Matthew Weiner on Tomorrowland: [link]

On Betty:

Why does it seem like there are no good mothers on Mad Men? Wow, that’s kind of harsh. The question of Betty Draper’s motherhood is very peculiar to me. Because we were all raised by women like this. And I know it’s easy to hate her and think she seems childish and impulsive. We’re all here because of women like that.

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Yeah, hmm. I think MW has to defend JJones but that she isn't a good enough actress to give the character more than one note. Look at how uniformly awful she was on SNL, where other actors are terrific with the similar kind of sketches. This is going back a ways, but Gwyneth Paltrow -- some of the skits she was in were really dumb, esp. after Weekend News, as per usual, but she was terrific in all of them.

Somewhere else, MW says that none of the criticism would be lobbed at JJ if she wasn't beautiful. Sure that's true, people are affected by looks all the time. (Left field example: Aside from distaste for Scn., public sentiment turned against Tom Cruise when he got his braces off, which was around couch-jumping time. He literally does not look like the TC that everyone know from earlier movies and it's so subtle, most people don't notice it.) But back to JJ, I think she getting too much benefit of the doubt for her looks.

Because we were all raised by women like this

No we weren't. My mother isn't like this and neither was her mother, or my great-grandmother. My father's mother wasn't like this either. It is a straight up WASP justification. Not only is he going for this faux universal we, but he is also besmirching the millions of WASP mothers in the 1960s who weren't completely dysfunctional and fucked up.

Even Betty's friends (when we have had a peek at them) weren't this out there.

Weiner has to come to terms with the fact that Betty is so fucking unlikeable that she nearly can't be redeemed at this point.

I think my Mom really hated being a housewife/mother, but didn't have any cultural support for being anything but that. Had my dad lived until my brothers were in school, she could have gotten at least a part-time job and been happier I think.

(Does anybody know if Weiner is Jewish? Just because he may be portraying more of his ideal of the unhappy WASP woman of that era... not that Jewish women weren't also subject to cultural expections.)

No we weren't. My mother isn't like this and neither was her mother, or my great-grandmother. My father's mother wasn't like this either. It is a straight up WASP justification. Not only is he going for this faux universal we, but he is also besmirching the millions of WASP mothers in the 1960s who weren't completely dysfunctional and fucked up.

This this this this this.

At some point I do want to have a conversation with my mom about this, because she's Sally's age and grew up in a white middle-class household (Jewish, so not WASPy, but still relatively privileged) and by all accounts my grandmother is much better at being a granny than she ever was at being a mom. But to say "all women" is some pretty heady projection on Weiner's part.

(Does anybody know if Weiner is Jewish? Just because he may be portraying more of his ideal of the unhappy WASP woman of that era... not that Jewish women weren't also subject to cultural expections.)

I was going to say. He's actually my friend's cousin.

Not that that excuses his statement. Which I don't really understand.

I think Betty is somehow his blind spot-- his universal paper doll to represent the majority of women of that era-- the cool Grace Kelly ice princess who's going to be left behind as the decade progresses.

Which I find so curious, given that he's given almost every other major character and a large majority of the minor character depth and nuance-- or at least facets, outside of perhaps Roger.

It's like, given his ability and his history with the characters, I keep waiting for something to happen with Betty and yet, nothing, other than she becomes more despicable and shrill.

Barb - yes. I also keep waiting for Betty to have some sort of lightbulb moment and realize that she needs to figure out how to be herself before she can be happy but it just keeps not happening.

Barb - yes. I also keep waiting for Betty to have some sort of lightbulb moment and realize that she needs to figure out how to be herself before she can be happy but it just keeps not happening.

It's not even a lightbulb moment-- I'm waiting for her to completely and utterly lose it as well. She's like a beautiful vase with all these little fissures and hairline cracks and even a substantial one or two that she's managed to patch back together so she can continue to be useful, but she hasn't completely and utterly shattered yet. She hasn't hit that point of no return. Even Don's hit further bottom than she has, because she's always found a safety net. Let's face it, she would never have divorced Don had Henry not been right there. But now, she's at that point where to divorce a second man and remarry for a third time and she's not even in her mid-thirties, would really go against the grain for a woman of that era. She would either have to move away and completely start over, lying about her past (ironic, given Don's background) or she just has to figure out how to live with the situation she herself has created. And I think in living with the situation, she might completely break.

I hold out great hope for Dr. Edna to help her.

She has all the wherewithal to be a brilliant politician's wife, to find real meaning and purpose helping run all those fundraising campaigns and parties.

By our standards, Betty's options may be brutally limited, but she's still got options that could bring her real fulfillment, and she's not willing to go after them. No wonder I'm so frustrated by this character.

Betty's biggest problem is she doesn't know what she wants. She knows what she's supposed to want and she's twice tried to get it and twice wound up with it being supremely unsatisfying. The one thing she's had any control over has been her children and she's rapidly losing that and trying her damnedest to keep it through fear and intimidation which is already starting to lose some of its potency and is going to get that much worse when Megan becomes a more permanent fixture in the kids' lives. I know some people doubt if Don will make it to the altar, but he truly loves his kids and he loves who he can be with them when Megan's in the picture, so for that alone, I think he'll go through with marriage. It might wind up being his Achilles heel.