I'd say it's beyond her intellectual expectations, too. Not that I think Betty is stupid, but she doesn't do anything to challenge herself.

Yet at the same time, at one point (I think it was during the first season?) she was very defensive about her education and intellect, talking about how she'd gone to Bryn Mawr. She didn't want people seeing her just as some bubble-headed housewife.

talking about how she'd gone to Bryn Mawr.

You can go to school because you're encouraged to and you can even be interested in and good at what you're studying, but a self-actualized person will have a curiosity above and beyond their immediate surroundings. Betty doesn't. She may come into eventually and I think that's some of what we're being shown, but I think she's still got a hell of a long way to go and Don better be in it for the long haul.

I think you're underestimating Betty's sense of social privilege and entitlement. She doesn't want a job.

If that was aimed at me, I don't think she wants a job. I think she wants to lie on a beach eating bon bons all day. She doesn't want freedom to accomplish anything, she just wants freedom from anyone wanting anything from her.

I'd say she wants to be a trophy wife, but even that carries a bundle of unwelcome social expectations. She wants to be a trophy daughter.

And I think, in that way, she a Trudy are very much the same.

I'd say she wants to be a trophy wife, but even that carries a bundle of unwelcome social expectations. She wants to be a trophy daughter.

Mmmm, yes. I'd say that's about spot on.

If that was aimed at me

No - the comments just above.

She doesn't want freedom to accomplish anything, she just wants freedom from anyone wanting anything from her.

That's not how I'd characterize it. She really doesn't even know how to articulate to herself what she would want. I don't think she wants to eat bon bons at the beach, though. She's got a rigidity to her and sense of propriety that would demand more.

She wants a tiara and a Miss USA sash that she can wear to all the cotillions.

She wants to be a trophy daughter.

Which is why the loss of her father is hitting her so hard. She and Trudy are very similar in that way. [ETA: x-posty w/Sophia]

You can go to school because you're encouraged to and you can even be interested in and good at what you're studying, but a self-actualized person will have a curiosity above and beyond their immediate surroundings. Betty doesn't.

True, but Bryn Mawr, being a Seven Sisters school, was definitely considered a good school, but even more so, it was a status school. It was a school where you could get recognition for acquiring both a good degree and a good husband. And I think Betty relies on that as example that she's not stupid. Betty, like so many beautiful women, relies on external examples for validation.

That's not how I'd characterize it. She really doesn't even know how to articulate to herself what she would want.

Peggy is really the only woman who can articulate what wants, I think, which was shown in her scene with Pete about the baby (she doesn't want that, she wants more)

Betty could, for a while, say that she doesn't want what she has, but doesn't know what she wants.

Bobbi Barret thinks she has power, but is all about using her feminine wiles to be the power behind the man, instead of the power.

Joan could have something more, and sort of has a niggling feeling that something isn't right, but clings to needing a husband.

Trudy wants a baby, but doesn't even seem taken aback and Pete saying he doean't love her.

And young secretary girl writes poetry and feels Roger makes her older and wiser, and they are two old souls, but he doesn't want that.

And Don actually goes for the more self-actualized Rachel, Anna, Greenich village hippy girl.

Greenich village hippy girl.

Excuse me! She's a beatnik. Midge.