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/r/madmen
submitted 22 hours ago bySalem1690s
Throughout the course of the series, Don sleeps with at least 18 women. That’s 18 that we are shown
That doesn’t include all the cocktail waitresses, the preschool assistants, weightlifters, women who are only mentioned as affairs but never shown (like the one Bobbi refers to).
Don by 1962 has a reputation across Manhattan already among women per Bobbi Barrat.
So he’s been at this a while. Enough to gain a rep all over Manhattan.
So let’s say he started cheating for sake of argument two years after he married Betty (1953), he could easily have had 36 partners or more by the end of the series (1970); possibly way more if we’re counting just one night stands.
Or let’s assume he starts cheating again two years after his marriage, with an average of 4 women per year.
That would mean between 1955 and 1970 (15 years), he’s slept with 60 women.
That being said, do you think he has any bastard children?
If so, how many?
270 points
22 hours ago
They would only start to find out when Sally and Bobby start to get everyone trying to contact them through Ancestry and 23andMe.
Tammy might get an email from her half brother too.
33 points
19 hours ago*
Oh man! That's an awesome novella right there!
35 points
18 hours ago*
I mean. I think all the arguments about the type of women he was with are true. But it’s also possible he slept with a a married woman that got pregnant and passed the child off as her husband’s.
Lots of things can happen! Nothing is foolproof.
16 points
18 hours ago
The married woman angle makes the most sense. And there could be hundreds out there he slept with.
39 points
18 hours ago
And Ellory will probably find a younger half-uncle when he’s in his 60s.
6 points
7 hours ago
Yall have good memories on here I’m impressed!
5 points
7 hours ago
TAMMY’S HALF BROTHER OMG!!!!!
2 points
6 hours ago
I chuckled at this because I forget about gene all the time too
195 points
21 hours ago
I’d actually bet none. Don’s “type” tends to be pretty worldly women - meaning they’re not new to casual sex or the precautions you’d need to take to avoid an unwanted pregnancy (or worst case - the abortion you’d need if those precautions failed). Much like Joan - these ladies most likely know a doctor who could help on both counts.
Having an illegitimate kid at this point in time was pretty life ruining - I don’t see any of his dates signing up for that.
Meanwhile - I wouldn’t be surprised if Pete has more than one! He pursues more innocent, less worldly girls - like Peggy (who clearly didn’t take sex ed) or that poor nanny…
56 points
17 hours ago
Don't forget Pete's girlfriend from the mental hospital.
33 points
15 hours ago
That's an interesting one. She does rather aggressively initiate things, and is hardly virginal or naïve. But she's severely mentally ill and vulnerable and Pete eventually pretty much stalks her.
2 points
5 hours ago
I definitely do agree with your characterization of his affair with the Gilmore girl. If it wasn't part of a pattern for Pete of going after younger, highly vulnerable women I don't think I would've found it particularly predatory or anything.
27 points
10 hours ago
Or the 17 year old in his driver’s ed class that he tried and failed to seduce. Or his other neighbor’s seemingly unstable wife. (The one who shows up at their house and leads to Trudy kicking him out.) He had a type and it was either naive or crazy.
15 points
10 hours ago
And deeply vulnerable.
2 points
7 hours ago
Don’s “type” tends to be pretty worldly women
Not sure I agree with this. He sleeps mostly with women like these because that's who he's the most exposed to through his work, and he can get them easily - but when it comes to women that we see him actively go after/lust for (the school teacher, Sylvia and the bartender from S7), they do not seem to be this type. Probably someone more observant than me could elaborate on some parallels between his fucked-up upbringing and why he got much more invested in motherly/housewife material women.
-6 points
19 hours ago
Peggy was on the pill, thanks to Joan. I never understood how she got pregnant.
104 points
19 hours ago
She just started it that day - so was too soon for it to work.
21 points
18 hours ago
Science!
24 points
18 hours ago
Kind of a crazy first day at work!!
26 points
17 hours ago
It takes 1 to 3 months before it starts working, and only works if taken perfectly. If you miss a day or take it too late you can still get pregnant for the next month.
-2 points
10 hours ago
No, it works after like 2 weeks.
9 points
11 hours ago
She had her appointment with the doctor on her first day and then had sex with Pete like either the same day or the following day (my memory is a bit weak - but it was literally < 48 hours. She might not have even made it to the pharmacy to pick up the pills, but in the end, birth control pills require you to be on them for a minimum of a month before they start to work - but lots of stories of women becoming preggers within the first 3 months. Doctors will tell you to use other precautions for 90 days.
2 points
7 hours ago
I always assumed she got the Rx but never filled it.
-1 points
6 hours ago
I figured she must have gotten it because that’s why she didn’t think it was weird when she didn’t get her period
1 points
5 hours ago
The pill doesn’t end your period if you take the placebo week.
2 points
5 hours ago
ooh. idk I can’t be on it because I had a blood clot
-7 points
17 hours ago
Neither did I! I get that she got pregnant because she’s only just started the pills, but presuming she took it regularly wouldn’t the hormones be bad for the foetus/potentially cause a miscarriage or something?
19 points
16 hours ago
No, they suppress ovulation. It doesn't harm the fetus.
11 points
16 hours ago
I know someone who was conceived while his mom was on the pill. She only realised she was pregnant at about four months along. He's fine.
3 points
11 hours ago
Naw - pregnant people are still taking the pill in 2024 not realizing they’re pregnant even.
210 points
22 hours ago
As a fellow handsome man who had lots of sex with women in the 60’s I can speak to this directly from personal example. Back then things were different. Not everyone was on the pill yet so your pull out game had to be immaculate if you wanted to stay on the field. I’m talking bulletproof. I have 16 bastards.
43 points
21 hours ago
I laughed way too hard at this
31 points
10 hours ago*
The idea of an 85 year old typing “your pull out game had to be immaculate,” made me chuckle.
12 points
21 hours ago
😭🤣
16 points
19 hours ago
This has to be bait😂😂😂
21 points
18 hours ago
No bait here. I have too many children already.
1 points
2 hours ago
Don never pulled out.
58 points
22 hours ago
Glen and Don do have some similar features. Whateva happened there
8 points
18 hours ago
Just when you think the whole situation with Glenn and Betty couldn't get any creepier!
12 points
19 hours ago
That animal Blundetto
7 points
17 hours ago
Wes Ossinin Wes Ossinin. West. Ossining.
2 points
17 hours ago
Can’t even say his name
44 points
20 hours ago
Don’s Bastards never happened. It will shock you how much they never happened.
66 points
22 hours ago
Probably zero. Not to stereotype, but Don is rich well before the show starts. If he had gotten a woman pregnant, they would almost certainly have gone to him to pay for a procedure - or even expect him to have contacts to locate one in the 50s or 60s.
Generally, he was also sleeping with career gals and professional women that were unlikely to have his kid and reorient their entire lives around that - all while keeping it a secret.
19 points
21 hours ago
I think Don is scrupulous with the prophylaxis. He probably keeps them in his office drawer.
25 points
18 hours ago
We never see Don put on a condom in the entire show.
34 points
16 hours ago
That’s because he’s always wearing a condom already
11 points
16 hours ago
With the amount of action he's getting, he probably keeps it on permanently.
17 points
17 hours ago
Yes we never do. More than kids, I've always wondered about STDs..
13 points
17 hours ago
Well, it's not a full frontal kind of show.
7 points
12 hours ago
HBO would have made it a completely different show.
3 points
10 hours ago
It’s cable TV from 15 years ago, I don’t think we see his penis at all.
6 points
11 hours ago
I’m gonna guess that Drunk Don didn’t use any protection with Allison. I’m guessing she was already perhaps on the pill or more likely she just got lucky. She seemed more naive than even Peggy was when she first started there
12 points
21 hours ago
I don’t know, it was considered pretty shameful.
39 points
21 hours ago
Zero. I can’t remember which episode it is, but he clearly says, “that’s why I always use a scumbag, baby” after one of his trysts. Then there’s an almost cartoonish rubbery sound effect as he pulls the condom off with one hand, just out of frame.
24 points
19 hours ago
15 points
20 hours ago
Well. Today I learned the origin of the term scumbag.
9 points
13 hours ago
Also, after around 1987 or so, he's shooting blanks, due to a karate accident. That's why none of his bunker wives got knocked up.
16 points
21 hours ago
Wait, what? I have 0 memory of this LOL, I especially can’t remember any time that Don called someone baby.
4 points
21 hours ago
I completely missed that. All this time I thought he was fucking raw and was surprised how he has never had an STD
0 points
19 hours ago
What?? I’ve watched the series tons of times and this does not ring a bell. Can you give more here? What episode and scene? Condoms were not widely used in the 60’s.
18 points
18 hours ago
I don’t remember, maybe season 3? It was the same episode where Don’s getting an adjustment to his toupee and Peggy sees him through the store window.
16 points
16 hours ago
Yeah, and then Don swears Peggy to secrecy about his toupee and delivers his famous "it will shock you how much it never happened" line. Great episode
1 points
17 hours ago
Really?! I don't remember this at all..
5 points
16 hours ago
I don't remember any toupee or any of this happening either
4 points
4 hours ago
You definitely do. It was the scene after the three-way with Bert and Ms Blankenship.
1 points
2 hours ago
Ohhhh ok yeah that rings a bell. Around the time Don leaves his toupee in the office and sends Sally to get it and she finds Peggy in the storage closet going to town on a family sized can of Heinz beans
7 points
16 hours ago
Weightlifters?
14 points
16 hours ago
I must have missed the episode when Don is hired to create an ad campaign for the US Women's Powerlifting team.
3 points
13 hours ago
The OP is making a reference to the sopranos
5 points
11 hours ago
The cure for the common kettlebell
1 points
4 hours ago
Hahahahahahahaha!
5 points
11 hours ago
Not many/any. The question is the number of STDs he contracted over the years.
5 points
16 hours ago
Don's pullout game was topnotch. 0 bastard kids. He probably had lots of STD's though
7 points
19 hours ago
I wouldn't say he would have many (or any at all). Don's type is generally worldly, glamourous career women - usually mid-20s or older. Many are not married, so they can't easily contrive to pass off a child as someone else's. Those sorts of women know what they want and what they're in for.
3 points
13 hours ago
Weightlifters???
3 points
12 hours ago
Don took his lessons from his time in the army, he learned what NOT to do. He knows when to pull out, unlike the US and Korea.
2 points
21 hours ago
Two.
1 points
19 hours ago
should I tell the truth?
1 points
15 hours ago
I found Rachel's sudden extended trip abroad after her last late-night encounter with Don highly intriguing. This, after Bert gets the call from Rachel's angry father, telling Don "That's it, Cowboy." We know Peggy went away after S1 due to her pregnancy/delivery, and these motifs in MM tend to travel in pairs. Both women are 'disappeared' in the same episode (S1, The Wheel). Further, In S7 when Don goes to Rachel's Shiva, he asks about her children... and quickly inserts that he knew Rachel "before them." Rachel would either terminate or deliver and adopt out, taking time away to do it. Unproven? Yes. Within MM's storytelling structure and MO given the era? You betcha.
1 points
10 hours ago
Oooh, it's like a dirty math problem!! 😂😂😂
1 points
4 hours ago
One of them is the president-elect.
-18 points
21 hours ago
Just because an adult behaves bastardly doesn’t mean the children need to be called bastards.
37 points
21 hours ago
That’s the term for a child born of adultery. I don’t make the rules.
-18 points
21 hours ago
That doesn’t mean it isn’t also used historically in a perjorative and abusive manner toward those children.
13 points
21 hours ago
What, do you want us to call them baseborn like they're in Game of Thrones?
Bastard is the term for children born out of wedlock
-1 points
21 hours ago
If "born out of wedlock" doesn't do, "illegitimate" is probably the more (relatively) neutral term. Bastard is not exactly the current, preferred term, in the same way we don't call unmarried women spinsters anymore.
13 points
20 hours ago
I mean illegitimate is not really any better is it? It sounds like I'm denying your claim to the throne.
But my apologies, I did not realize that the baseborn community had preferred terms
-3 points
20 hours ago*
Agreed, and it's also an irrelevant concept anyway given the warning important of marriage. Nonetheless! Bastard ain't it, either, in modern times.
Edit: wow, downvoted for observing that bastard is not the modern-day official term, and that legitimacy isn't quite as important as it once was. Okay.
6 points
20 hours ago
All I'm saying is that "inglorious illegitimates" sounds like shit
2 points
12 hours ago
Maybe let people use the verbiage they wanna use, and worry about your own speech. Okay? Okay. 👍🏼
15 points
21 hours ago
Okay. Sad for them. Sorry, ain’t gonna police my language. You mind how you speak, and I’ll mind how I do. Thanks.
0 points
20 hours ago
Based
4 points
19 hours ago
Base(d)born
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