Riffing off Digby's post today, I was also a bit late to get on the Mad Men bandwagon---I'm not sure why; maybe I just didn't want to relive some of the more unsavory episodes of my childhood---but it got me to thinking about the era's sexist stereotypings, which, as Digby notes were pretty much the societal norm when we were kids, and from which we'd thought our generation had managed to liberate itself as we grew into adulthood and celebrated the freedoms afforded us---for both women and men!---by the philosophy of personal empowerment that lay at the foundation of the feminist canon. Fast forward forty-odd years to sclerotic middle age, and lo and behold, you're reminded once again that the struggle for women's rights---as with all struggles for human rights and human dignity---is one that is never truly "won", at least in the permanent sense. Because even if you do win in the court of public opinion, there will always be people in positions of power on the other side of the argument who will see your hard-won rights as a threat to their privilege, who will simply refuse to accept the legitimacy of your social mandate, and who will work their money and political connections to undo all the progress you've made, even if it takes them a generation or more. The politics of race, class and gender resentment have been with us, really, since the founding of the Republic, and as we've all been reminded in recent weeks, they're not going to retreat meekly into the authoritarian fever-swamp from whence they were originally conjured. They did give us some pretty swingin' music in their heyday, though.
---Vitelius
That was great! Gorgeous and sleezy all in one!
Posted by: Rexella | March 30, 2012 at 10:15 PM