The Joan Dilemma

Mad Men has really challenged us this season.  The technicolor tones are bleaching into sepia and the comfortable stereotypes are being turned upside down if not blown entirely.  In particular, the character of sexy vamp Joan is really throwing us for a loop.  The moral ambiguity involved with the decision to pimp her out for the good of the business is both shocking and fascinating.  

Fascinating both on the part of each male character involved and most powerfully on her part.  It was ultimately her decision.  Was she bullied into it by chauvinistic pigs?  Absolutely not.  However, each one of the characters severely compromised their integrity and frankly self esteem as a result.

Don Draper was the only one who absolutely refused to go along with it.  Joan on the other hand.  Well this business and and these men mean something to her.  The very fact that the offer was put on the table changed everything.  It made her realize how very little she is valued as a person and she rightly or wrongly decided to make the best of it.  She is now a single mother after all.  Why not make them pay very dearly for the deal.  Would she have ever become a partner otherwise?  Again, absolutely not.

Is it wrong to use all of your assets to get ahead?  Honestly if there is no possible way to get away from objectification, why not use it?  This is something Joan has always understood.  She would never frump herself down to be taken seriously.  With that body how could she really?  So in fact, she has perfected the art of intimidating men with her powerful feminine energy.

 

None of this changes however how very competent she is at her work.  She threw her hat in with this bunch and this business just as much as the rest.  She could have very comfortably stayed with the old company.  The success of this new business is just as important to her.  Would this motley crew have transitioned into their own business so smoothly without her intelligence and extremely efficient administrative skills?  There is no question, Joan knows how to run an office.  The company needs her for these important management skills, not her ass.

        
She is essentially their Chief Operating Officer and 100% deserves to be a partner.  How very sad that it came down to selling that ass for this to come to pass.

For all of them really.  Because when it comes down to it, each one of them genuinely likes her.  Joan can hang with the boys and they don't have to be someone they're not with her.  She knows the score, sees right through their facades, and doesn't judge them for it.  They know that and love her for it.

She will obviously have to deal with her own part in this but she had the wherewithal to use it to her advantage both for herself and her child.  She had the chance here to ensure financial stability after realizing she wasn't cut out for that particular consumption of shit required to remain married to a selfish bastard.  She had learned the hard way by this point that a traditional wife and mother she is not.

So can we blame her really for this choice?  How will this manifest going forward with these male co-workers?  Will the partners now forever see her as their sexual plaything?

Or will they grant her the same favor of not judging her and value her very material contribution to the success of the company?  After all, they all have experienced a little bit of that bitter taste of prostituting themselves out for the job on some level.  They can't help but respect how she parlayed this dilemma into her own success.

It is just business after all.