“Bras are for men. Women want to see themselves the way men see them.” — Paul Kinsey

Looks like Maidenform went ahead and took Paul’s campaign! After all, it wasn’t doing much good wasting away in Playtex’s archives. The (real) 1960s ad on left bears a striking resemblance to the Jackie/Marilyn dynamic theme from the episode “Maidenform”.

Paul’s brilliant campaign resulted in a bit of a downer for Pegs — she realized she’s not a Jackie or a Marilyn. Someone meanly snickers she’s more of a Gertrude Stein, and Don compares her to Irene Dunne, but really what the girl is, is Katharine Hepburn. You know?

The Jackie/Marilyn (Madonna/whore) dichotomy has been around for much longer than the two women. I don’t know how Paul came up with such a thing (it’s Paul for God’s sake) but it plays very deeply into a part of the female psyche that has struggled with these two perceptions ever since we began talking about sex openly.

• footnote - by Natasha Simons