Like a lot of people I’ve recently become addicted to Mad Men - I adore it! The only thing I don’t so much adore is watching how horribly the women characters are treated on the show…

The show takes place in the early 60’s (the first season was set in 1960 - the second season starts in 1962) and follows the lives of those in the Madison Avenue advertising world (where the “Mad” Men in the title comes from). The office dynamics for the ladies are quite atrocious. Check out this someone telling youtube mashup of some of the more deplorable behavior on the show - # 8, 4,3 and 2 are pretty telling:

And that’s just a small example..

This doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the show, I love love love it - it’s like when Robert Altman said he made movies about the way things are/were - not they the way things should be. While hard to watch, the eye-opening reality of what that time was like is somewhat extraordinary.

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I think we can agree that that the environmental movement has taken a strong foothold when even the billboards in Times Square are getting into the green act - the landmark area will get its first solar- and wind-powered billboard come December. From livescience.com,

The billboard, for Ricoh Americas‘ parent company Ricoh Company Ltd. of Tokyo, will measure 47 feet (14 meters) high by 126 feet (38 meters) long. Its floodlights will be powered on site by 45 solar panels and four wind turbines.

The result will reduce carbon dioxide usage by 18 tons a year, Marchetta said.

If replacing one billboard in Times Square reduces carbon dioxide usage by a ton and a half a month, I shudder to think how much energy is going into all the other signage out there.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie Halper:

“The First Time I Every Saw Your Face” May Be the First Time You Hear About Ewan MacColl

California’s Gay Marriage Ban Overturned & 5 Ways To Take Action

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Nicole Hughes:

“Bottlemania” Book Takes Bottled Water Industry To Task

Arnold Tells Automakers To “Stop Whining” About Tougher California Emissions Standards

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Andy Kondrat:

Department of Energy Forecasts Large Increase In Wind Power Usage

Edward Norton & Gavin Newsom Speak To Congress About Environmental Building Practices

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Jon Popham:

Spencer Tunick Strips Hundreds Naked

Lichtenstein Sculptures At Fairchild Garden In Miami

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Giulia Rozzi:

Does Being Ethical Pay?

Is the Anti-Female Genial Mutilation Campaign Offensive?

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Gina Telaroli:

A Global Look At Media On Pangea Day

Everything Cinema: Brody Takes On the Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard

Feministing commented on the new anti-female genital mutilation campaign by the Association of Women against Genital Mutilation (AMAM). The ad copy reads: “More than 140 million women in the world are condemned to feel nothing” and features the image here of a blow-up doll. Feministing had this to say about the ad:

I’m all for raising awareness about FGM, but this campaign really rubs the wrong way. It reduces women to their body parts and the issue to just a sexual one. Using a blowup doll to depict a woman who has undergone FGM is incredibly offensive - they’re literally being portrayed as no longer human, just a sex toy.

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