Joan might have had further aspirations for her career, but it’s starting to feel like she’s given up on them. Tonight, we saw some clues to how her old-fashioned thinking is perhaps bogging her down. I saw her elbow-length white gloves as a hint; the young girls in 1965 don’t wear those. And her concern that the secretaries would all end up fat if Lane put a sandwich machine in the office? That seems antiquated too; no forward-thinking woman at this point is concerned with their appearance above all else. If they’re in a work place, they aren’t restricted to being eye candy. They can climb the ladder, too, even if society is still forcing them to move up it quite slowly. How neat and polished they look sitting in the steno pool is not their foremost concern.
I just rewatched this episode during its rerun on AMC Sunday mornings – the first time I saw it, I noted that it was the first time “Mad Men” ended with the credits rolling but no music playing over them. I wondered if there was something particular in the episode that made it special (like the silent clock in “24”). However, I wasn’t certain, so I’d be interested in hearing what you or other readers have to say about the matter.