Mad Men and Sexual Harassment
Mad Men is an excellent television show about the advertising business back in 1950-60. The ad men drink at work and some have sex with their secretaries and one of the partners uses his power to seduce young aspiring models into his office for a spin on his rug. Woman are openly disrespected. These were the days before Title VII. It is a great show and you can see that there were virtually no checks on office behavior. Most everyone in the office is white as well, except for the occasional black repair men or elevator operator. These were the days of openly coercive sexual exploits at work and racial discrimination. That was part of American culture and those days are not so long ago. That life style seen in that show still exists today. That is why there are so many employment law suits. Title VII is an attempt to curb behavior at work, but it does not work very well, in my view. It is a crude ax that prevents some blatant discrimination, but far more is needed. Mostly it has been a boon for lawyers and created its own industry. I think we could come up with a much better system to protect people at work. But at least things have improved since the days of Don Draper. Watch the show if you can, great entertainment too.
