Warning: contains spoilers for Mad Men season four.
Everything about Ida Blankenship is a punchline. From the spilt Scrabble tiles clatter of her name, to her gravelly voice and chewed-on Brooklyn vowels, to the old lady wig and post-cataract lenses used to age up and disguise the glamour of actor Randee Heller, the Mad Men character exists purely as a gag. A relatively rare one, in a show mostly fixated on existential emptiness.
The point of Miss Blankenship when she finally appears as comic relief in season four is that she’s not sexually desirable. Ad company office manager Joan billets her at Don Draper’s desk after he’s used up and discarded another in a long line of nubile young secretaries. The braying old woman’s a failsafe; she’s the bromide in Don’s coffee.
Miss Blankenship’s lack of allure is exactly what makes her reputation...
Everything about Ida Blankenship is a punchline. From the spilt Scrabble tiles clatter of her name, to her gravelly voice and chewed-on Brooklyn vowels, to the old lady wig and post-cataract lenses used to age up and disguise the glamour of actor Randee Heller, the Mad Men character exists purely as a gag. A relatively rare one, in a show mostly fixated on existential emptiness.
The point of Miss Blankenship when she finally appears as comic relief in season four is that she’s not sexually desirable. Ad company office manager Joan billets her at Don Draper’s desk after he’s used up and discarded another in a long line of nubile young secretaries. The braying old woman’s a failsafe; she’s the bromide in Don’s coffee.
Miss Blankenship’s lack of allure is exactly what makes her reputation...
- 8/21/2023
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
As Trekkies around the world mourn and reflect on the legacy of “Star Trek” icon Nichelle Nichols, those who have actually traveled into the final frontier are honoring the actress’ pivotal work in getting women and people of color into NASA’s astronaut program.
On Paramount+, alongside all of Nichols’ “Star Trek” adventures, the documentary “Woman in Motion” chronicles how Nichols used her fame as Enterprise officer Lt. Uhura to challenge NASA to seek out a more diverse set of astronauts during the development of its space shuttle program, leading to a partnership between the space agency and Nichols’ program Women in Motion.
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon in 1969 — and “Star Trek” was finishing its original run on TV — the astronaut program was exclusively filled with white men who served as military test pilots. Nichols criticized NASA for its claims that it could not find...
On Paramount+, alongside all of Nichols’ “Star Trek” adventures, the documentary “Woman in Motion” chronicles how Nichols used her fame as Enterprise officer Lt. Uhura to challenge NASA to seek out a more diverse set of astronauts during the development of its space shuttle program, leading to a partnership between the space agency and Nichols’ program Women in Motion.
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon in 1969 — and “Star Trek” was finishing its original run on TV — the astronaut program was exclusively filled with white men who served as military test pilots. Nichols criticized NASA for its claims that it could not find...
- 7/31/2022
- by Jeremy Fuster
- The Wrap
Some girls get the life they want, some girls don't. And there doesn't seem to be much of a difference yet anyway on The Deuce.
This The Deuce review contains spoilers.
The Deuce Season 2 Episode 5
“I saw on the news they even got women astronauts now,” nickel joint operator Irene says partway through “All You’ll Be Eating is Cannibals.”
She’s right, of course. Sally Ride became the first American female astronaut in 1978, the year that The Deuce Season 2 is set in. Ride would go on to become the third ever woman in space in 1983, one year after Svetlana Savitskaya and 20 years (!) after Valentina Tereshkova.
Making it to outer space has long been one of mankind’s greatest aspirations. How could it not be? It’s literally the farthest thing we can see. It is heaven itself. To this day, I’m shocked that The Onion’s Neil Armstrong...
This The Deuce review contains spoilers.
The Deuce Season 2 Episode 5
“I saw on the news they even got women astronauts now,” nickel joint operator Irene says partway through “All You’ll Be Eating is Cannibals.”
She’s right, of course. Sally Ride became the first American female astronaut in 1978, the year that The Deuce Season 2 is set in. Ride would go on to become the third ever woman in space in 1983, one year after Svetlana Savitskaya and 20 years (!) after Valentina Tereshkova.
Making it to outer space has long been one of mankind’s greatest aspirations. How could it not be? It’s literally the farthest thing we can see. It is heaven itself. To this day, I’m shocked that The Onion’s Neil Armstrong...
- 10/7/2018
- Den of Geek
Some of the women who were tested and trained the same as the Mercury 7 astronauts before Nasa shut the unofficial program down, the topic of the Netflix documentary Mercury 13, premiering on April 20. Photo courtesy of Netflix and Falco Ink.
Did you know that there were a group of women pilots who went through the same testing and training as the male pilots who became Nasa’s first astronauts, the Mercury 7? Despite the fact that 13 of the women achieved the same scores or even higher than the men chosen as astronauts, none of the women were even considered for the space program.
Likely most of you answered no, which is why this hidden bit of history makes such a good subject for Mercury 13, a documentary debuting on Netflix on April 20. Hidden Figures uncovered the untold story of mathematically-gifted women who played key roles in Nasa’s space program yet went unrecognized or worse.
Did you know that there were a group of women pilots who went through the same testing and training as the male pilots who became Nasa’s first astronauts, the Mercury 7? Despite the fact that 13 of the women achieved the same scores or even higher than the men chosen as astronauts, none of the women were even considered for the space program.
Likely most of you answered no, which is why this hidden bit of history makes such a good subject for Mercury 13, a documentary debuting on Netflix on April 20. Hidden Figures uncovered the untold story of mathematically-gifted women who played key roles in Nasa’s space program yet went unrecognized or worse.
- 4/20/2018
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
In a press interview before her first American woman to go into orbit, Sally Ride was asked if she cried when there were malfunctions in the simulator tests. Twenty years earlier in the Ussr, Valentina Tereshkova was met with similar prejudice before and after she became the first female ever to enter into Earth’s orbit. Two seemingly opposite superpowers, in the middle of a Cold War, vying for world domination had the same skeletons in their closets. It was the early ’80s and the U.S. was about to send their first female into outer space. Sally Ride graduated top of.
- 6/28/2017
- by Garrett Edell
- The Wrap
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