Hi guys!!! It's been a while since you last wrote on our blog.
I've really enjoyed the first episode of Man Men! I have the feeling it's gonna be great!
This is what Brian wrote:
Here are a few questions I thought the students might reflect on, even
if they don't have time to write full responses to them this week.
1) Why do you think the show is set in the year 1960? In the USA, how
are the 1950's typically represented? In contrast, how do we usually
imagine the 1960's?
2) How would you describe the dynamic that we see between men and
women in the first episode? When their "parallel universes" cross, how
do they tend to interact? Have we seen any exceptions to the typical
roles and relationships between men and women?
3) We met many characters in episode one. Take a minute to reflect on
the different personalities. Which is your favorite so far? Which is
your least favorite?
I've really enjoyed the first episode of Man Men! I have the feeling it's gonna be great!
This is what Brian wrote:
Here are a few questions I thought the students might reflect on, even
if they don't have time to write full responses to them this week.
1) Why do you think the show is set in the year 1960? In the USA, how
are the 1950's typically represented? In contrast, how do we usually
imagine the 1960's?
2) How would you describe the dynamic that we see between men and
women in the first episode? When their "parallel universes" cross, how
do they tend to interact? Have we seen any exceptions to the typical
roles and relationships between men and women?
3) We met many characters in episode one. Take a minute to reflect on
the different personalities. Which is your favorite so far? Which is
your least favorite?
Hi mates! How are you doing?
ResponderEliminarI’ve chosen question number three so here there is my comment about it:
In my opinion, Peggy is my favorite character up to here because I have the impression that she is the kind of woman that may have the strength enough to change some things she dislikes in the office, such as the fact that men only see her as a doll. Besides, even though she is “the new girl” and she lacks experience in the business world, she is ready to learn how things work. She wants to climb the career ladder because she is very ambitious and smart. On the contrary, I guess she doesn’t want to be like the rest of the girls in the office and that is why she doesn’t cry in front of the mirror, for example, as we saw last class.
On the other hand, my least favorite character is Don because though he is very intelligent, creative and good at solving problems in his work, he is a womanizer. He has a beautiful wife and wonderful kids, but he lies to them. He is practical because he says love doesn’t exist and he is also a sexist person because he considers women weaker and less important than men. That is why he thinks women aren’t capable of doing good business.
Well, this is it! I’m looking forward to watching the next episode because it is getting really interesting!
Hugs
Hello everybody! I´ve decided to choose question number two, which asks for the dynamic of both, men and women.
ResponderEliminarIn the first hand, the relationship between women seems to be cold, distant and competitive. Each of them worries about her own well-being, they don´t pay attention to other women´s problems and they even tend to ignore them. A clear example of this is when Joe and Peggy go to the bathroom and a woman is crying alone in front of the mirror; at that moment Peggy wants to help her, but Joe says something like: “Let her, it doesn´t matter.” It is very sad, because this used to happen in the 60´s when society didn´t value women´s rights, so they, women, should have helped each other rather than ignore.
On the other hand, men´s dynamic is closer than women´s. Even though they are competitive because they wish to climb the career ladder (as Flori said ja), it is seen in many episodes that they meet together, they talk and they laugh; so they seem to have a more friendly relationship.
As far as men and women are concerned, as we have talked in class, men didn´t care about women´s rights, they see them as ignorant and avoid giving them power; most of them see women as a doll to play with. So, as women feel diminutive, they do anything to form part of the business; for instance, when Peggy thinks that sleeping with Don is a good way to give back a favor. In this way, women are more dependent and men continue having women in the palm of their hands.
Well, that´s all people… see you!
Hi! How are you doing? I’m really enjoying the blog. The topics we deal with are very interesting and this chance we have to share opinions and thoughts is great. Well, here are my answers concerning “Mad Men”.
ResponderEliminarAt first, I thought we had to answer to all the questions, so this is what I think about them.
I think the show is set in the 60’s because it was a decade in which a great deal of changes occurred. We can take sexism, feminism and smoking as examples. As we can see, the show covers these themes and many others such as infidelity and advertising that was pretty new in that decade.
When I think about the 1950’s in the USA, the “perfect family” comes to my mind, I mean, the father, the mother and two children. Yes, I know in the 60’s it was the same, but I consider this family constitution more typical from the 50’s. Besides, I reckon there must have been a great post-war depression and women had to return to “their place” in the house, the kitchen (we know women worked in the factories because men were at war, so they were needed). There was a baby-boom, this means that a huge amount of babies were born during that decade.
In contrast, taking into account the 60’s, I think about “girl power”. With “girl power” I mean the importance women had in this decade. We can take the book “The Feminine Mystique” as an example. Women started to fight for their real place in a chauvinist society. Apart from this fact, there were changes in fashion, entertainment and culture. We can think of a culture represented by young people dressing differently, expressing themselves and having sex freely; mostly at the end of the decade.
There is something interesting I found that has to do both with the show and the 60’s. 1964: This was the first year the cigarette boxes had a warning printed on it "Smoking can be hazardous to your health". It had not occurred to the US government to give the warning that smoking lead to cancer and lung problems.
Concerning question 2, I think exactly as Luz. I would like to add that besides talking and laughing, men are drinking and smoking all the time! When they are together they never talk about their family, wife or children. And in the first episode we have seen an exception to the typical role of women. In one scene, Don met Rachel and he expected her to be a man. Why couldn’t men accept that women were (and still we ARE) smart? Maybe because they thought (and some still think) that this could affect their pride.
This is my opinion about question 3. So far, my favorite character is Rachel Menken because she represents a change in female’s role. Girl power!! And on the other hand, my least favorite is Peter Campbell because he is disrespectful and doesn’t care about hurting a woman. But above all, he’s a womanizer, as the majority of the men of the show.
Well, that’s all for now! See you in class guys!
Hello mates, how are you doing so far??It has been a long time since our last post on our blog!
ResponderEliminarI chose question number three to discuss.My favourite character(as I saw in episode 1) is Rachel Menken.I could see that she is smart,independent and also very confident in her work(she is a businesswoman).What I like most of her is her personality and besides the qualities she has,they are opposed to the traditional belief most people have of women:as dependent,naive,not intelligent and not able to do business.In my opinion,she represents the strong side that women have.
My least favourite character is Salvatore.My guess is that he doesn´t fit with the rest of the characters because he is not american and his sexual inclinations are not defined.As the other men,he smokes and drinks and talks about women in an unfair way,as if he would like to hurt their feelings.
Well,this is all for today!hugs!
Hi guys! lET'S SHARE OUR COMMENTS AGAIN. Well, after reading the three questions I've made up my mind. I would like to expand my ideas on Peggy's personality.
ResponderEliminarI really like her character since she is the "new girl" in the company who is really thrilled with her new job in Mannhattan since she's never worked in that borough. Although she's really proud of herself for getting that job, she has to put up with the sexual harassment she receives from the men who are working in that company. That's really akward for her.
Another important characteristic that calls my attention is the fact that she wants to show the others that she is not as weak as the other women who were crying in the ladies room. She knows that she has to endure this so as to become successful in doing her job. Also, this is the only way she has to start climbing the career ladder.
Conversely, my least favorite character is Peter Campbell. Since she used Peggy to have fun the night before getting married. He's a disgusting man. She doesn't care about Peggy's feelings. He just want to "play" and then throw her away.
That's all folks
See ya ;)
Hello everybody!!! How are you? Well, I have decided to answer question number three. Considering my favorite character, it is a female one. She is Peggy. Why? Because she seems to be an innocent as well as a shy woman. As she is new in her job, Peggy shows interest in learning about this new activity and she is all the time trying to do it in the right way. Moreover, as she has no experience in the business world she wants to know more about it. As time goes on, she shows a little change concerning men. At the very beginning, she seems to feel shy in front of them. But then, Peggy seems to be not so naive and innocent as before.
ResponderEliminarTaking into account my least favorite character it is a man. He is Pete. I don´t like him since he is a womanizer. To add, he is an unfaithful as well as an ambitious boy. What is more, he seems to pay more attention to women´s appearance rather than to personality. From my point of view, Pete and the majority of men in “Mad Men” see women only as a toy. What is important to consider, is the idea that they only want to play with them.
See you soon!!! Luci...