If you think television doesn’t influence the world we live in – think again.  Television is bringing back racism, sexism and the glass ceiling every Sunday night in the critically acclaimed television show Mad Men. The main character Don Draper, was voted number one in AskMen.com’s Top 49 Most Influential Men of 2009. The fictional character beat out, President Obama, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and others for the number one spot.

According to James Bassil, Editor-in-Chief of AskMen.com, “In a turbulent 2009, men are seeking the stability of tradition in the masculine qualities that they imagine their fathers and grandfathers to have had. The character of Don Draper brings all these traits together, and in doing so speaks directly to the modern man. He’s a man whose time has come.”

He’s a man whose time has come? If his time has come, then we’re back to racism, sexism and glass ceilings.  Don drinks like a fish, smokes like a chimney, cheats on his wife, calls his secretary ‘honey’ neglects his children and lives in a ‘lily white’ world.  Have I missed something?

Wake up people. Don Draper isn’t real.  He came from the mind of creator Matthew Weiner.  Each week, his words and actions are carefully scripted and directed by the talented television folk who have created what I think is a genius show.  But emulate Draper?  Men of 2009 want to emulate Don Draper?  I’m in shock. Mad Men reinforces why we protested against the mores of that time. The world of Don and Betty Draper are so clearly a picture of a nation sleepwalking. Clearly a nation that needed a wakeup call. And in fact the late 60’s and early 70’s were that wakeup call. Go back? To what? To a time when women and everyone else who wasn’t a white male were second class citizens? I don’t think so. But then again I’m not a white male living in 2009. I’m a woman living in 2009. And between family obligations, job responsibilities and trying to bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan I’ve got my own problems. But I’d never want to emulate Betty Draper.  She’s a woman from my mother’s era and trust me when I say we fought long and hard not to be her anymore. Where we are now is certainly not a bed of roses but when I see Betty appear in her Jackie O. outfits each week suffering from ennui because she’s so damn misunderstood and unfulfilled; well I’ll take my life any day. And so no matter how ‘romantic’ they make that bygone era appear I’m no longer drinking the Kool Aid and I can see it for what is – entertainment.

Television is a powerful medium, I mean if today’s men have hankering to be Don Draper, well my goodness, what more proof do we need that television does influence the culture.