If you haven't seen last Sunday's episode, I'm not going to spoil it for you. It was the first Mad Men episode I'd seen in a long time, and I remember thinking through most of the episode "Man, Don Draper is kind of a douche." But here's the thing. I think that's the appeal of Don Draper.
There's been a phenomenon that I've observed recently. I'm going to call it the Rise of the Man Child. I think everyone's encountered one. They're portrayed in films such as Knocked Up as being kind of heroes. I think Judd Apatow has pretty much made a career off this genre. I mean who wouldn't want to be these guys? They get to sit around all day, smoke pot, play video games, and they always end up somehow getting a girl that's way too hot for them. And she is totally into them.
Sounds like the life, right? Being in a state of perpetual adolescence means you get to cleverly avoid all the responsibilities of going to college, graduating, getting a job, and contributing anything to society. You can be a twenty-four-year old male with a weird obsession with My Little Pony and this is considered normal...ish, anyway. Want to stay up until four in the morning playing video games with your bros? Go right ahead! Keep count of how many beers you can shotgun while you're at it. That's really appealing.
So I got to thinking about Don Draper, and I remembered reading an article that named him the most influential man of 2009. Don Draper is a hugely flawed character-- he's a chain-smoking, overworked, alcoholic who is constantly cheating on his wife. A lot of times on the show, he comes across as being (technical term here) "kind of a douche."
Yet so many men out there want to be him.
Why? And why do so many women want him?
I'm a dyed-in-the-wool feminist, and I will freely admit that I find the Don Draper character pretty damn appealing. And I will tell you why:
Don Draper is a man.
I understand the appeal of wanting a man who will share his feelings with you. I do. And there is a lot to be said about emotional openness in a relationship. Yes, Don Draper is an island that is totally sealed off. But he is in control. He ACTS like a man. He's not obsessed with comic books. He doesn't piss time away on stupid shit. Don Draper exists to contrast the Man Child.
My friend Rich summed it up pretty well. "Men want to act like boys, then get mad when women don't treat them like men."
And this PostSecret makes a good point too:
Or it could be that Don Draper proves there is more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. It's being that, and rich.
ReplyDeleteThat, and I think another aspect to him is Power. With the capital P. Draper knows what he wants, and more importantly, he's not afraid to take it. It's something we wish we all could do, but can't, be it for morality or laziness or whatever. He's a grown-up, "civilized" power fantasy. Like Patrick Bateman without all the wanton murder.