taxonomites application
Character name: Joan Harris
Genre (TV/books/etc): Television
Fandom: Mad Men
Birthday: February 24th, 1931
Canon point: The Season 3 finale “Shut the Door. Have a Seat.”
Why this Character and Canon point?:
Joan is a fantastic character, put simply. She makes me laugh. Her catty remarks and ruthless efficiency are always entertaining, and beyond the steely visage there is a woman with a bizarrely contradictory outlook on life - she obviously thrives on independence and loves her work, but at the same time holds marriage up as an ideal. She’s exceptionally confident, but is undermined on a daily basis by her co-workers. She projects an ice queen air of ‘don’t mess with me’, but cries privately when Marilyn Monroe dies. She’s hopelessly cynical, but still dreams of a perfect domestic life.
I think it would be very interesting to explore Joan’s typically 1960s values in the context of Taxon, and to see how she evolves in an alien environment in every sense. I chose the end of Season 3 partly because that is as far as my DVD box set goes, and partly because it is one of Joan’s finer moments in terms of stability and prospects.
Programmed Possession:
The apartment she shares with her husband, Greg. It’s fairly modest, mostly owing to the fact that Greg doesn’t make vast amounts of money, but is nicely furnished. There are many delightful pictures of said apartment here.
Abilities/Weaknesses:
Joan is 100% human, so there are no superpowers to speak of. Canon doesn’t allude to any physical illnesses or weaknesses. In the more mundane sense, Joan is a very capable person. She’s confident, shrewd and adept at manipulating social situations to her favour, which tends to come in handy in the office - which she “basically runs”, in Peggy Olson’s words.
On the other hand, Joan seems to suffer from a lack of ambition, which is no doubt a product of the general situation of women in this era, as well as the 1950s cultural ideology. When she’s effectively dismissed by Crane after proving herself to be excellent at the TV work she was assigned, she more or less mutely accepts it. She never fights for a pay rise, in spite of “promotions” in title. Although her disappointment is abundantly obvious, she never pushes to progress in the same way that Peggy does, in terms of aspiring to copywriting or a significant creative role in the company.
Equally, Joan is proud - too proud for her own good, which is possibly another reason why she doesn’t progress as much as she might, given her potential. She hates to reveal weakness, and she refuses to ask for help unless circumstances force her hand, which is to her detriment. She can be vain at times, and horribly judgemental towards other women, as well as wilfully bitchy.
Her worst weakness is probably her pursuit of a non-existent dream life in which she is the perfect housewife, living in a perfect home with a perfect husband. In reality, her husband Greg is far from perfect, but she overlooks this and other shortcomings in her life and career because she clings to this ideal.
Psychology/Personality:
It is interesting to see Joan’s reaction to the death of Marilyn Monroe in Season 2. You get the sense that Joan sees a great many parallels between Marilyn and herself - and it’s not difficult to see why. Like Marilyn Monroe, Joan has a very lonely life. Although you don’t actually see much of her exploits in canon, you get the impression that she’s been through a fairly long string of lovers, including copywriter Kinsey and partner Roger Sterling. None of these relationships actually manifest into anything substantial, however, and considering Joan’s principle goal in life is to find a husband and get married, this is profoundly depressing for her.
In general, men tend to look at Joan as a mistress or a lover, but never a wife. Until Greg comes along it’s almost as if she’s not ‘marriage material’. Her affair with Sterling is a prime example of this. I don’t want to over-elaborate on Joan’s romantic relationships, but they are fairly integral to her character and how she sees herself, given the personal emphasis and importance she places on marriage.
Romance aside, Joan doesn’t appear to have any close family or intimate friendships. Whilst this could simply be an oversight in canon that might be developed later on, there is a very pronounced lack of companionship in Joan’s life, which links into the loneliness I mentioned above. Maybe it is owing to this that Joan is quite reluctant to confide in or rely on anyone else. She projects a very fortress-like image to the outside world, and displays of genuine emotion are almost repugnant to her. When she finds a secretary crying in the break room, she harshly tells the girl to get out, and that crying is “bad for morale”.
Likewise, when Roger finds her crying in his office over the death of Marilyn Monroe, she reacts defensively and doesn’t want him to see her tears. When her old friend from college confesses that she is in love with Joan, Joan barely bats an eyelid and changes the subject. All of this is not to say that Joan is unpleasant to be around or a complete bitch - conversely, she knows exactly how to make people feel comfortable and is an expert in workplace etiquette. She jokes, flirts, teases and generally is on good terms with most people, but at the same time she rarely lets people see the ‘real her’, as it were.
On an unrelated note, Joan does have a quite terrible temper. When faced with incompetence, she can be downright fearsome, though always in a controlled way. She doesn’t shout, preferring the deathly glare. She has reduced many secretaries to tears in her time. I think that much of Joan’s harshness, particularly when dealing with women, stems from a sense of propriety and ‘properness’, as well as a tendency to project her own standards of composure onto other women. She can be acerbic and petty at times, as well as patronisingly superior. Peggy Olson says of her “we can’t all be you, Joan.” At the same time, Joan often offers Peggy advice on her career that turns out to be useful and effective, even if the delivery is harsh.
Overall, Joan is a talented woman who could have been successful if she were born in another period in history. As it is, she is stuck in a role that in actual fact is integral to the running of Sterling Cooper, but that her superiors often fail to acknowledge and appreciate. She’s always the practical girl, the one who can sew your dress up - never the intellectual. As a result of this (and later on in the series, as a result of her disappointing marriage), she’s fairly cynical and jaded about most things in life. She knows how to laugh about it, however, and has a wry sense of humour.
History:
Little, or… actually none of Joan’s life pre-Sterling Cooper is shown in canon, as the writers tend to favour Don (cough) in the flashback department. So I’m just going to present what I’ve inferred from the little that we’re given and hope that I don’t get Jossed by Season 5. I think it’s safe to assume that Joan had quite a traditional upbringing, given her heavily instilled 50s housewife type values regarding marriage. There’s no indication that her family were wealthy, as Joan doesn’t seem to have any of the high society connections that would put her on a similar social standing to Peter Campbell or his wife Trudy. This is all speculation, but I would think it likely that Joan’s parents weren’t particularly affectionate, judging by her reluctance to show emotion and appear vulnerable - the frosty composure is something she probably learned from her mother.
She would have attended school and college, probably achieving fair but not outstanding results. Of course, the expectation at that time wasn’t for girls to become academics or aspire to successful careers. After reading up on the subject, I found out about the so-called “M.R.S” degree, which is summarised below:
“Getting married right out of high school or while in college was considered the norm. A common stereotype was that women went to college to get a "Mrs." (pronounced M.R.S.) degree, meaning a husband. Although women had other aspirations in life, the dominant theme promoted in the culture and media at the time was that a husband was far more important for a young woman than a college degree.”
Joan didn’t find a husband at college, however, but it was probably one of her motivations for studying. I’m assuming that she grew up in one of New York’s suburbs, and after finishing college moved to Manhattan, as she seems to have a personal connection with the place on some level. "This is about two young girls in Manhattan. This is about an adventure” she says, advising Peggy on how to write an advertisement for roommates.
Shortly after moving into the city in her early 20s, she would have been hired at Sterling Cooper, starting off at the very basic secretary level, and then progressively assuming more responsibility as she proved her capabilities. At the start of the series Joan is Office Manager at Sterling Cooper, which is where we move from guesswork into canon.
In the first season we’re given to understand from the offset that Joan has an ongoing relationship with company partner Roger Sterling, who is married. Their affair comes to an end shortly after Roger suffers a pretty serious heart attack, thanks to his excessive drinking, smoking and womanising. At around the same time, Joan’s roommate Carol confesses that she’s been in love with Joan since college, which Joan essentially shrugs off.
In the second season Joan temporarily assumes the responsibility of helping Harry Crane to read TV scripts, a job which she really relishes and excels at, though unfortunately it doesn’t last long. Harry hires a replacement and asks her to train said replacement, which is quite a slap in the face. To add insult to injury, Roger leaves his wife Mona and proposes to Jane - a secretary that Joan had previously fired. Needless to say, this is hurtful, considering Roger and Joan’s long-term affair and the fact that Roger never considered leaving Mona for Joan.
At the end of the season Joan gets engaged to Greg, a surgeon. When she introduces Greg to her colleagues at Sterling Cooper, they have the misfortune of bumping into Roger, who makes a passing comment that alerts Greg to the fact that Joan and Roger had some kind of relationship. When Joan shows Greg into Don’s office, Greg forces her to have sex with him, in spite of her protests. Subsequently to that, Joan doesn’t tell anyone about the incident and keeps trying to convince herself that Greg is a good man.
By the start of the third season, Joan and Greg are married and the cracks in their relationship are already beginning to show. Greg has some sort of surgical mishap that results in professional embarrassment and means that he doesn’t land a promotion he’d been expecting. By this point, Joan had already resigned from her position at Sterling Cooper, as she was under the impression that Greg would be able to provide for them both. Joan is forced to leave her post (because she doesn’t want to lose face and admit to anyone that Greg didn’t get the job) and take up work at a department store, Bonwit Teller.
In the meantime, Greg decides to abandon surgery and pursue a career in psychiatry, but he fails to impress at a job interview, in spite of Joan’s help. When Greg tells her that she “doesn’t know what it’s like to want something all your life and not get it” she promptly smashes a vase over his head, for obvious reasons! Subsequently, Greg decides to enlist as a military surgeon, which would mean that he would be earning enough for Joan to stop working. Nevertheless, Joan still calls Roger to ask him for help finding new employment. When Sterling Cooper becomes Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce at the end of the season, Roger calls Joan to ask her to resume her post as office manager in the new company, and Joan is pulled from this point.
Arrival Post (Third Person):
“Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, how may I -“ The polished telephone manner is rudely interrupted by a gasp of shock, as manicured fingers now clutch at empty space where a receiver used to be.
Joan stares disbelievingly at the unwelcoming metal interior of the arrival room for a second, before raising an unsteady hand to her forehead and closing her eyes, as if she suspects this all to be a by-product of a very unusual dizzy spell.
It becomes abundantly obvious when she opens them again that this is no dizzy spell. Resisting the urge to panic, she takes a deep breath, mechanically smoothing the front of her dress out of habit. “Hello?” she calls, revolving on the spot in exceptionally high heels. “Is there anybody here?” A pause, and then: “Roger? Don?”
It was something to do with the hotel, it had to be. She must have blacked out, stumbled into a storage room or something - although her gut told her that this looked nothing like any storage room she’d ever laid eyes on, and that she wasn’t in the habit of stumbling. Taking a ginger step towards the pedestal, she catches sight of the tablet. “What in the world..?”
Additional Third Person Sample:
Donald Draper’s desk was notoriously difficult. It wasn’t that he was rude or overbearing, far from it. It was more that his desk really mattered. His meetings could make or break accounts, his appointments were important. Unlike so many things and people at Sterling Cooper, he was not trivial. Some girls didn’t cope well under that kind of pressure. Personally, Joan didn’t mind working Don’s desk - but then, this was temporary.
Glancing up from a sheaf of papers, she could see Peter Campbell making his way down the office, in the company of an aging man whose name it took her very little time to place. Campbell was all smiles and emphatic gestures of course, buttering up the client - the client who was early, judging by a surreptitious consultation of her watch. Today, Don’s door was open. Rising swiftly from her place at the desk, she poked her head around the frame.
“Mr. Draper, Harold Johnson from Samsonite just arrived a little early for your 3 ‘o’ clock. Should I show him through directly, or do you need a minute?”
“Now will be fine, thank you Joan.”
“Of course,” she nodded, breezing back to the desk to stand poised in anticipation of the client. The office tour didn’t take long, even taking Mr. Johnson’s shuffling gait into consideration.
“Mr. Johnson, good afternoon.” Joan flashed a well-practised smile as they approached. “Mr. Draper is ready and waiting to see you. Can I interest you in some refreshments?”
The man grinned; wrinkles creasing his cheeks as he laid a hand on her elbow. Peter stood by, polite and ineffectual. “That depends; will you be the one serving them, sweetheart?”
“Well, I can’t make any promises,” she replied, with an indulgent smile that barely wavered. Peter laughed, and the sound was uncomfortable. “I’m sure Miss Holloway has a great many duties to attend to. Shall we?” He said, with a gesture of invitation in the direction of Don’s door. Mr. Johnson released her arm. “I’ll have a coffee, sweetheart - and don’t hold back on the sugar.”
“Right away,” Joan nodded; the starchy smile still in place, though her eyes were cold. She waited until the door was closed before brushing her arm off with the most discreet of gestures.
Genre (TV/books/etc): Television
Fandom: Mad Men
Birthday: February 24th, 1931
Canon point: The Season 3 finale “Shut the Door. Have a Seat.”
Why this Character and Canon point?:
Joan is a fantastic character, put simply. She makes me laugh. Her catty remarks and ruthless efficiency are always entertaining, and beyond the steely visage there is a woman with a bizarrely contradictory outlook on life - she obviously thrives on independence and loves her work, but at the same time holds marriage up as an ideal. She’s exceptionally confident, but is undermined on a daily basis by her co-workers. She projects an ice queen air of ‘don’t mess with me’, but cries privately when Marilyn Monroe dies. She’s hopelessly cynical, but still dreams of a perfect domestic life.
I think it would be very interesting to explore Joan’s typically 1960s values in the context of Taxon, and to see how she evolves in an alien environment in every sense. I chose the end of Season 3 partly because that is as far as my DVD box set goes, and partly because it is one of Joan’s finer moments in terms of stability and prospects.
Programmed Possession:
The apartment she shares with her husband, Greg. It’s fairly modest, mostly owing to the fact that Greg doesn’t make vast amounts of money, but is nicely furnished. There are many delightful pictures of said apartment here.
Abilities/Weaknesses:
Joan is 100% human, so there are no superpowers to speak of. Canon doesn’t allude to any physical illnesses or weaknesses. In the more mundane sense, Joan is a very capable person. She’s confident, shrewd and adept at manipulating social situations to her favour, which tends to come in handy in the office - which she “basically runs”, in Peggy Olson’s words.
On the other hand, Joan seems to suffer from a lack of ambition, which is no doubt a product of the general situation of women in this era, as well as the 1950s cultural ideology. When she’s effectively dismissed by Crane after proving herself to be excellent at the TV work she was assigned, she more or less mutely accepts it. She never fights for a pay rise, in spite of “promotions” in title. Although her disappointment is abundantly obvious, she never pushes to progress in the same way that Peggy does, in terms of aspiring to copywriting or a significant creative role in the company.
Equally, Joan is proud - too proud for her own good, which is possibly another reason why she doesn’t progress as much as she might, given her potential. She hates to reveal weakness, and she refuses to ask for help unless circumstances force her hand, which is to her detriment. She can be vain at times, and horribly judgemental towards other women, as well as wilfully bitchy.
Her worst weakness is probably her pursuit of a non-existent dream life in which she is the perfect housewife, living in a perfect home with a perfect husband. In reality, her husband Greg is far from perfect, but she overlooks this and other shortcomings in her life and career because she clings to this ideal.
Psychology/Personality:
It is interesting to see Joan’s reaction to the death of Marilyn Monroe in Season 2. You get the sense that Joan sees a great many parallels between Marilyn and herself - and it’s not difficult to see why. Like Marilyn Monroe, Joan has a very lonely life. Although you don’t actually see much of her exploits in canon, you get the impression that she’s been through a fairly long string of lovers, including copywriter Kinsey and partner Roger Sterling. None of these relationships actually manifest into anything substantial, however, and considering Joan’s principle goal in life is to find a husband and get married, this is profoundly depressing for her.
In general, men tend to look at Joan as a mistress or a lover, but never a wife. Until Greg comes along it’s almost as if she’s not ‘marriage material’. Her affair with Sterling is a prime example of this. I don’t want to over-elaborate on Joan’s romantic relationships, but they are fairly integral to her character and how she sees herself, given the personal emphasis and importance she places on marriage.
Romance aside, Joan doesn’t appear to have any close family or intimate friendships. Whilst this could simply be an oversight in canon that might be developed later on, there is a very pronounced lack of companionship in Joan’s life, which links into the loneliness I mentioned above. Maybe it is owing to this that Joan is quite reluctant to confide in or rely on anyone else. She projects a very fortress-like image to the outside world, and displays of genuine emotion are almost repugnant to her. When she finds a secretary crying in the break room, she harshly tells the girl to get out, and that crying is “bad for morale”.
Likewise, when Roger finds her crying in his office over the death of Marilyn Monroe, she reacts defensively and doesn’t want him to see her tears. When her old friend from college confesses that she is in love with Joan, Joan barely bats an eyelid and changes the subject. All of this is not to say that Joan is unpleasant to be around or a complete bitch - conversely, she knows exactly how to make people feel comfortable and is an expert in workplace etiquette. She jokes, flirts, teases and generally is on good terms with most people, but at the same time she rarely lets people see the ‘real her’, as it were.
On an unrelated note, Joan does have a quite terrible temper. When faced with incompetence, she can be downright fearsome, though always in a controlled way. She doesn’t shout, preferring the deathly glare. She has reduced many secretaries to tears in her time. I think that much of Joan’s harshness, particularly when dealing with women, stems from a sense of propriety and ‘properness’, as well as a tendency to project her own standards of composure onto other women. She can be acerbic and petty at times, as well as patronisingly superior. Peggy Olson says of her “we can’t all be you, Joan.” At the same time, Joan often offers Peggy advice on her career that turns out to be useful and effective, even if the delivery is harsh.
Overall, Joan is a talented woman who could have been successful if she were born in another period in history. As it is, she is stuck in a role that in actual fact is integral to the running of Sterling Cooper, but that her superiors often fail to acknowledge and appreciate. She’s always the practical girl, the one who can sew your dress up - never the intellectual. As a result of this (and later on in the series, as a result of her disappointing marriage), she’s fairly cynical and jaded about most things in life. She knows how to laugh about it, however, and has a wry sense of humour.
History:
Little, or… actually none of Joan’s life pre-Sterling Cooper is shown in canon, as the writers tend to favour Don (cough) in the flashback department. So I’m just going to present what I’ve inferred from the little that we’re given and hope that I don’t get Jossed by Season 5. I think it’s safe to assume that Joan had quite a traditional upbringing, given her heavily instilled 50s housewife type values regarding marriage. There’s no indication that her family were wealthy, as Joan doesn’t seem to have any of the high society connections that would put her on a similar social standing to Peter Campbell or his wife Trudy. This is all speculation, but I would think it likely that Joan’s parents weren’t particularly affectionate, judging by her reluctance to show emotion and appear vulnerable - the frosty composure is something she probably learned from her mother.
She would have attended school and college, probably achieving fair but not outstanding results. Of course, the expectation at that time wasn’t for girls to become academics or aspire to successful careers. After reading up on the subject, I found out about the so-called “M.R.S” degree, which is summarised below:
“Getting married right out of high school or while in college was considered the norm. A common stereotype was that women went to college to get a "Mrs." (pronounced M.R.S.) degree, meaning a husband. Although women had other aspirations in life, the dominant theme promoted in the culture and media at the time was that a husband was far more important for a young woman than a college degree.”
Joan didn’t find a husband at college, however, but it was probably one of her motivations for studying. I’m assuming that she grew up in one of New York’s suburbs, and after finishing college moved to Manhattan, as she seems to have a personal connection with the place on some level. "This is about two young girls in Manhattan. This is about an adventure” she says, advising Peggy on how to write an advertisement for roommates.
Shortly after moving into the city in her early 20s, she would have been hired at Sterling Cooper, starting off at the very basic secretary level, and then progressively assuming more responsibility as she proved her capabilities. At the start of the series Joan is Office Manager at Sterling Cooper, which is where we move from guesswork into canon.
In the first season we’re given to understand from the offset that Joan has an ongoing relationship with company partner Roger Sterling, who is married. Their affair comes to an end shortly after Roger suffers a pretty serious heart attack, thanks to his excessive drinking, smoking and womanising. At around the same time, Joan’s roommate Carol confesses that she’s been in love with Joan since college, which Joan essentially shrugs off.
In the second season Joan temporarily assumes the responsibility of helping Harry Crane to read TV scripts, a job which she really relishes and excels at, though unfortunately it doesn’t last long. Harry hires a replacement and asks her to train said replacement, which is quite a slap in the face. To add insult to injury, Roger leaves his wife Mona and proposes to Jane - a secretary that Joan had previously fired. Needless to say, this is hurtful, considering Roger and Joan’s long-term affair and the fact that Roger never considered leaving Mona for Joan.
At the end of the season Joan gets engaged to Greg, a surgeon. When she introduces Greg to her colleagues at Sterling Cooper, they have the misfortune of bumping into Roger, who makes a passing comment that alerts Greg to the fact that Joan and Roger had some kind of relationship. When Joan shows Greg into Don’s office, Greg forces her to have sex with him, in spite of her protests. Subsequently to that, Joan doesn’t tell anyone about the incident and keeps trying to convince herself that Greg is a good man.
By the start of the third season, Joan and Greg are married and the cracks in their relationship are already beginning to show. Greg has some sort of surgical mishap that results in professional embarrassment and means that he doesn’t land a promotion he’d been expecting. By this point, Joan had already resigned from her position at Sterling Cooper, as she was under the impression that Greg would be able to provide for them both. Joan is forced to leave her post (because she doesn’t want to lose face and admit to anyone that Greg didn’t get the job) and take up work at a department store, Bonwit Teller.
In the meantime, Greg decides to abandon surgery and pursue a career in psychiatry, but he fails to impress at a job interview, in spite of Joan’s help. When Greg tells her that she “doesn’t know what it’s like to want something all your life and not get it” she promptly smashes a vase over his head, for obvious reasons! Subsequently, Greg decides to enlist as a military surgeon, which would mean that he would be earning enough for Joan to stop working. Nevertheless, Joan still calls Roger to ask him for help finding new employment. When Sterling Cooper becomes Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce at the end of the season, Roger calls Joan to ask her to resume her post as office manager in the new company, and Joan is pulled from this point.
Arrival Post (Third Person):
“Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, how may I -“ The polished telephone manner is rudely interrupted by a gasp of shock, as manicured fingers now clutch at empty space where a receiver used to be.
Joan stares disbelievingly at the unwelcoming metal interior of the arrival room for a second, before raising an unsteady hand to her forehead and closing her eyes, as if she suspects this all to be a by-product of a very unusual dizzy spell.
It becomes abundantly obvious when she opens them again that this is no dizzy spell. Resisting the urge to panic, she takes a deep breath, mechanically smoothing the front of her dress out of habit. “Hello?” she calls, revolving on the spot in exceptionally high heels. “Is there anybody here?” A pause, and then: “Roger? Don?”
It was something to do with the hotel, it had to be. She must have blacked out, stumbled into a storage room or something - although her gut told her that this looked nothing like any storage room she’d ever laid eyes on, and that she wasn’t in the habit of stumbling. Taking a ginger step towards the pedestal, she catches sight of the tablet. “What in the world..?”
Additional Third Person Sample:
Donald Draper’s desk was notoriously difficult. It wasn’t that he was rude or overbearing, far from it. It was more that his desk really mattered. His meetings could make or break accounts, his appointments were important. Unlike so many things and people at Sterling Cooper, he was not trivial. Some girls didn’t cope well under that kind of pressure. Personally, Joan didn’t mind working Don’s desk - but then, this was temporary.
Glancing up from a sheaf of papers, she could see Peter Campbell making his way down the office, in the company of an aging man whose name it took her very little time to place. Campbell was all smiles and emphatic gestures of course, buttering up the client - the client who was early, judging by a surreptitious consultation of her watch. Today, Don’s door was open. Rising swiftly from her place at the desk, she poked her head around the frame.
“Mr. Draper, Harold Johnson from Samsonite just arrived a little early for your 3 ‘o’ clock. Should I show him through directly, or do you need a minute?”
“Now will be fine, thank you Joan.”
“Of course,” she nodded, breezing back to the desk to stand poised in anticipation of the client. The office tour didn’t take long, even taking Mr. Johnson’s shuffling gait into consideration.
“Mr. Johnson, good afternoon.” Joan flashed a well-practised smile as they approached. “Mr. Draper is ready and waiting to see you. Can I interest you in some refreshments?”
The man grinned; wrinkles creasing his cheeks as he laid a hand on her elbow. Peter stood by, polite and ineffectual. “That depends; will you be the one serving them, sweetheart?”
“Well, I can’t make any promises,” she replied, with an indulgent smile that barely wavered. Peter laughed, and the sound was uncomfortable. “I’m sure Miss Holloway has a great many duties to attend to. Shall we?” He said, with a gesture of invitation in the direction of Don’s door. Mr. Johnson released her arm. “I’ll have a coffee, sweetheart - and don’t hold back on the sugar.”
“Right away,” Joan nodded; the starchy smile still in place, though her eyes were cold. She waited until the door was closed before brushing her arm off with the most discreet of gestures.