Writing as I wait...

I am writing this while I wait for my PC to load whatever it is that it is loading as it loads itself. I am waiting to scan the sketch that I have been working on as I listened to one of the commentaries from the Mad Men disc. I like to listen to commentaries on dvds if I think the show is art of some sort. Creative processes are always of great interest to me. The Mad Men discs are unique in that each episode seems to have two commentaries done with different people involved in the show. The one I just listened to was done by two of the actresses and I think they had a unique perspective because they are women. The show takes place in 1960 in an incredibly sexist era. I see this as someone who came of age after the women's movement. Yes, I know that we still have a long way to go, but we have definitely come a long way, baby. I look at the character, Betty, who is the wife of the main character on the show and I see how she is basically treated like a child. When I watch her, I think "do something Betty, stop being so passive. Quit acting like a child." But she is a product of her times. I should not blame her. I didn't live through those times, so how can I be judging her as I am... I really do love this show. I was just discussing this with someone lately. It is often great when one is telling a story if they keep the story timeless, but sometimes the times are as much of a character as any of the people on the show. I think that is the case here. The time that this story takes place is absolutely essential and it is what makes the story unique. OK, enough said...

Now my drawing is all scanned. It was done from a photo of women from a different era (I'm thinking the 40's, but I could be wrong). Actually, in all fairness it is a photo of comtemperary women in costume, so they are doing alright, I think. I am thinking, if is the 40's, that that is 20 years before the story of Mad Men takes place. What was the role of these women in a society that I'm sure was way more sexist than the very sexist times of the early 60's?

And speaking of the 60's, here is what I could have looked like in 1966. You've gotta love those flips.