Imagens e imaginários das secretárias em Mad Men: uma análise retórico-discursiva das personagens Peggy Olson e Joan Holloway

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the socio-discursive imaginaries surrounding the secretarial profession as portrayed in television series Mad Men, as well as the secretary ethé constructed in the aforementioned audiovisual product, notably with respect to the characters Joan Holloway and Peggy Olson, chosen as the object of this study. Mad Men is a 2007 US media production that depicts the professional daily life of US advertising agencies in the 1960s, under the aegis of the social changes that occurred at that time in the country. Specifically, we were seeking to (1) examine the verbal, non-verbal and para-verbal elements (KERBRAT-ORECCHIONI, 1996) of the scenes chosen for analysis; (2) delineate the subjects in interaction in each communicative situation (CHARAUDEAU, 2009); and (3) identify, by means of thematic axes, the imaginaries and the secretary ethé in the series. The methodological assumptions this study was based upon for data collection considered the approaches of Mendes (2013) and Lima (2001), in regards to, respectively, the verb-iconic and verb-vocal strata of the scenes, aiming at a rhetoric-discursive analysis. Through our analyses, we found that the ethé of the character Joan are closer to the previous ethé of a secretary at that time, e.g. beauty, seduction, elegance, femininity, and objectification. Peggy, on the other hand, displays ethé that in a certain way evoke a rupture when compared to those of Joan’s, e.g. discretion, seriousness, intelligence, effectiveness, and productivity. In other words, it was possible to observe a fracture in the representation of the secretarial profession in Mad Men, in a non-homogeneous, contradictory representation of the reality, such as the series portrays. We also evinced a non-homogeneity in the representation of each of the characters, since they both display characteristics that may point towards a mixture of innovation and traditionalism: in Joan’s case, while the ethé of the “stereotypical” secretary are projected, there is also the construction of an avant-garde, emancipated, modern woman; as for Peggy’s case, the professional competence ethé are permeated by a bias of depreciation, disregard, and disqualification. In our understanding, there is a degree of complexity permeating the images of the two characters under study, considering the overlapping between (1) the imaginaries related to the context of the series, (2) the imaginaries arising from the achievements of social movements, e.g. the feminist movement, (3) the contemporary imaginaries of the series producers, and (4) the contemporary imaginaries of the interpretative subject (TUi) of Mad Men. Therefore, we observed that, while there is a revival of crystallized images surrounding the office secretary, as well as the female presence in the corporate environment—many of which come in the sense of damaging the credibility of secretaries and women in business—, there is also a projection of ethé that challenge these pre-conceptualized constructions, pointing towards the establishment of certain values worth praising. Thus, we were able to verify a redesign of the images of a group of women in the 1960s whose professional attributes would represent an advance to the female presence in the corporate environment of that time.