Season 1 Episode 1-mad men

The first episode of Mad Men is placed in the 1960's and starts kind of slowly, getting to know the main character played by Jon Hamm. However you quickly realize that it is purposefully slow because Don Draper played by mr. Hamm is a slow and calculating guy testing out the room in order to get a feel for why people smoke. From there, the story quickly moves on to others of the cast including a new secretary for Don (Peggy), the woman that Don sleeps with which (Midge), the men he works with and at the end, it shows Don's wife and kids although we do not know them as of yet.

The episode itself weaves in and out of romance with gender role issues. In the beginning, the new secretary is getting shown around the office with a veteran to the business, a woman whom knows how to get her way with the men around the office. She tells Peggy about the things to do/not to do and tries to teach her how to act with the men the way they are. Meaning that the men throughout the episode treat women like an item that they own and can play with whenever they want, through the way that they talk and act with those around them. The middle of the episode shows Don trying to work out a complex advertising issue in which the tobacco company needs help creating a slogan. An up and coming exec, is right there with him vying for his position. As the episode ends, we are introduced to a Jewish business woman whom Don struggles to come to terms with due to the fact that she is a woman and he is not. The last scenes are an introductiong to Don's wife and kids.

A theme written into this episode would be that of power struggles, specifically in the area of gender roles/dominance. As this is a show based on the 1960's, this is no surprise to me because of history books we can understand that women in business or as the boss in a business was not a common or acceptable thing until the 1990's and even more so in the 2000's. In the 1960's however, women were still viewed as housewives or strictly secretaries in which men ruled over anything and everything except when it came to the day to day things with the kids. This is something that is shown in Don's work place in the first episode, where the secretaries and even the Jewish business woman was talked down to and slandered due to their social status in America at the time. We see that this plays out in Don's interaction with his wife briefly in how she seeks out his thoughts and feelings after him coming home.

Another theme noted throughout this episode were the liberties that were taken to remain blissfully unaware of certain realities. What I mean by this is that in the scene with Don, Salvatore and Greta (the research Dr.), we see Don throw away any research that the dr. had done in preperation for the meeting with the tobacco company lucky strikes in which Don had to create an ad for. The interaction showed a level of wanting to remain unaware yet strikingly in the know of what cigarrettes do to a person. Another scene to example this, was when Don was pitching a slogan to the tobacco company, his slogan was happiness in which the campaign would be to keep people happy and satisfied without the worries of death due to cancer (smoking).

Ultimately it would be safe to say that scripture denies these attitudes as for the first theme, the bible speaks to not letting gender roles get in the way of doing what God has called us to. Paul speaks about this in Acts 18:2 and 1 Cor. 16:19 if only by addressing priscilla before acquilla indicating the wife's importance to the christian church. It also speaks to the fact that despite male dominance in Roman history, at this point, Paul is saying to respect the women whom do a lot. Even Genesis speaks to this as although Adam was created first, Eve was created as an equal to Adam not as a servant as most would interpret. The bible also makes mention about remaining aware of the issues around us so that we are not tricked into believing things not of God. Acts 20:31 is Paul talking about being on guard against such people trying to tear apart the church, but he warns to remain awake and alert so as to fend off such attacks. I know that sound almost like i'm trying to pull something from nothing, but the attitudes in which we become unaware of different things such as in this episode, gender issues or health risks are the same in which I see as christians we become unattentive to the things of satan and those items start sneaking in and taking over how we think and feel.