Maybe not demeaning, but she is definitely not "nice". Not the modern sense and most definitely not in the 1960s Betty Crocker Draper* way. She's... she's a social climbing, gold-digger, but hey, at least she doesn't hide it. And I truly do think she's rather bitchy/spiteful. Look at how she's treated Peggy, especially when she put on weight. Look at how she gossips with the girls one minute and the next talks all that smack. Still, she is the den mother of it all.

*I totally made myself laugh with that.