listened to her. Yes, they don't know each other very well, but it's not realistic for them to just date open-endedly. The culture has changed a lot since then.
Betty wants to be married, but to a more caring, more honest man. There's a big difference between Don and just any man she might marry. #madmen
11/10/09
11/10/09
I sometimes wish Mad Men would acknowledge the working class. #madmen
11/10/09
11/10/09
But, a Vegas divorce is a much more logical and saner conclusion to their horribly fraught sham of a marriage.
At last, an end to his multiple affairs and her petulant, listless sulking, all of which deeply impacted their children. May he find peace with the teacher, and her with the silver fox she ran away with.
What a depiction of the loneliness and the hell of a bad marriage! Riveting to watch.
11/10/09
The brilliance of Betty's breakdown, and the gorgeous Feminine Mystique melodrama of it all, is predicated on the fact that she is allowed, and able to do so because she has Carla. She has the luxury of having this massive collapse and sitting for days in the same gorgeous dress because she knows someone else will make sure things function.
That's not to say her distress is not real or heartbreaking. It is, but Betty's proto-feminist awakening is set against the backdrop of Carla's constant presence which is, I think, the most interesting part of that story arc. At the end of it all, Betty can fly away with her new man and Don can start all over because they are able to leave the kids at home with Carla while they are off finding themselves in their new lives. But at the same time, every season, the ability of all the characters to coast on the priveleges given them by their race and class has been slipping. I'm extremely interested to see how this continues. #madmen
11/10/09
11/11/09