Why I'm Not Watching "Mad Men"

I know that some of you are huge fans of the relatively new show "Mad Men." Please forgive me.

I will freely admit that I was prejudiced going in. We got the disks from Netflix, I suppose because Dear Husband put them on the list.

I agreed to watch an episode or two. But I did not have a particularly open mind. I had somehow gotten the impression that "Mad Men" glamorized the early 60s, including the gender roles that were prevalent at the time. It seemed like it must be a symptom of backlash to feminism. (Such things do abound, after all.)

But once we were actually watching, once I had let go of my pre-conceived notions, I realized that the problem was different and more complex than that.

One could argue that the set and costume design does contribute to a certain amount of glamorization. But the writing? The actual experience of the gender roles and the interaction between sexes? I didn't find it romanticized at all.

I found it to be what I can only assume is painfully accurate. I wasn't alive in 1960, and I wasn't working as a secretary in an advertising agency. And I thank God for that. I couldn't take it. I couldn't even take watching it.

So I have decided that I do not have a moral problem with the show, because I don't believe they are glamorizing screwed-up systems of inequality. In fact, you could perhaps argue that they are exposing them.

But I can't watch it. It feels suffocating to me, and I don't enjoy being suffocated. For those who can stand it, and I understand it may get better further into the show, go for it. But I am choosing not to watch.