Joan Holloway is one of the most recognizable characters on Mad Men. Played by the inimitable Christina Hendricks, Joan was the queen bee of the secretaries when the show launched. Her experience and insight showed her what it took to take charge as a woman in a man's world. Sometimes, this meant playing it cool.
Other times, it meant being shameless in your treatment of others, especially other women. And it worked: by the end of the series she has her own ad agency. Here are ten of the most shameless steps Joan took on her climb to the top.
10 "That's Life"
In season 3, Joan considered leaving professional life to become a housewife. After she married Greg Harris, she thought about wanting to start a family. The office wanted to send her off in fine style, so they threw a party for her. After copious drinks, several people thought it would be a fun idea to ride around the lawnmower that Ken Cosgrove brought to celebrate bringing on a new client.
However, a drunken secretary ran over the foot of an executive from Putnam, Powell, & Lowell, the British firm that then owned Sterling Cooper (SC). Joan not only springs to action, applying the tourniquet to the executive's leg, she applies her humorous wisdom, quipping: "But that's life. One minute you're on top of the world, the next minute some secretary's running you over with a lawn mower."
9 Chastising Peggy For Interfering
Peggy is often at the receiving end of Joan's most shameless moments. In season 4, Joan is working for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (SCDP), which she helped create. However, some guys in the art department harass her. She cuts them down to size, delivering a verbal onslaught that demeans them as they had demeaned her, gaining the upper hand. However, Peggy thinks this isn't enough punishment, and she fires one of them.
However, Joan doesn't think this is helpful, and she explains that by intervening, Peggy has made things worse for both of them: “All you’ve done is prove to them that I’m a meaningless secretary, and you’re a humorless bitch.” Then she wishes Peggy a happy weekend.
8 Smashing a Vase Over Greg's Head
It's hard to really understand why Joan was with Greg in the first place. When they were engaged, he raped her in the office, but she still married him. Even before this, there were signs that he was just too clueless and she should have dumped him. She works hard to try to help him achieve his dream of becoming a doctor. When he fails, he tells her she doesn't know what it's like to try so hard for something and not get it. Joan, who has given up the job she loved at SC to support him, can't take his whining anymore and smashes a vase over his head. It's one of the few things she does that really gets through to him.
7 The Jaguar Deal
It's one of Mad Men's most infamous moments. The executives of SCDP think they need a car to make their agency a real player. They are playing for Jaguar, a small but respected brand where they have a connection. But to finalize the deal, Joan must spend the night with the head of the Dealer's Association. She initially agrees to do it for $50,000 (about $400,000 today), but then renegotiates for a 5% share in the business, including voting rights. Joan isn't exactly shameless, but neither is she ashamed, and she shows she's prepared to do anything to make the business succeed. She's at her fiercest, though, when she chastises Don for blowing up the deal because he was scandalized.
6 Telling Off Paul Kinsey For His Pretentiousness
Of all the copywriters at Sterling Cooper, Paul Kinsey is the most full of himself. He claims to literary aspirations, but his ideas are repetitive drivel, and he can't stand it when account man Cosgrove gets a story published in the prestigious Atlantic Monthly. A few people have taken Kinsey down a peg, but none have done it with such shameless savagery as Joan, who calls him out for his prestigious, sexist, and racist relationship with a black cashier, Sheila White. Joan is not entirely without fault here, but she exposes Kinsey for using White simply to make himself seem more interesting.
5 "You're Not Much"
In the second instance where Peggy took the brunt of Joan's shamelessness, Joan is trying to help Peggy fit in and enjoy life at SC. In the aptly named "Ladies Room" episode, the two are trying to work out the dynamics of gender and office politics.
When Joan realizes that Peggy plans to eat lunch at her desk, she says, "That sandwich is making me sad," and finagles an invitation to lunch from some men. Later, Peggy complains that the libidinous attention from men in the office is making it hard for her to work, Joan tells her to "enjoy it while it lasts," explaining, "You’re the new girl, and you’re not much."
4 Cheating On Greg With Roger
Although Joan married Greg, it's her torrid relationship with Roger Sterling that all the fans love, and that can produce some of the most shameless moments from Joan. Most shamelessly, Joan decides to have sex with Roger while married to Greg, who is in Vietnam. She had previously shown she still relied on Roger, when she called him for a job. She goes out to dinner with Roger, which is itself a marginal choice, although it's not a romantic spot. After dinner, they get mugged, and after Roger gives up money and the mugger runs away, the two of them are overcome with adrenaline and passion and have sex. In an alley. Joan gets pregnant and tries to pass off the child as Greg's, though it's a thin pretense.
3 Being "Helpful" To Peggy
Joan gets off to a shameless start in the first episode. After taking Peggy around for a tour of the office and explaining some of the secretarial duties, Joan gives Peggy the helpful advice that she should go home, cut eye holes in a paper bag and put it over her head. Then she should look at herself naked in the mirror and "Really evaluate where your strengths and weaknesses are. And be honest." Ouch! It would take a long time for Peggy to get past that helpful bit.
2 Giving The Men An Eyeful During The Lipstick Demonstration
It isn't long after this that Joan demonstrates she has a clear idea of her own strengths. (Weaknesses? Perish the thought!) In the aptly titled "Babylon" episode, Joan shows that she knows just how to manipulate both the men and the women in the office.
First, Joan sells all the office girls on the idea of trying out lipstick and giving feedback. Then, knowing the men are behind the two-way mirror, she puts on a show for them, and, especially for Roger, as the two plan to meet later. She is wearing her distinctive red dress, and she knows exactly how to use it.
1 Not Burning Down McCann-Erickson
After a degrading meeting at McCann-Erickson, Joan proclaims that she wants to "burn this place down." The company essentially steals Avon, a client she brought in on her own and has managed flawlessly, by putting a clueless man on the account. Joan threatens to take her problem to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the feminist firebrand Betty Friedan. However, she doesn't do it, backing down and taking just 50 cents on the dollar for her shares in the company. But this isn't a defeat, it's a strategic withdrawal. She uses the payment as seed money to start her own production company, which she calls Holloway-Harris after Peggy turns down the offer to make it Olsen-Harris. As always, Joan is shamelessly shrewd and comes out on top.
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