Almost done with my Mad Men rewatch. Don Draper is a straight up dick. And I don't mean Whitman.

But... but... he was such a victim! He was so misunderstood and unloved. I can't watch that show without feeling a white hot rage.

There's an element of victim there, sure - of his upbringing, of society's conflicting expectations of him. He wasn't unloved - he might think he was, but he couldn't see the love that people had for him (perhaps because he'd been taught he wasn't worthy of it). What is it that makes you angry?

he's an attractive mediocre man given all the options not bc he earned them but bc he was part of the man club. In the end he was a lying fraud that stole another man's identity but no consequences. As a woman, i have never and would never be offered the same opportunities as a mediocre man.

I'm not sure I agree with all of that. He certainly had the advantage of being a man, but he really didn't have any options UNTIL he stole Draper's identity. As Dick Whitman his option was "go to Korea and die". And it was a woman who gave him the opportunity to start fresh as Don Draper.

As far as being mediocre goes, his job at Sterling Cooper wasn't handed to him on a plate - he got it through persistence, and being better at what he did than someone else. Better than a woman? Hard to know, since there weren't many women in that job back then.

She was not. And Don wasn't expected to fuck half the office to get half the opportunities.

Wasn't she? Don was hired as a copywriter - Peggy was hired as a secretary and was given the position as copywriter without even asking for it. Seems to me that Don worked harder to get his break than Peggy did.