THE DRAPERS: MAD MEN AND THE PURSUIT OF THE WHITE AMERICAN DREAM ǀ Armando García

According to Larry Grossberg (2005), “The media have become an inseparable part of people’s lives, of their sense of who they are, and of their sense of history”. We use the media as a sort of looking glass through which our real life is filtered and served to us in easy to digest pieces. It turns the greyish tones of reality into blacks and whites. Media is a cultural creation and therefore reflects the social context of the times its content was produced. It is through a process called cultivation by which audiences are conditioned to view the world the way it is represented in the media.

Mad Men premiered on July 19th 2007 and is currently on its sixth season. The show is broadcasted on AMC home of another other critically well received show, Breaking Bad. Created by Matthew Weiner, the show explores the lives of a successful New York advertising agency Sterling Cooper and its creative director Donald Draper, played by John Hamm during the 1960s. The show displays Mr. Draper’s personal and professional life during the ever changing times America faced in the 60s. Mad Men can be enjoyed through several different media platforms besides the regular cable network, for it is readily available on iTunes and other media outlets.  The show has received a total of fifteen Emmys and four Golden Globes as well as ranking 6th on TV Guides, The 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time. It is through this text that we will implement deconstructive critical theory in order to understand Mad Men’s view on The American Dream and the way it represents it as an exclusively white ideology and an ideal representation of U.S Culture.

One doesn’t have to look further than the opening credits of the show to understand the main ideology that goes on throughout the series. The title sequence portrays the silhouette of a man (possibly Don Draper) falling amidst a sea of 60s advertisements and posters. The show, much like the main characters, indulges itself on American consumerism. According to Saussure these images that are shown to us during the opening credits symbolize American culture’s obsession for consumer products.



In fact, during the pilot episode of the show titled "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", Don meets up with Sally Menken, the owner of a department store. The sole purpose of this meeting is to help her boost her sales and improve her image to equal that of Chanel. Like a church serves as a symbol for religious beliefs (be it Christian, catholic, etc.), the department store can be seen as the modern church of consumerism. A large building that holds that beliefs of American societies within its walls. Accompanied by the echoes of cash registers one can almost hear the choir sing “Spend more, be more. Buying is what defines you”.

It is through the constant client meetings that are shown throughout the series that we begin to understand the importance that American Consumerism has not only on the American industry, but on the lives of the men working for Sterling Cooper. Don Draper and his colleagues would not be able to enjoy their fine suits and their well-aged whisky without them. The different companies that walk into the Sterling Cooper meeting room to hear Don Draper’s sales pitches serve as signifiers for American consumerism (the signified). However, consumerism has its roots firmly planted on a much larger ideological system that permeates American culture: The American Dream.

Donald Draper is the main character of our show; he is a successful white male in his 40s however, he was not born into a world of privilege. Draper represents the American Dream, a western ideology that states that “if you work hard enough, you will succeed”. Mad Men uses the character of Don Draper to promote and cultivate the previous ideology into the audience. Gerbner calls this process Mainstreaming by which “heavy viewing may absorb or override differences in perspectives and behavior” (Bryant, 2012, Pg.112). One way it presents this is by contrasting Draper with another character from the show, Pete Campbell. Campbell is an account executive for Sterling Cooper who comes from a privileged background. In contrast, Draper is simply an assumed identity; his real name is Richard Whitman. His mother a 22 year old prostitute died while giving birth to him. He later on lived in a farm with his father (whom he hated) and fought during the Korean War. Donald Draper as a symbol serves to represent the ideal American, grown from humble roots and a patriot. The executive Superman (who was also a farm boy that later moved to the city).

We can use Levi-Strauss’ Mythemes in order to classify Drapers life story as the following, “boy goes from rags to riches”. Campbell was born into his position and role in society, Draper had to earn it. In the viewer’s mind Campbell is less deserving of being a part of Sterling Cooper (and in the process our sympathy) because he did not have to work to attain his current social status. However, through cultivation and mainstreaming audiences begin to sympathize with Donald Draper, as a man who has “suffered” enough and has therefore been labeled worthy of his current social status by that very audience.

We must also understand that the men working as ad men at Sterling Cooper are all white (or have some sort of European descent), there are no African American characters (Unless one counts the sandwich guy) on the show. Trying to make the show as historically accurate while being set in the 60s is one thing, but the lack of an African American  character in the shows main cast can be seen as stereotyping, which helps to support “the audience’s collective consciousness a character’s preconceived value systems and behavioral expectations” (Wilson, 2003 pg.) Therefore Mad Men reinforces the idea that The American Dream is an exclusive to hard working white men. Does the same apply to women?

Let us deconstruct Don Draper’s wife, Betty. She is a typical 1960’s housewife. She stays at home and takes care of her kids; all while smoking and gossiping with the other housewives that live around the neighborhood. She lacks ambition (aside from hosting house parties) and is clueless of her husband’s affairs with other women (Women that are smarter and more independent than her). Just like we previously talked about the stereotypical portrayal of black characters on the show, we can tell that Betty is also a stereotype. She is there to act as a symbol for the ideal woman. Betty Draper represents the collection of desired characteristics that the patriarchal U.S Culture seeks to promote amongst its women.

Stephanie Coontz (2010) states that “She is a woman who thinks a redecorated living room, a brief affair or a new husband might fill the emptiness inside her, and her attempts to appear the perfect wife render her incapable of fully knowing her children or even her successive husbands”. The writers even go as far as to introduce us to a single mother, Helen Bishop as a symbol for the “modern woman”. Betty and the other women critique her as if she were some kind of freak. There is no sense of independence on Betty behalf, her happiness fully dependent on her marriage and her husband’s professional life. We therefore can understand the shows portrayal of women in the U.S as being favorable towards married women. “Women are nothing without their man” is what the show is trying to teach us. Betty even suffers from psychosomatic numbness in her hands when thinking of her husband’s affairs with other women. Now, is this is a reaction to her crumbling marriage? Or are these constant periods of numbness a reaction towards the fear of losing social and economic security by losing Don?
Using Marxist Critical Theory one can define the role of women in U.S Culture as being valuable for their Sign-Exchange Value, which means “the social status it confers on its owner” (Tyson, 2006, Pg. 62). To put it simply, Betty is Don’s arm candy. There is nothing she can offer him intellectually, but because of her youthful looks (even after giving birth to two children) she has become some sort of medal to wear on his chest for the world to see. She is his trophy wife. Just like his job Don has earned her. However, Donald Draper is also being used by Betty. He is her passage to a better life, a respectable life as a mother and wife. Don and Betty are in a process that Marxist theory calls commodification which is when “the act of relating to objects or persons in terms of their exchange value or sign-exchange value” (Tyson, 2006, Pg.62). Marriage is no longer seen as institution (as some churches would say), in the world of Mad Men marriage is seen as an investment.
Mad Men not only showcase the exploits and pitfalls of 1960s advertising, but at its very core help to exemplify and promote the ideal American life. A world in which through hard work a man can achieve anything, the only requirements needed are to be white, have a beautiful wife and are willing to showcase their wealth. The Drapers might be a typical American family, but they are a symbol of times past, and a constant remainder of Americas desire to return to the good old days. Where white men and women could thrive economically without being threatened by alternative styles of life in their office and their homes, a place where all that was needed to be happy was spend some money. For Don Draper it’s all about selling the dream, the dream of a better rest, a better shave, a better traveling experience. For the show it’s all about the American Dream.


ARMANDO GARCÍA. Adicto anónimo a la televisión, cual James Woods en Videodrome. Siempre buscando aquella nueva serie que llene el vacío existencial que le dejo la despedida de Buffy de la pantalla chica.


BIBLIOGRAFÍA
Bryant, Jennings (2012). Fundamentals of Media Effects. Waveland. USA
Coontz, Stephanie (2010).  Why Mad Men is TV’s most feminist show. The Washington Post. Published October 10th 2010. Taken on June 6th 2013 from
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/08/AR2010100802662.html>
Grossberg, Larry (2005) MediaMaking: Mass Media in a Popular Culture. SAGE Publications. USA
Tyson, Lois (2006) Critical Theory Today. Routledge. USA.
Weiner, Matthew (Creator) (2007) Mad Men. United States: Lionsgate Television.

Wilson II, Clint C. (2003) Racism, Sexism, and the Media. SAGE Publications. USA 


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