“It feels safer to believe that one person will always come out of the relationship with clean hands, and that only monsters hurt people. But this belief can actually make it harder for victims to get out of abusive situations. Abusers are human; so are the people they abuse. Both parties are capable of feeling and inflicting pain. If we can’t envision abusers as anything less than monstrous, or if we require victims to be perfect, then identifying and escaping abuse becomes that much harder. None of this is any excuse for abuse, because there is no excuse for that; still, maybe just because of its basis in well-known abuse cases, “The Way You Lie” has become a way for many people to discuss the ways in which our picture of abuse sometimes diverges from the reality. And that discussion is important.”

“We wanted Betty to read The Feminine Mystique and get her mind blown and rise above; or, we wanted her to stay a victim, so we could relate to her better, or at least keep feeling sorry for her. But sometimes, people just get damaged until they start damaging. Sometimes, people are lost. We hate Betty now because she’s not going to stay a victim, but the truth is, she’s also not going to be saved.”

“Mad Men has become one of our most popular tools for talking about white, straight male privilege in America; it’s all but allegorical in its treatment of it. And both potential resolutions to the problem of Don are satisfying as allegory. No matter how much resistance that privilege meets, it tends to find a way to preserve itself, and to maintain control of the world around it, like Don. No matter how powerful that privilege is, it’s always being met with resistance, also like Don.”