In Defense of Betty Draper

 

I cannot be the only one who finds Betty less than wicked, right?

I think she is a little girl thrust into an adult world without the right tools and with an inability to lean on her girlfriends. Or anyone. She struggles mightily. Her family (and likely everyone in her immediate radius) suffers as a result, but for that she is also terribly pitiful to me.

It is too easy to vilify her. Matt Weiner is too clever to create her as one dimensional as people make her out to be.

And this is not just because I covet her wardrobe. Or hairdos. Or figure.  There is something very dear and vulnerable about Betty to me. Maybe it is that no mom wants to be (or raise!) a Betty Draper (I'm not using Francis yet in hopes someday she and Don can pull themselves together and reunite. It is fiction -- a girl can dream and I love a happy ending neatly tied with a bow!)

Maybe it is just that she needs to be mothered and nurtured herself. Or that I am just so very distraught about having to read about the Season (here is is "series") Five online without the aid of any video.

Anyone more technologically savvy than I who can suggest how I might view it all in London somewhat soon (with only Freeview ever coming into my flat) would be greatly appreciated. Are there such things as vcrs anymore?  I sure could use one now!

It is a far cry from our watching David Attenborourgh's Frozen Planet - Spring (Big Sister said, "Bad dreams, brought to you by Nature!") for Family Night last night, but we're missing Mad Men here.