In the eye of the beholder

In this household we've been much enjoying the series Mad Men. It centres on a Madison Avenue advertising firm in the early 1960s, is in parts dramatic, in parts funny, and most of the time interesting fare of a Sunday evening. It does, however, feature attitudes that were common at the time, and sexist attitudes in particular. I have assumed the programme's standpoint towards these to be not supportive, but critical ones. By showing the male admens' attitudes and conduct towards the women they work with in an unvarnished way - so much so that there are times when I wonder if it could have been quite as gross as the programme-makers show it to have been - Mad Men lets you see the distance travelled between then and now. Lucy Matthews who writes to the Guardian about it today sees it differently. She's appalled by the pervasive misogyny in what she takes to be a 'faux 1960s nostalgia for simpler, more modest times'. There can be no objective proof in a matter like this, but I find it hard to believe that the intent behind the series is the one she ascribes to it.