Homme fatal, Mad Men and Mad Women

This morning I thought that I'd be writing about the powerful silences in Mad Men. Some of my favorite moments in one of my favorite series take place when the camera cuts to what is supposed to be a reaction shot of Don Draper's and we are witness to his gorgeous blankness. However, later in the day a colleague asked why I thought Don appealed to so many female viewers and i realized that what I find attractive about him is connected that gorgeous blankness. Don Draper functions as a screen onto which women project their desire. In other words, he is an homme fatal.

Look, for instance, at how Sally teacher's so quickly falls for him. She's a wounded woman looking for a father figure and she sees Don as a sensitive man for whom children come first. (Of course, later in the episode we see that he barely begrudged his wife half a day while she was delivering their new son) For Betty, Don is a tall, dark Prince Charming but she's ended up a princess in a rather frightening suburban castle. For Peggy, Don is the perfect father, husband and breadwinner.

Like a classic femme fatale, Don is pure surface who only gives an illusion of depth. He's appears to be a self-made man, but he's actually someone who has stolen and embellished someone else's identity. Ultimately, one of the reasons I think that the Mad Women are such well rounded characters is that we see them in relation to the flatness, the blankness, the void that is Don.