Mad Men: Joan and Rachel

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Now for Joan and Rachel. After this, I have two more sets of character comments I want to write up, one on Don Draper and one on Betty (who has grown absolutely fascinating).

Joan Holloway

I have not yet decided how I feel about Joan; I don't know enough about her motivations and her background to form real opinions yet. What I do have is a laundry-list of facts about Joan of which I am fairly confident:

• Joan is more conscious of her exercise of power than any other person in this show with the possible (possible!) exceptions of Don Draper and what's-his-name Cooper. Certainly she expresses her enjoyment of her power more than anyone else on the show. I assume, given her interest in and awareness of the structure of power, that she has ambitions beyond being office queen bee, but I have no idea what those ambitions might be.
  
  
• In terms of social intelligence, Joan is a genius. Joan is also more conscious of her social and cultural environment except, again, with the possible exception of Don Draper (although he also gives us some truly remarkable displays of idiocy) or Rachel Menken (RACHEL!).
  
  
• Crossing Joan would be a very, very stupid thing to do.
  
  
• To Joan, sex is a tool. Joan sleeps with Roger Sterling not because she gives a fig about him (she doesn't, smart woman her) or for the physical pleasure she derives from it (although I imagine she does manage to derive some), but because sex is power.
  
  
• Joan has no use for sincerity or transparency. I've yet to hear her express a single sentiment she actually meant. She is opaque.

From the beginning, Christina Hendricks's performance of Joan reminded me of someone, but it took me a while to figure who: Darla. The knowingness, the mincing smiles, the faux-coyness and even the dangerous little-girl voice is all Darla. I suspect this will go on being an apt comparison.

Rachel Menken

I have no confusion in my opinion of Rachel: I've loved her from her very first scene, and am thrilled that she seems to be an ongoing character. I love her directness, her sense of humor and irony, and her awareness of self and society.

In fact, she makes a really interesting contrast with Joan. They are the two women – two people, really - in the show who see most clearly how the gendered construction of power in their culture affects their own lives. However, where Joan functions in this environment by using her gender, Rachel functions despite her gender. She sees her supposed limitations and acts in spite of them.

I am unsure what I think about hints that Rachel may start an affair with Don. Mostly I'm disgusted with her for not having better taste than to have an affair with Don of all people. It's not as though she doesn't know that he's a racist, misogynistic, unfaithful boor.

As an aside, I find it really interesting that the main social issue the show has so far consistently addressed that's unrelated to gender issues is the question of anti-Semitism. From the first episode we've been highlighting our characters' bigotry against and ignorance of people of Jewish descent. I'm so used to stories set in this era focusing on racism against African-Americans that this different aspect of racism has a certain, um, novelty value. I would suppose that people of the class we're dealing with here would have much more reason to interact with the Jewish community than the African-American community?

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