What Will It Take for Me to Stop Pining For Don Draper?
What is it going to take Don Draper? What is it going to take for me to stop swooning over you?
The incessant infidelities in season one didn't seem to do the trick. That's what men did in the fifties right? It just meant their wives had to do less work.
And the whole lying about your past thing? Who doesn't like to make their childhood seem better than it was? When I was in fifth grade I invented a sibling because I thought being an only child wasn't very cool.
And this week when you drunkenly groped your loyal secretary, did the deed and then treated her like a common prostitute in the morning, sure I made an unpleasant face at you, but I didn't give up hope that underneath it all you're still the man for me.
I was chatting with my girlfriend Jackie about this quandary and she too doesn't know what it will take to end her Draper love affair (mind you Jackie is a very happily married woman with a loyal and sexy husband).
"I think he'd have to beat his children," she said after thinking about what Don would have to do to finally be put on her sh*t list. "But not 1950s spanking because that would still be hot. He'd have to burn them with a hot poker or something. Child abusers aren't hot."
It's true they aren't. Maybe if he drowned puppies or left an elderly woman in a hot car in the sun? Elder and animal abuse also make someone unsexy.
Another friend wasn't even phased by Don's innuendo laced "bonus" to Allison (for those of you who aren't fans of the show, after the two of them got busy following the office party, Don gave her a Christmas card with two crisp fifties enclosed, $684.32 in today's dollars)? "She kind of asked for it, didn't she?"
That just shows how immune this man has made us to his wily indiscretions. He can do no wrong. But the women on the show do nothing to inspire our sympathies either. Did his secretary push him away? Did she say, no thank you for this sex drunk boss? No she did not.
Has Betty Draper ever done anything to make the audience feel sorry for her? She is such a cold fish, even I have cheered on Don's adulterous behavior with his children's school teacher.
Much of this can be laid to rest on the shoulders of creator and writer Matthew Weiner, who has made Draper impermeable to women's disgust. There is also Jon Hamm's portrayal of Draper, and the fact that he is devastatingly handsome (and the fact that we know in real life Hamm is a good guy in a long-term committed relationship with girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt).
Then there's the age-old female desire to fix a flawed man and Don is just that, flawed, but not yet un-fixable and until he reaches that point I don't think I'll be able to stop my swooning.
Adina Porter: The Newsroom, True Blood and Motherhood
Who Should Play Christian & Anastasia In 'Fifty Shades Of Grey'?
Add a comment
To the author of the article, I hope you don't end up getting what you want, a man just like dear old Don. The smarmy charm and emotional abuse will eat you alive. On second thought, maybe you should experience it, it might be a teaching moment for you, if you survive it.
Reply
Oh, don't pick on Glen. Yes, he had a crush on Betty, but there was a sweet, off-kilter innocence to him. Betty was weird about the whole thing, though.
True, he's turned a bit devious lately (breaking into the Draper house and trashing it), but I liked him in season 1. He seemed like such a little lost soul.
All of the children on this program are perfectly cast, including those who appear in the "flashback" segments.
Reply
OMG skirlowind You caught me !!!! and to think i won the spelling bee in 6th grade !!
Reply
The show does give a bit of insight to the mentality of the early 1960's. Women were shapely, not like today when all the magazines, chat shows, and television speaks adoringly of those women who are a size 6 and now they are a size 0..... When a size "SIX" is considered plus size by model standards, that is when EATING DISORDERS BEGIN. OH I LOVE HOT MEN IN SUITS.
Reply
Thank you for pointing that out! Fun article, but it WAS IN THE 60's!!! 'Point taken' and keep it up. Our favorite show, obviously.
Reply
Is nothing taken tongue in cheek anymore? Wow, lighten up people..if someone isn't correcting every dot or spelling, they are critizing the show.
I loved the article, it cracked me up. The show is popular because Don Draper make's most women swoon. He is a character with huge flaws and if you pay attention you see how many times he is confronted with his bad decisions by the repurcussions that happen to him. Last year's season finale was a perfect example of that and now the guy is having black-outs. geesh, btw, it started in the 50's and the 60's they are in are still reflective of the 50's. Easy to mistake.
Reply