It's a mad, mad, mad, ad world: A feminist critique of Mad Men Patrick Ferrucci a, ⁎, Heather Shoenberger b , Erin Schauster a a Bradley University, Peoria, IL, United States b University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, United States article info synopsis Available online xxxx The television drama Mad Men was an immediate critical hit when it premiered in July of 2007 on AMC. The multiple Emmy Award-winning program received a large amount of mainstream press for its depiction of 1960s Madison Avenue, complete with rampant sexism. This study utilizes feminist criticism to examine not only the explicit forms of sexism depicted on Mad Men, but also the implicit and more subtle ways the dominant ideology of patriarchy is normalized. While the program is a drama, Mad Men uses sexism for humor. This type of depiction of gender stereotypes and overt sexism encourages viewers to accept patriarchy as ideal and natural, finds humor in independent women attempting to break free of the dominant ideology, and trivializes gender bias as a laughing matter. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction For a television show that, at its peak, reaches roughly 3 million viewers per week (Crupi, 2010), a number that would threaten cancellation at a major network, Mad Men has received an inordinate amount of press coverage (Lehnen, 2011), and has even inspired everything from a clothing line to paper dolls (Rosenberg, 2011). The AMC program is the only drama to win the coveted Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in each of its first four seasons beginning in 2008. Not only has Mad Men received praise and attention from the mainstream press, but the show has also enticed scholars to take notice (e.g., de Groot, 2011; De Kosnik, 2010; Duffy, Liss-Mariño, & Sender, 2011). As a result of its popularity, a group of researchers published a book containing several scholarly studies about various aspects of the show (Carveth & South, 2010). Based in and around a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the early 1960s, Mad Men is noted for its stereotypical depiction of that time period's rapid consumption of cigarettes, drinking in the a.m., and preferences for fashion. Mad Men has received a lot of mass media attention for its depiction and implied approval of sexism. The drama has even been credited with spawning imitators in recent programs such as The Playboy Club, Pan Am, The Hour, Halt and Catch Fire (D'Addario, 2014; Elliott, 2010; Rosenberg, 2011; Stanley, 2007). Popular television's sexual objectification of women is not a recent phenomenon that began with Mad Men. A cursory scan of cable stations could result in a viewer finding such older programs still in reruns such as Three's Company, I Dream of Jeannie or Married with Children (Johnson, 2007). Feminist criticism argues that women are oppressed by patriarchy and that women's perspectives are not incorporated into our culture (Foss, 1996). Feminist criticism, similar to feminism itself, is “aimed at improving conditions for women” (Foss, 1996, p. 165). Patriarchal ideology is so embedded in our culture that we are no longer aware of its existence; therefore, it is the job of the critic to acknowledge what is happening (Dow, 1996). This study examines the first season of the popular television show Mad Men through a feminist criticism. Despite ardent attention from mainstream media given to the program's depiction of women, scholars have yet to focus on its Women's Studies International Forum 47 (2014) 93–101 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Communication, Bradley University, 1501 W. Bradley Ave., Peoria, IL 61625, USA http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2014.08.002 0277-5395/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Women's Studies International Forum journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wsif