Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I like the class commentary. It’s clear Joan is working class even though exceptionally beautiful and intelligent. Roger likes sleeping with her but never seriously offers her marriage or stability. He does marry Jane though, even though she is a secretary and Don marries Megan. Is it implied that Megan and Jane are higher social class?
I don't think you can think about class as this cleanly delineated on Mad Men. It's NY in the 1960s, not the 1860s. Class structures have already been upended a few times. There is the question of being "from money" but then there are also differences between "old money" and new money. You also have multiple self-made characters who are given a lot of respect (including Don).
Megan's family does not seem to have much money, but Megan's dad is an academic and Megan appears to be well educated. She's also bilingual. This wouldn't impress someone like Pete's mother, who is old money and would view Megan as little better than a prostitute given that she had to work for a living before "marrying up." But it does impress Don and people like Ken and Peggy, who are middle class and not well traveled.
Jane strikes me as a classic gold digger, what Joan would be if she weren't so interesting. She's not from a wealthy background and doesn't seem to have a college degree. She's a bad secretary. But she's stunning, and she (and likely her family) were betting that a year or two as a secretary in some kind of NY firm (could have been a bank, a law firm, advertising, whatever) would land her a wealthy husband. She also sets her sights high from the start -- she doesn't mess around with the more junior men in the office. She knows exactly what she's doing but she's not from a wealthy family. She's looking to move up via marriage.
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