Mad (Wo)Men

Mad Men, a popular tv show on AMC set in the mid 20th century about the big wig advertising men of that era, just aired the premiere of its 5th season on Sunday Night. Deciding to give into the Mad Men crave, I watched the first episode of the show today. In the first 15 minutes of the show, you see 5 different women's characters. The first one is a woman smoking at the bar, the second a booty call, the third a young girl who seems like a hopeless dreamer with the dream of getting ahead who cannot stick up for herself, the fourth a pissy red head who insists that women are good for nothing but sex, and the fifth is finally a seemingly educated woman- however, she is foreign and is immediately shut down when she begins talking.

But don't worry it's okay because they are just making fun of people who make fun of women.....

But is it really okay? Are we not taught in English class that a double negative makes what you said before you repeated yourself true? Example: "Mother, I did not not do my chores". In this case I am partly clearing your name, but what I still really mean is that I did not do my chores, I am just unwilling to admit it. SO, to say that you are making fun of people who are making fun of women really just means that you are in fact making fun of women. In the words of a vlogger on feminist frequency "It’s really the normalization of sexism through the use of irony" (video shown below). I certainly agree with what she has to offer on the topic of lampooning others who make fun of women; check it out to hear her ideas on the topic.

Do you agree? Can we apply the theory of a double negative to something like sexism in a tv show?