Don Draper

It's that time again! Mad Men is back for another stylish, symbol-packed season, and your faithful recappers Kelsey, Andi, and Annalee are here to break it down and hash it out. For those of you new to our Mad Men recaps, be forewarned that these aren't linear summaries, but rather discussions of the key plot points and most compelling questions of each episode—and yes, you can be sure there are some spoilers, so proceed accordingly.

Last night's season premiere was a two-hour mood-setting piece that took us from Oahu at Christmas to the sunken living room of the Draper's New York pad on New Year's Eve. We know that 1968 is a big year, filled with civil-rights protests, the assassinations of both RFK and MLK, and the advent of the Nixon administration. But right now, all our friends in the world of Sterling Cooper Draper Price know is that it's a time when fondue pots are on sale at Bloomingdale's and everything smells like reefer.

The Mad Men fans among us will never forget "The Other Woman." In a season filled with beautiful, heart-wrenching, affecting episodes, "The Other Woman" stands out as one of the best, and we aren't the only ones who think so: The episode is nominated for Emmys in the acting, writing, and directing categories this year. Not only that, the Daily Beast is publishing a two-part oral history on the episode with Christina Hendricks and Matthew Weiner, part one of which went up today.

Yesterday, my bf emailed me an article from the consistently obnoxious and terrible men's site askmen.com. Apparently, the hard-hitting journalists working over there were interested in determining the Most Influential Man of 2009, and the winner (chosen through a reader poll) was Mad Men's fictional philanderer Don Draper. You know, because television characters should really be the most influential people in our lives.

At any rate, my beau found the news of Draper winning this award even more ridiculous and upsetting than I did, so I asked him to write a brief response to the article from The Male Perspective. Read it after the jump!