"MAD MEN": Sex and Bobbie Barrett
"MAD MEN": SEX AND BOBBIE BARRETT
The fans’ reaction to the character of Bobbie Barrett during Season Two of "MAD MEN" has always intrigued me. In this day and age - namely the early 21st century - I never understood why they held her in such a low regard. Let me explain.
I had enjoyed Season Two of "MAD MEN" very much. In fact, it is one of my top three seasons of the series. Many fans have commented that the female characters seemed to have developed a lot more during Season Two than they did in the previous one. And yet . . . when Season Two had aired during the summer of 2008, many fans - both male and female - had expressed a great deal of hostility toward one of the new characters - namely Bobbie Barrett. One good example of this hostility came from an article called "Mad Men, "The Benefactor": Hey you, get your damn hands off her!", in which the article had this to say about a particular scene in (2.03) “The Benefactor”, in which ad man and series lead Don Draper grabbed Bobbie’s nether regions in an effort to force her to do a business task for him:
”Don's power move -- grabbing Bobbie by the, um, reins and telling her, "Believe me: I will ruin him. Do what I say." -- is at once shocking, hilarious, fist-pumping and stomach-churning. There is so much wrong with what he's doing there, and yet Bobbie's been depicted so awfully, and their brief relationship depicted so bleakly, and our natural tendency at this point in the series is to root for Don to succeed in solving whatever problem's put in front of him, that on some level it plays as the triumphant moment we've been waiting for from Don for three episodes.”
Re-reading this particular paragraph, I find myself sitting in front of my computer screen . . . nearly speechless. This is one of the most tasteless and misogynist comments I have ever read. Who in their right mind would root for a man, who grabs a woman’s crotch in order to force her to do something for him? All because she was . . . what? ”Depicted so awfully”?
My first question is . . . why? Why had there been such a great deal of hostility toward Bobbie Barrett in the first? What was it about her that made her hated by many of series' fans, eight years ago? As we all know, Bobbie was the wife and manager of insult comedian, Jimmy Barrett. The Barretts were first introduced in "The Benefactor", when a drunken Jimmy, who had been hired as a spokesperson for Utz Potato Chips, insulted the owner's wife. Sterling/Cooper's own Don Draper had to meet with Bobbie to arrange for Jimmy to apologize to the Schillings, the owners of Utz. Don and Bobbie's meeting eventually resulted in both of them having sex inside somebody's car. Later, Bobbie tried to get more money from Don (in a hallway of the restaurant they and Schillings are at for the apology) in exchange for her husband’s pay-or-play contract. Don manhandled Bobbie and threatened to ruin Jimmy. And Bobbie appeared to enjoy the attention. She later convinced Jimmy to apologize.
Despite this violent encounter, Don and Bobbie's affair continued in the following episode, (2.04) "Three Sundays". After meeting at Sardi's for cocktails in order to celebrate Jimmy's new television series in (2.05) “The New Girl”, the pair encountered Don's former mistress, Rachel Mencken, who got married. They eventually left Sardi's and ended up in a car accident, on their way to the Barretts' beach house in Stony Brook. The affair finally ended in (2.06) "Maidenform" when Don learned from Bobbie that he had developed a reputation for his sexual prowess among Manhattan’s career women . . . before leaving her tied up after another sexual encounter. Bobbie was last seen in (2.07) "The Gold Violin" at a party held at the Stork Club, celebrating Jimmy’s new show.
Once again, I have to ask . . . why was Bobbie hated so much by so many of the series’ fans? The owner of one blog continued to call her "the Odious Bobbie" in reviews for nearly episode in which she appeared. Others have called her sick, twisted, perverse, a skank, a whore, evil and God knows what else. When Bobbie gave Peggy Olson the "be a woman" advice in how to deal with Don and other professional colleagues:
"You’re never gonna get that corner office until you start treating Don as an equal. And no one will tell you this, but you can't be a man. Don’t even try. Be a woman. Powerful business when done correctly."
. . . many fans came to the conclusion that she was advising Peggy to use sex to get ahead professionally. In fact, many assumed that Bobbie had also used sex to get ahead as a talent agent. And yet, the series has never hinted that Bobbie actually did this. What crime had Bobbie committed to produce such hatred?
One would point out that Bobbie has engaged in extramarital sex. Her affair with Don lasted at least four episodes - from "The Benefactor" to (2.06) "Maidenform". Yet, Bobbie is not the only female on the show guilty of adultery. Among the other guilty were:
*Peggy Olson
*Betty Hofstadt Draper Francis
*Joan Holloway Harris
*Midge Daniels Demuth
*Rachel Mencken Katz
*Jane Siegel Sterling
*Marie Calvet
*Sylvia Rosen
Well, apparently Bobbie was not the only female guilty of extramarital sex. Hell, she was not the only character guilty of extramarital sex. So, what was wrong with her? Some have complained about her aggressive nature. Which struck me as irrelevant, considering that she was not the only aggressive character in the series. Bobbie may have been the only aggressive female in the series. So was that it? Men were allowed to be aggressive, but not women?
Bobbie was also a sexually aggressive woman who happened to like kinky sex. She made that quite clear in the way she wrestled with Don inside his car, and when she failed to be put off by Don's aggressive manhandling of her in "The Benefactor". She also revealed to Don that when she had learned about his sexual prowess, she set out to seduce him in order to have sex with him. Was it possible that Bobbie's sexual aggressiveness was a turn off with most fans? Would they have preferred if Bobbie had been sexually submissive . . . allowing men to seduce her or make the first move? Would they have preferred if Bobbie had limited her sexual practices to the Missionary position or bent over - positions considered submissive for women? Or would they have preferred if Bobbie had been a man . . . with eyes on any of the series’ female characters?
Not only have male fans condemned Bobbie's characters, but so have a good number of women. The blogger who had dubbed Mrs. Barrett as "Odious Bobbie" was a woman. Even Matt Weiner had joined the act in his INTERVIEW with critic Alan Sepinwall about Season Two:
"People were upset about Bobbie Barrett, that she wasn't Rachel Menken, and I'm like, she's not Rachel Menken, and he's not in love with her, and he says no. But he should never have slept with that woman."
To this day, I remain a little perplexed by Weiner's statement. One, he called Bobbie "that woman" - something I do not recall him naming any of the series' other female characters. And two, he stated that Don should have never slept with her. On one level, I agree with him. After all, both Don and Bobbie were married to other people. But why did he say this about Bobbie? Why not about the other women with whom Don had cuckolded both Betty and his second wife, Megan Calvert Draper? Why not say the same about Midge Daniels, Rachel Mencken, Sylvia Rosen or any of the other women with whom Don had sex with during his marriages to Betty and Megan? Why Bobbie?
Bobbie Barrett's reputation with "MAD MEN" had somewhat improved since Season Two ended eight years ago. Many fans have complimented Melinda McGraw for her superb performance of the memorable Bobbie. There have been fans who had finally understood the meaning behind Bobbie's advice to Peggy in "The New Girl". And there have been fans who view both Bobbie and Jimmy Barrett as metaphors for more revelations of Don's true nature.
But a good number of Bobbie detractors remain. She was also the only one of Don's known mistresses who had received such a strong level of hostility. And I can only wonder if any of this negativity might be a sign that despite the fact that we are now in the 21st century, society still demands that women adhere to some its ideal view on feminine behavior - in both real life and fiction.