It may be Peggy, even more than Don, who is the ultimate example of the cost of upward mobility to which Matt Weiner alludes.
What we learned at the end of The Wheel is that Peggy may be willing to give up her own child in order to succeed in business without really trying. Isn’t that, finally, the nature of corporate life?
Peggy sees a world where people “want what they haven’t seen;” and she wants it to. She is being rewarded for intelligence and creativity in a way she never imagined, that is virtually unimaginable for a working-class woman in that era. And she wants that reward. She doesn’t understand it, she underestimates its financial value, she hasn’t seen it; but she wants it.
When Peggy arrived at Sterling Cooper, she just wanted to do well in a secretarial job. She didn’t understand what was expected of her, but she was determined to perform. I suspect that the sexuality was nothing more than performance; she slept with Pete, made a move for Don, only because it seemed like it was part of the job description. She had no desire for herself, only ambition.
But then Belle Jolie happened, and Peggy became a writer. She was celebrated. She was rewarded. And that was, finally, something she wanted for herself. As badly as Pete hurt her, success was way better than Pete.
So now that she has this thing she hasn’t seen, will she sacrifice it for love and motherhood? I don’t think so. I think that’s “Brooklyn” to her, and she’s set on her “Manhattan” path. Isn’t this exactly what Weiner meant by the cost of upward mobility? Isn’t this exactly the dark side of the American Dream?
February 8, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I couldn’t disagree with this post more completely.
First of all, the stigma of unwed motherhood during this era is just unreal. I grew up in the 1970s in a small town and it was scandalous enough when three girls in my class got pregnant out of wedlock. Some of those girls were giving up their children for adoption, and they were not trying to support themselves, still being in high school.
The pressures on Peggy are just enormous. She would lose her job. Giving up her child is not a scramble for “upward mobility”, it is a desperate move to keep what little she has.
As far as her “promotion” to Jr. Copywriter, that gets her a whole $5 more per week; meanwhile, Pete makes $75 per week for drinking and Don has moved up to $45K. Don’t let it go to your head, Peggy!
Are we expecting her to raise a kid on that?
Finally, there was a very disturbing line at the beginning of “Indian Summer”.
During Peggy’s personal phone call with her mother, she says,”They’re threatening me?” Threatening her with what? for what? Is it possible that getting away from home is more than just bright-lights-big-city for Peggy?
February 8, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Paige, I think we basically agree, you’re just viewing it differently.
To Peggy, the $5 a week is wonderful, and she’s very proud of herself, and she has no idea that she’s being totally cheated. That’s what I meant by “underestimates its financial value.” She has desires for herself, and that $5 is reward for those desires. She has no idea what Pete makes, and even if she did, she’d probably accept the paradigm that men “deserve” more because they have wives to support.
Giving up her child is not a scramble for “upward mobility”, it is a desperate move to keep what little she has.
Secondly, I don’t mean “upward mobility” to sound shallow. It’s the American frickin dream! Not a small thing. That Peggy has dreams for herself makes her special.
You’re thinking of it in terms of her very limited financial means, and that’s totally valid, but I think the nurturance of her spirit, of her dreams, is even more important to her.
If she had ever thought about the stigma of single motherhood…well, she never did because she never admitted to herself that she was pregnant. Now that she can’t avoid the fact, she can either give up the child for adoption, stay home and be a financial burden on her family, or give her child to a relative to raise (a very common scenario; like Jack Nicholson).
Good catch on a possible dark home life for her.
February 8, 2008 at 8:34 pm
She didn’t understand what was expected of her, but she was determined to perform. I suspect that the sexuality was nothing more than performance; she slept with Pete, made a move for Don, only because it seemed like it was part of the job description. She had no desire for herself, only ambition.
I can’t tell if you agree with each other or not :- )
But Deb, upon re-reading, I think you’re right about the performance, except when it came to Pete. I think getting on the pill was because she was ’supposed’ to, same as offering herself to Don. But Pete? She was taking something just for her.
She’d just had a pretty intense day, and she was probably, though she had no way of identifying this, really super sexually charged up. When had she ever in her whole life (people aren’t like this in Brooklyn, right?) gotten this much blatant sexual attention, or given it. And a gyno appointment. Then scolded by her boss. Overwhelming! Need to get laid!
February 8, 2008 at 9:00 pm
I just want to say that there is a big difference between I-feel-uncomfortable-so-I-won’t-look-at-this denial and this-can’t-be-happening-it-would-ruin-my-life denial. Peggy’s denial about her pregnancy clearly belongs in the far more desperate latter category.
Peggy lives on thinner margins than a lot of the other characters. I would hardly call giving up her baby “succeeding in business without really trying.” She’s thrust into an impossible situation. Even if the child care or finances can all be finessed, the social stigma of being an unwed mother alone is enough to kill all her dreams.
Seriously, the liberal attitude toward sex at SterlingCooper would all fly out the window once the babies start poppin’ out. That’s why Dr. Emerson is there, to provide the birth control and the abortions and blow second-hand smoke in your face while he’s doing it.
February 8, 2008 at 9:31 pm
True that. I would cautiously add that one of Peggy’s refreshing character attributes is her almost innate non-conformity. While she sometimes hints at being bothered by he lack of acceptance around the office, she never second-guesses her motives or ambition. She charges ahead.
What kind of conversation would Peggy have with Helen Bishop? Soulmates?
February 8, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I don’t disagree with you about the stigma Paige. Or the desperation, really.
Dan, I don’t think Peggy wants to be a non-conformist, she just doesn’t have the knack of fitting in. She’s no Midge.
February 8, 2008 at 10:27 pm
But Deb, she is a more authentic non-conformist. She does not label herself as such. She is simply true to her values, even as they change, and as she starts to understand them. She goes from the girl who hands herself to her boss (not based on attraction, crazy thing), to one who resents being dessert, and she does it on her own. She realizes that Joan is not always right, and wrangles herself right. out. from under her wing.
Of course, in the Wheel, some of what she reveals in the audition is that she harbors feelings that in fact, the thin pretty girls do have it more together than she does. But that is the first time you see any seamline in that bubble of hers.
February 8, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Yes, she’s authentic. I should have said that (I meant to). But from the beginning I’ve felt that she just doesn’t know how to fit in, or why being herself doesn’t do the trick, and she wishes that it did. It all just eludes her. And yes, I identify with that, why do you ask?
February 8, 2008 at 10:53 pm
By the way, I LOVE these discussions. Interesting commenters make the whole blog thing worthwhile.
February 9, 2008 at 12:48 am
I had to go look up stuff.
Apparently, from 1950s to 1970s, the way that unwed mothers were treated by parents, social workers, healthcare providers, educators, and employers was far more Dickensian than anything that Peggy is depicted experiencing.
Check out “Baby Scoop Era” at Wikipedia.
Check out: Review-The Girls Who Went Away: A Moving Account of Women Who Gave Up Babies For Adoption.
recommended-non-fiction.suite101.com/article.cfm/reviewthe_girls_who_went_away-32k
A sympathetic nurse approaches Peggy and asks if she would like to hold the baby. The implication is that Peggy can have the child if she chooses to care for it.
That’s not the way it went down for the majority of women during this era. Unwed mothers were treated as if they were too mentally disturbed to raise their children. Contact with the child was minimal to nonexistent for fear of the mother bonding with it. Contact with the child’s father was prohibited and mail was restricted to prevent communication with the father. Mothers were pressured into signing surrender documents without informed consent, a lawyer present, and often under a drugged pre- or post-natal state. If the mother protested that she wanted to take care of her child, she was threatened with bearing the full cost of room and board at the maternity home, healthcare, and foster care costs. She got off scot-free if she just gave up the baby. Afterwards, she was warned by parents and social workers to say nothing ever about her experience when she was sent home.
Parents may have pressured their daughters into shame and silence, but they too were under intense scrutiny:
“Conformity was at a high and parents feared social isolation and even job loss if the news of a pregnant daughter got out.”
Black unwed mothers had more social and family support to keep their children, however, attempting to apply for aid meant having to endure being berated for being a burden to the state, plus threats of sterilization and incarceration for bearing more children out of wedlock.
I wish I could talk to the MM research staff about this.
February 9, 2008 at 11:30 am
Re: Peggy’s non-conformity … I didn’t mean to imply that it is calculated. Quite the opposite.
In the course of bettering her life (e.g. not staying in Brooklyn, getting wise to Joan, etc.), she is learning that the rest of the office (read: society) is not prepared to go with her. So be it.
It recalls the exchange in the kitchen with Joan when she is returning Joan’s red dress.
“Oh, I just realized. You were trying to be helpful.”
One of the best lines of the season, and truly intended for extrapolation, IMO.
February 9, 2008 at 11:37 am
Paige, I’m definitely aware of how birth mothers were treated. Unwed mothers were pressured into giving up babies for adoption (that’s still going on by the way, and is one of the motivations underlying some segments of the anti-abortion movement—the supply of adoptable white babies has largely dried up because attitudes have changed). Once you chose adoption, you were not allowed to even see, let alone hold, your baby.
But Peggy’s situation is different, as she walked into the hospital in labor and, as far as we know, has told the hospital nothing. She is refusing to communicate, so she might be married, or she might be unwed, but they kind of weren’t sure.
Plus, even in the most Dickensian world, there were always some compassionate people. It’s easy—a writer’s trick—to stick a sympathetic nurse in there. It shows us Peggy’s mental state whereas just whisking the baby away would not. But it’s not unrealistic to believe that there is such a thing as a compassionate nurse in 1960, even if the social mores made her (the nurse) discreet about her sympathies. After all, The Cider House Rules was set in the 1940s.
February 9, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Of course, it’s not difficult to imagine some people showing compassion to unwed mothers during the Baby Scoop Era; nor is it difficult to imagine some mothers being emotionally prepared to release their children to adoption. It’s just that 80% of mothers gave up their children during this period compared to 4% today.
Peggy “discovers” she is pregnant at the end of her pregnancy, so the whole maternity home ordeal isn’t in play. But that is the background for her deep psychological denial. Better to have the boys at the office laugh at you for being fat than throw you out of the office for being pregnant.
That, and I’m sure she doesn’t know anything more about her body than that little pamphlet Dr. Emerson gave her. This is way before Our Bodies, Ourselves.
We may indeed just be arguing about definitions. For me, Don represents the dark side of “upward mobility” because no amount of promotion will make him happier, more open, less alienated, or more authentic. For me, Peggy represents the dark side of capitalism–being part of that class that does most of the grunt work while living paycheck to paycheck, with no wiggle room for accidents to happen, because that would bring it all toppling down. Peggy and her steno crew have to provide the additional “labor” of being sexually available, even if it’s not part of the official job description, and then bear all the costs for fulfilling that part of their job. That’s Dickensian, baby.
February 9, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Paige, the more you write on this, the more interesting it gets. Especially the contrast between the white collar and blue/pink collar versions of ambition.
Peggy is oppressed by a system, but so was Don. Don was the bottom of the social and economic totem pole; despised even by the dirt poor farm folk he lived among. Whoreson. Peggy, of course, doesn’t know that, but she wants exactly what Don wants—a way out.
I’m sure Peggy doesn’t know anything about her body or, indeed, about pleasure; her first experience with the Relaxicisor and her tentative return to it at the end prove that. I’m sure the doctor didn’t tell her that the pill isn’t effective as b/c for the first month. I’m sure she believed whatever various myths she’d heard—douche afterwards, you can’t get pregnant if you do it standing up, whatever.
February 9, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Sure, Don was at the bottom. His way out was a total change of identity.
I think the lure for viewers for this era is more than just watching characters drink, smoke, and engage in bad behavior. This is an era in which heterosexuals have as many closets as LGBT folk, with consequences just as devastating as being outed as gay today.
So Don lives in the whoreson closet, Peggy in the unwed mother closet, there’s an implicit Jewish closet, and then we have our resident queers, Sal and Carol.
Bert Cooper doesn’t care about Don’s closetedness, but he’s a devotee of Ayn Rand.
February 9, 2008 at 10:03 pm
You know, since my class analysis, I’ve been thinking of changing my name to Max the Communist.
March 2, 2008 at 12:13 am
is it just me, or did anyone else get the feeling that pete seemed a little tooo disturbed coming home to his wife in the finale?..like he just got the worst news possible??..did anyone catch the scathing look on his face when the dad in law suggested being awake later??..(perhaps the last thing he wants to do now is make another baby??)…i know it would seem he’s upset about loosing the job he wanted to peggy, but maybe it could be more than that??..did he find out about the baby and we just didn’t see it??..the scene does take place right after it shows her being admitted to the hospital..anyone else get this from that scene??..
March 2, 2008 at 7:56 am
It’s just you :- )
First of all, Peggy didn’t take anything away from Pete. She was awarded the position of Junior Copywriter; Pete is a Junior Account Executive. These are different career tracks, like, cooking and table waiting.
And no way did Peggy call Pete. She wouldn’t look at or hold the baby. They had to call in Psych. She was in no condition to do something so decisive.
Pete is a raging brat. He shows it often, even more so when he drinks… remember his vicious words to Peggy when she danced her way over to him? He probably sat in his office, drinking fast, bitching to his boys who argued minimally with him (we know that at least Ken, but probably Paul as well, actually gets that Peggy has value as a writer).
I got the impression that Pete staggering in the door is something Trudy has been dealing with from time to time, only never with her parents there to witness it.
But no, I didn’t see anything revealing about his mood. He is just a contemptuous fuckwad.
March 2, 2008 at 10:36 am
I think “Basket of Kisses” is a much better name for the blog than “Just a Contemptuous Fuckwad.” But the latter does sort of sing to me.
March 2, 2008 at 10:51 am
I would think that with all the drinking going on in the office, a jr a/e going home smashed is a, perhaps, weekly occurance?
March 2, 2008 at 11:19 am
Oh yeah, easily at least once a week.
And what a great relationship frame… Trudy is covering up not only for his drunkenness, but for her tolerance of it.
But there is also a person’s character… my guess is that, before he wrecked it, Harry did not stumble home on a weekly basis. Not like that. Then again Harry actually values Jennifer. As like, a person.
I’m a little proud of Contemptuous Fuckwad; not gonna lie.