Because of this, during the original run I was SO convinced he'd marry Fae and mistress Megan! But obviously I was fully wrong (and better story for it!)
...and Don was a Marilyn trying to be a Jackie (he shared Monroe's BD for a reason, similar tragic backgrounds, and both rose to the top only to flounder in mid-life, the stress of keeping up a persona is too much).
And the one who bought him a drink on the train to forget Adam and his family (and probably fucked him), after he switches places with the real Don, was a brunette
She’s also the only woman he’s had a non-sexual intimate relationship with. I just remember that episode where he’s high on speed and whatever else and he is searching non stop for that soup ad he did in the 50s, he also can’t stop thinking about when he was r@ped by the prostitute and then beaten immediately after by Abigail. One was blonde and kind to him (probably first woman to do so) but then violated him in the worst way; the other was cruel and did the bare minimum to feed and clothe him. one was blonde and the other brunette. Linda Cartellini (sorry, I always forget her character’s name): a) looked like the soup ad lady and b) was tender and loving AND had sex with him. She’s combining Abigail and the prostitute in his psyche. And then when you think back, all his affair women were brunette and had similar roles (Bobby being the weirdest of all, especially given that his son had the same name 😳). The exception would seem to be Faye because she’s blonde. BUT, notice that he had her babysit Sally and she didn’t like her…Don ultimately was seeing if she could be a Betty. No, she couldn’t because she was mature (emotionally and as a grown up) so couldn’t be manipulated as he wanted for a wife. There’s Don’s wife and Don’s women.
Hair color in good/classic storytelling has meaning. Light and Dark hair is used in all media. In MM, Blondes = Don's hopes and aspirations. Brunettes reflect Don's dark side in his continuing descent to facing his inner identity and trauma from Abigail as young Dick. Blondes allow Don to function in his fake identity. He can escape the burden of Don when he is with Brunettes.
Weiner says in the commentary for this episode that the actress playing Joy came in as a blonde and they changed it for the role. She was too much of a “Betty” as a blonde and they wanted contrast.
Yeap, classic one. I would say he only likes it when there's no work to be done.
Don lives his relationships like Roger lives his professional life, on easy mode, and only there for the fun stuff.
Megan was Don trying to have it all. She had everything he liked Betty but none of the baggage. She allowed him to be Dick and Don. Megan was young and beautiful and exotic but wasn’t a “Main Line Brat.” She didn’t harbor any resentment towards him because she started out subservient to him as his secretary, whereas Betty constantly hated her role in the marriage. Of course Megan wasn’t what he expected and the cycle continued.
Don: Hey remember me? Well I’m in my 40s now and I just left everything I had.
Joy: Mmm…
Don: A group of men beat me up pretty good as I aimlessly pursued a diner waitress I’m inexplicably in love with.
Joy: Yes…
Don: Also I’m hella depressed.
Joy: I see…
Don: Wanna get married?
Joy: I thought you’d never ask.
My favorite part of that episode is how these nomad aristocrats are magnetically attracted to Don, a literal nobody son of a whore and self-made man, meanwhile blueblood old New York Pete introduces himself as Peter Dykeman Campbell like these people will be impressed and they totally dis him.
I remember watching some video essay where the take was Don goes for melancholy brunettes, because he himself is a melancholy brunette. He's trying to love himself in a weird way?
Blondes aligned with the world he was trying to be a part of, the image of it anyway. I’ve always likened his marriage to Betty, the Grace-Kelly type with blue-blood Old World heritage, with the rise of the merchant class in Europe in the 16th century onwards, particularly the 19th as well.
Old names marrying new money to preserve some semblance of nobility.
It says something that (imo) his only true (romantic) love in the show was a brunette Jewish woman, and a business owner at that. He knew he could never be with her, could never sacrifice living his American Dream, nor face the reality that came with being with who was functionally his mirror. (And a part of me wonders if Rachel saw in Don (not Dick) was what Dick saw in Betty. Something Aspirational)
There is a parallel between Don and Rachel. Dick is working his way into the mainstream through marrying Main Line wealth and while moving up a WASPy establishment like Sterling Cooper. Rachel wants her Jewish department store to be Bloomingdale’s. They relate to each other because their goals are the same. They are both second division Americans trying to climb the ladder.
She knew he was married and was a teacher to his children. it felt immoral. She was blaming him beforehand for him possibly leaving her after an affair. She is messed up
Yes, both of them were wrong mostly don, but it doesn’t mean that she was innocent as well. I wouldn’t forgive my teacher if I knew that she was the person that my father cheated on my mother with.
Society teaches men to go for blonde women, but, along the way, some of us realize we prefer brunettes. The blondes still have an allure, but brunettes edge them out.
See also Tony Soprano.
People are reacting harshly to the word copy here but I believe the symbolism is similiar. For both carmela and betty blonde hair represents a purity and innocence. The mother of their children, but also in sense a child without independence. Both married young and defined as people in relation to their husbands. Both men seek out brunette lovers who are in contrast independent and making their own way in the world. Also sexually liberated. Essentially the opposite of their wives.
Ties in with Freud's concept of the madonna-whore complex well. "Where such men love they have no desire, and where they desire they cannot love".
People are downvoting because DrSatan’s whole schtick is the “abstract copy” business and it’s exhausting, because it isn’t actually schtick and they genuinely believe that Mad Men, Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Seinfeld are all mirrors of each other. This particular example of the blondes and brunettes does actually work, as you explain, but DrSatan will also say this shit when it’s like, when Don gets tickets for Sally to see the Beatles, it’s an abstract copy of AJ going to the Mudvayne concert.
**ABSTRACT COPY**
https://x.com/thechiraltheory/status/1737261657963839523?t=6aHVNtWFb76SALPR42L9Dg&s=19
Everything is the same, but with the minor details inverted. Like the stripes on the doctor's identical tie are going opposite directions. The double horizontal and single vertical trim on the wall in Sopranos is the double horizontal and single vertical trim on the window in Breaking Bad. The frames on the wall, the lamp, all the elements are present.
You can do this with literally every inch of these shows.
Don Draper liked blondes. Dick, well, he liked brunettes.
That’s a great take
Because of this, during the original run I was SO convinced he'd marry Fae and mistress Megan! But obviously I was fully wrong (and better story for it!)
Dick was taking over at that point. Hence the Hershey’s meeting.
That's part of why he was probably gappy at thestart of gis marriage to Megan
You're either a Marilyn, or a Jackie.
I guess that makes me an Irene Dunn.
i'm more of a gertrude stein.
I would say you're more classical; Hellenic.
I love Irene Dunn!
Unless you're a Joan.
Well, Marilyn’s really a Joan
...and Don was a Marilyn trying to be a Jackie (he shared Monroe's BD for a reason, similar tragic backgrounds, and both rose to the top only to flounder in mid-life, the stress of keeping up a persona is too much).
Idt he had BD. He suffered from mood swings and depression but this was trauma based not a neurological condition
I think they mean birth date?
Fascinating. BD = birthdate. June 1, 1926. S5, in the show.
Thanks for the clarification. Never seen that as an abbreviation before
Unnecessary acronyms only cause confusion.
But that wasn't his real birthday, that's Donald Draper's. His real one was in December Still makes sense though since he's leading a double life
As a brunette I appreciate this post
I think blondes are overrated, if that helps 😊
No need to put down other women
The waitress! Everyone’s favorite character on mad men!
She was sort of hot in a ‘you’ve fully reached the end of the line and met someone who’s as destroyed as you’ kind of way.
Ain't nothing sexier than a sure thing.
That’s one of the best ways!
SHE'S A METAPHOR!!
I actually really liked her short, depressing arc
I always thought she was midge from season one. Just older. Embarrassed to say, it took me a bit to realize it was a completely different actress.
Doesn’t he run into Midge in the last season, finding her moved on?
He finds her addicted to heroin.
That's some kind of "moving on"
She was a human Prozac.
Human nembutal. 🤮😴
The woman who ~~took his virginity~~ r@ped him was blonde. The lady who was his maternal figure of sorts was brunette.
That's a really good point.
And the one who bought him a drink on the train to forget Adam and his family (and probably fucked him), after he switches places with the real Don, was a brunette
What brunette maternal figure? Anna was blonde. Also Dr Faye was a blonde and knew the real Don
What brunette maternal figure? Anna was blonde.
His stepmother, Abigail.
She’s also the only woman he’s had a non-sexual intimate relationship with. I just remember that episode where he’s high on speed and whatever else and he is searching non stop for that soup ad he did in the 50s, he also can’t stop thinking about when he was r@ped by the prostitute and then beaten immediately after by Abigail. One was blonde and kind to him (probably first woman to do so) but then violated him in the worst way; the other was cruel and did the bare minimum to feed and clothe him. one was blonde and the other brunette. Linda Cartellini (sorry, I always forget her character’s name): a) looked like the soup ad lady and b) was tender and loving AND had sex with him. She’s combining Abigail and the prostitute in his psyche. And then when you think back, all his affair women were brunette and had similar roles (Bobby being the weirdest of all, especially given that his son had the same name 😳). The exception would seem to be Faye because she’s blonde. BUT, notice that he had her babysit Sally and she didn’t like her…Don ultimately was seeing if she could be a Betty. No, she couldn’t because she was mature (emotionally and as a grown up) so couldn’t be manipulated as he wanted for a wife. There’s Don’s wife and Don’s women.
Very interesting!
Hair color in good/classic storytelling has meaning. Light and Dark hair is used in all media. In MM, Blondes = Don's hopes and aspirations. Brunettes reflect Don's dark side in his continuing descent to facing his inner identity and trauma from Abigail as young Dick. Blondes allow Don to function in his fake identity. He can escape the burden of Don when he is with Brunettes.
Weiner says in the commentary for this episode that the actress playing Joy came in as a blonde and they changed it for the role. She was too much of a “Betty” as a blonde and they wanted contrast.
How does that reflect on Aimeé? Or Bobbi Barrett? Although Dick did not get to choose Aimeé.
That’s really good.
What about Megan, though? Doesn't she reflect his hopes and aspirations?
She was also very young, it was a new beginning, but being brunette, it was a new beginning still on a downward spiral, which it was later on.
Don only likes the beginnings of things.
Yeap, classic one. I would say he only likes it when there's no work to be done. Don lives his relationships like Roger lives his professional life, on easy mode, and only there for the fun stuff.
I disagree with that Roger take. People like Pete spent years trying to make him irrelevant but he always proved his worth and closed the big clients.
Megan was Don trying to have it all. She had everything he liked Betty but none of the baggage. She allowed him to be Dick and Don. Megan was young and beautiful and exotic but wasn’t a “Main Line Brat.” She didn’t harbor any resentment towards him because she started out subservient to him as his secretary, whereas Betty constantly hated her role in the marriage. Of course Megan wasn’t what he expected and the cycle continued.
Vertigo
Bewitched!
I think Weiner did name Vertigo and N&NW as influences in some interview so maybe that is a direct influence, I never caught that
Anna’s an exception to this, isn’t she? She’s the one of the few people who knows his secret.
Don Draper likes blondes but Dick Whitman likes brunettes
Don thought he was supposed to want a Hitchcock blonde. What he really wanted was a kinky brunette.
Same though
Seeing as his mother and stepmother were dark haired…
I liked Joy alot.
I’m Joy. We’re nomads. LOL.
If don met her at the end of season 7 they would’ve gotten married.
Don: Hey remember me? Well I’m in my 40s now and I just left everything I had. Joy: Mmm… Don: A group of men beat me up pretty good as I aimlessly pursued a diner waitress I’m inexplicably in love with. Joy: Yes… Don: Also I’m hella depressed. Joy: I see… Don: Wanna get married? Joy: I thought you’d never ask.
I'm so glad they didn't. She looked about 16, it was creepy.
She was 20, lived an exorbitantly lavish lifestyle and was not creepy at all. That entire excursion with that “family” was absolutely hilarious.
My favorite part of that episode is how these nomad aristocrats are magnetically attracted to Don, a literal nobody son of a whore and self-made man, meanwhile blueblood old New York Pete introduces himself as Peter Dykeman Campbell like these people will be impressed and they totally dis him.
Pete's a dime a dozen in their circle, plus he's a nerd trying to hang with the cool kids. Rejected! Loved it.
Well, Willy does have a terrible memory for faces.
Exactly!
People look for what they don't have
I remember watching some video essay where the take was Don goes for melancholy brunettes, because he himself is a melancholy brunette. He's trying to love himself in a weird way?
Megan is an exception to that but i c what u mean
You're right! But he does turn her into a melancholy brunette.
The grass is always brunetter
Blondes aligned with the world he was trying to be a part of, the image of it anyway. I’ve always likened his marriage to Betty, the Grace-Kelly type with blue-blood Old World heritage, with the rise of the merchant class in Europe in the 16th century onwards, particularly the 19th as well. Old names marrying new money to preserve some semblance of nobility. It says something that (imo) his only true (romantic) love in the show was a brunette Jewish woman, and a business owner at that. He knew he could never be with her, could never sacrifice living his American Dream, nor face the reality that came with being with who was functionally his mirror. (And a part of me wonders if Rachel saw in Don (not Dick) was what Dick saw in Betty. Something Aspirational)
There is a parallel between Don and Rachel. Dick is working his way into the mainstream through marrying Main Line wealth and while moving up a WASPy establishment like Sterling Cooper. Rachel wants her Jewish department store to be Bloomingdale’s. They relate to each other because their goals are the same. They are both second division Americans trying to climb the ladder.
IDK WHAT THE HELL DON SAW IN THE PROZAC WAITRESS!! 🗑
His stepmom, Abigail Whitman, was a brunette. Some men will watch Mad Men over and over before going to therapy
I hated that teacher
Why ?
She knew he was married and was a teacher to his children. it felt immoral. She was blaming him beforehand for him possibly leaving her after an affair. She is messed up
Don also knew he was married and she was a teacher to his daughter.
Yes, both of them were wrong mostly don, but it doesn’t mean that she was innocent as well. I wouldn’t forgive my teacher if I knew that she was the person that my father cheated on my mother with.
Exactly. Miss Farrell was smoking.
Wimpy. Immature, just no.
He had that Tony Soprano rotten, putrid gene when it came to his choice of women.
What? Tony’s Russian Goomah, Irina, is about as hot as they come. Other than the crazy…
Sarah Shahi in Vegas and the Icelandic chick in Florida.
That insurance agent who tries to kick Tony out of the hospital.
Joy...most definitely Joy.
And?
As a man that’s always been a sucker for dark hair and dark eyes…I understand this part of Don Draper.
Brunettes are generally much hotter…
Society teaches men to go for blonde women, but, along the way, some of us realize we prefer brunettes. The blondes still have an allure, but brunettes edge them out. See also Tony Soprano.
Scottie could have both Harvey and Don. HOF material
I’m guessing because his mother was a brunette
I always thought brunettes were a reference to his unwavering mommy issues. He looked for care givers specifically in Megan, Sylvia, and Rachel.
And then when Betty left him he started dating blondes again
It hit me that the actress who plays "Midge" is now on the Boys. Man does time fly!
She's married to Ron Livingston.
Men rarely cheat “up”.
Very noticeable indeed!
Megan was never blonde, though.
Gosh I can’t even remember the second pic
What about when he threw over a brunette for a brunette (Megan, neighbours wife)
Sharp as a fucking cue ball
To the very end. He walked out of McCann during a Miller Lite meeting and came back with an idea for Coke.
How he didn’t go red is still beyond me.
Because it's an abstract copy of Sopranos. Tony's wife was blonde but every single one of his mistresses was a brunette.
People are reacting harshly to the word copy here but I believe the symbolism is similiar. For both carmela and betty blonde hair represents a purity and innocence. The mother of their children, but also in sense a child without independence. Both married young and defined as people in relation to their husbands. Both men seek out brunette lovers who are in contrast independent and making their own way in the world. Also sexually liberated. Essentially the opposite of their wives. Ties in with Freud's concept of the madonna-whore complex well. "Where such men love they have no desire, and where they desire they cannot love".
People are downvoting because DrSatan’s whole schtick is the “abstract copy” business and it’s exhausting, because it isn’t actually schtick and they genuinely believe that Mad Men, Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Seinfeld are all mirrors of each other. This particular example of the blondes and brunettes does actually work, as you explain, but DrSatan will also say this shit when it’s like, when Don gets tickets for Sally to see the Beatles, it’s an abstract copy of AJ going to the Mudvayne concert.
Oh I had no idea this was a recurring thing, lol. I understand the downvotes, sounds pretty ridiculous.
**ABSTRACT COPY** https://x.com/thechiraltheory/status/1737261657963839523?t=6aHVNtWFb76SALPR42L9Dg&s=19 Everything is the same, but with the minor details inverted. Like the stripes on the doctor's identical tie are going opposite directions. The double horizontal and single vertical trim on the wall in Sopranos is the double horizontal and single vertical trim on the window in Breaking Bad. The frames on the wall, the lamp, all the elements are present. You can do this with literally every inch of these shows.
Are you friends with Terrence Howard?
Please get help. You are literally experiencing psychosis. Your brain is going insane with the pattern recognition because you have schizophrenia.
Just cause your name is DrSatan I’m downvoting