The Beauty Myth vs. Madmen

Note: Sorry for the radio silence, I recently went away on a vacation, and didn't have access to the internet. All the following posts were typed on word documents throughout the trip. They were not uploaded until today because I had problems with Blogger.

This is part of a series on comparisons between the show Madmen and Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth.
I recently watched the first season of Madmen at my brothers recommendation, and for those of you who don't know, Madmen is an AMC TV series about 1960's ad executives on Madison Avenue. It paints a very interesting picture of the life for the wealthy in New York City in the 60's, and I think can open our eyes to some interesting aspects of the beauty myth.
At the beginning of the 1950's, women were supposed to be the homemaker, according to Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth. Wolf writes that the ideal self was the self that "aspires to be a good wife, a good mother, and an efficient homemaker" (66).  Before Vogue's Nude Look came into power, this was what was expected of women.
This is evident in Madmen, as Betty Draper, the lead's wife, does very little other than ride horses, raise children and cook for her husband, who often doesn't even come home for dinner. This is all going on, while Don goes into the city, goes to strip clubs and cheats on his wife. Indeed, these double standards are huge, as it is not seen as strange that Don is doing this just because most people are.
Another form of the myth taking place is in Peter Campbell's marriage. In the first episode it is revealed that he is going to marry a woman who he has never met. This lack of closeness in the relationship demonstrates that men were not generally interested in women's personalities but merely wanted a wife to take care of them. To further this, he cheats on her directly before and quickly after the wedding, with Peggy Olson, another worker in the office that he knows.
A further example of the Laissez faire treatment of women comes in the form of Roger Sterling. The generally misogynistic boss, who confides in Don to "remember, whenever god closes a door, he opens a dress". This idea that women were merely faceless opportunities to take a run at is followed by most members of the cast. When Roger declares his ever-lasting love for Joan Halloway, the office manager, she, acknowledging the treatment of women says "Just wait, I hear the 61's are almost in." By referring to women as a car to be bought and exchanged for a newer model every year, I believe that Joan demonstrates the feelings of many different people in the early 1960's.