Maddening Men

Mad Men is a bundle of complicated, self-conscious contradictions. What really draws in viewers, more so than the cute clothes, the clever dialogue, the top-notch filming and editing, the sex appeal, or the humor, is this paradoxical representation of the 50’s in our contemporary time. Strauss and Howe say that millennials are a more intelligent, knowledgeable group. We’ve concluded in class that we know how the game works, and therefore appreciate complexity, honesty, irony, and inventiveness. Mad Men brings all this to the table, along with bloody marys.

The pilot’s issue on how to continue marketing cigarettes in the growing fear of cancer perfectly illustrates my point. As millennial viewers, we know the history of the cigarette and tobacco industries, and the truth that smoking is addictive and often fatal. I think the percentage of smokers in our generation has actually decreased since our parents. Watching this episode, I laughed at a lot of the dialogue, like, “I’m not selling guns, I’m selling tobacco!” The characters aren’t trying to be funny; they’re trying to be dramatic. But the lines serve as black humor for the viewers, who know retrospectively just how silly and wrong some of these opinions are. I’m pretty sure tobacco kills more people each year than guns do in the US.

Gender roles also add much to the black humor in the show. The women clearly exist on a lower social rung than the men, who get to make sexual comments and moves on the women who work for them. The business men cheat on their wives and the doctor reprimands the women he gives contraceptives to, for having loose morals. Even the women subject themselves to this sexual harassment within their own gender, judging each other by how thin their ankles are and the sweaters they wear. These sex and gender comments made me laugh to, but more in an “I can’t believe they just said that” way. Here, again, Mad Men grabs the viewer through shocking contradiction, showing us just how bold and sexist their characters behave in such a backwards time.

Then again, I wonder how contemporary men respond to the gender roles – do they see the same complexities I, a millennial girl, does? Or do they just respond, “yeah, man, get some!” After Tyler’s presentation yesterday where he tried to prove that the song “Violate that Bitch” by Lil B pushes gender norms, I’m guessing the latter is more likely.

Paperjam!

If you're like me or I'm like all of you, we've got so much to do before finals week. Papers, check. Last-minute meetings and interviews, uh huh. Still figuring the summer out, oh yeah. More papers, yep. Declaring a minor and thinking about the year after graduation and choir concerts and more papers and storage and more papers? AHHH! On top of that the weather's nice.

I don't have time to take pretty, kick ass pictures. I hardly have time to shower these days. But here are a few links, some of them useful, some of them fun, some of them totally bizarre, that may or may not get you through this last week of school.

http://oed.com/ Maybe the British are know-it-alls, but our english comes from their Chaucer and Milton, so you gotta give it to them for the OED. Rule of thumb: Don't use a word in an academic paper that doesn't exist in the OED. Break this rule occasionally, in an ironic, thoughtful way. Site this source - teachers will love you.

http://foodporndaily.com/ Click. Drool. Repeat. What a great slogan. And since their are no recipes (that I'm aware of), you can't get too distracted.

 http://www.tastespotting.com/search/grilled+cheese/1 TasteSpotting on the other hand has tons of recipes, since every picture leads to a different food blog. Let this page full of grilled-cheeses inspire you in Proctor Dining Hall. My suggestion is to branch out from the official panini bar. Get thick rye bread from the soup station, thin apples slices from the fruit bowls, cheddar and swiss mix, a little cinnamon from the teas...

http://wordreference.com/ Tu cherches un mot, cheri? Voici, la solution!

http://fuckyeahcutehair.tumblr.com/page/1 If you're one of those people who can't get work done unless you feel cute and done-up, (hey, don't tease), but your mind's too fried to think about hair right now, check out these pictures for inspiration.

http://www.lilycat.net/taurus.html Everything you've ever wanted to know about yourself from your horoscope. Trust me, this is the real deal. Even my ailments were correct. Makes you wonder if the planets really do affect your birth.

http://niccageaseveryone.blogspot.com/ There are no words for this.