This article is from the archive of our partner. Today it's Sally Draper, Don and Betty's troubled daughter. When we first meet Sally, she is more of a symbol of problems in her parents' marriage than anything else. She appears in the pilot as just a sleeping figure, someone who her father kisses as he returns home to his seemingly idyllic family life. In the second episode, she is an example of her mother's carelessness, running in with a dry cleaning bag on her head.
May is National Masturbation Month, and we're celebrating with Feeling Yourself , a series exploring the finer points of self-pleasure. For too long, female pleasure has been portrayed on-screen through the prism of the male gaze. When it comes to TV and movies, scenes portraying women masturbating are basically straight out of a male director's sexual fantasy. More often than not, the woman writhes around on her back and she's usually moaning the moment her hand comes into contact with her vulva. If only it were that easy. Truth is: We don't masturbate like that. We're not always thrashing about on our backs making loud, fake orgasm noises.
Of course not all parents agree with that. And many are flustered when confronted with the situation. On "Mad Men," young Sally Draper played by year-old Kiernan Shipka is caught masturbating on the sofa at a friend's house. The friend's mother drives her home and informs Sally's mother that under no circumstances would she allow Sally to pollute her household. Sally's mother later asks her daughter, "What's wrong with you?
Here's a way to look on the bright side for poor little Sally Draper: She managed to trump not only Peggy and Stan with their hilarious, flirtatious phone call who isn't shipping these two at this point? No, not even Bob's pass at Pete you can do better, Bob warranted the biggest reaction of last night's Mad Men episode, "Favors. Of course, the most shocking thing about the reveal of Bob's intentions wasn't his sexuality, it's that Sally didn't walk in on him bumping knees with Pete in a suggestive manner. The poor kid has the worst timing when it comes to seeing things she shouldn't at her young age.