Martha Stewart: Cheater and Chump?
In a new Netflix documentary about Martha Stewart, she counsels women to leave their unfaithful husbands and then admits she was a cheater herself.
****
Many folks have sent me articles about the revelation that the doyenne of domesticity, Martha Stewart, cheated on her husband of 29-years, Andy. Who was also, reportedly, a philanderer.
I don’t care, Tracy. She makes a damn fine buttercream frosting.
Apparently, lots of you DO care, judging by the interest this has spiked in my inbox, so let’s discuss the contradictions of Martha Stewart.
Like, how Stewart became the first American woman billionaire by promoting a lifestyle of retrograde, aspirational, feminine homemaking? Or how a middle-class Polish-Catholic girl from Jersey morphed into a faux WASP with her casually elegant dinner parties and Maine summer cottage? Or how she parlayed a prison sentence for insider trading into a plucky comeback story?
Martha Stewart is a formidable character.
And I don’t mean how she frosts cupcakes. Give the woman her due. She’s re-invented herself more times than classic Coke.
“I have two mottos. One is: Learn something new every day. And the second one is: When you’re through changing, you’re through,” Stewart says in the film about her guiding philosophy. “Change that garden if you don’t like it. Rip it out and you start all over again.”
Martha Stewart
Speaking of ripping out things you don’t like… according to the documentary, Martha Stewart hasn’t spoken to her ex-husband, Andy, in over 20 years. Hard feelings over the divorce? He told producers that he didn’t stray in the marriage until Martha did.
Which, according to People magazine was during their honeymoon.
No hard topic is off the table. Stewart, 83, reveals that both she and her ex-husband, publisher Andy Stewart, had affairs during their marriage. The couple were married from 1961 to 1990 and share daughter Alexis, born in 1965.
Early in the film, Martha recalls kissing a “very handsome guy” in Florence’s Duomo on her European honeymoon while Andy was at their hotel.
“He didn’t know I was married,” she says of the stranger. “I was this waif of a girl hanging out in the cathedral on Easter Eve. He was emotional. I was emotional. It’s just because it was an emotional place. It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced.”
Hey, who among us hasn’t felt an overwhelming passion for Gothic architecture? An exquisite narthex can make anyone randy. As excuses for infidelity go, it’s kind of humble-braggy. Cultured, even.
I was so moved by Thomas Tallis, Spem In Alium, I broke into a spontaneous lap dance! Renaissance motets are emotional!
Even Martha’s extramarital snogging is classy.
But Andy was no saint.
People magazine goes on to report that Andy chumped Martha with the help. Behind those perfectly executed floral arrangements was a love triangle, held together with bespoke floral wire and free-range gooseberry stems.
“He was not satisfied at home,” Martha says in the film. “I don’t know how many different girlfriends he had during this time, but I think there were quite a few.”
Later in the film, Martha’s friend Kathy Tatlock recalls rumors that Andy had “some sort of involvement with the girl who was doing the flower arrangements” at Turkey Hill Farm (the couple’s Westport, Conn. home).
Martha says her employee needed a place to stay, so she invited her to move into an apartment in a barn on their property.
“When I was traveling, Andy started up with her,” she says. “It was like I put out a snack for Andy.”
Martha says she confronted them about the affair. “I kicked her out immediately,” she says. “You know, ‘What the hell are you doing?’”
“Andy betrayed me, right on our property,” she continues. “Not nice.”
I guess she channeled all her heartbreak into cultivating her domestic goddess persona, because they didn’t divorce until 1990.
Martha Stewart believes in “Leave a cheater, gain a life.”
In the documentary, she says:
“Young women, listen to my advice, if you’re married and your husband starts to cheat on you, he’s a piece of shit. Get out of that marriage.”
Martha Stewart
Unless that cheater is you, in which case, build an empire and a solid double standard. Still, I admire the strong message. I just wish she applied the same set of ideals to herself.
Honestly, I think the whole thing is kind of sad, really. And makes me look at her perfect holiday centerpieces with a jaded eye. You must be really good at the spackle arts, Martha.
It might be unkind to judge an 83-year-old woman by her ramblings to a journalist, but I think her critical notes about the documentary are an interesting insight into her vanity. She thinks the filmmakers spent too much time on her prison stint and not enough time on her accomplishments. Which, if I had a billion dollar empire despite a prison stint, I might think a fair point.
It’s just the accomplishments she wishes to highlight are really weird.
Martha Stewart is not a fan of her documentary.
She kvetches to the New York Times how the filmmakers overlooked some salient details, like how human garbage dump Alan Dershowitz had the hots for her in the 1960s.
“He would be dribbling on the table. That was the fun part, all of these stories. R.J. didn’t get any of that in the movie. Can you imagine?
Alan Dershowitz’s bodily fluids? No, I’d rather not, Martha. Did you whip up a meringue with his saliva?
How is being lusted by a guy who defended multiple wife murderers flattering? Ooh! Jeffery Epstein’s bestie had a hard-on for me! Yeah, you and some trafficked 15-year-old “masseuse.” But hey, he kept his underwear on. I thought you were a taste maker, Martha.
She’s a modern woman. Don’t you forget it.
Further complaining, Stewart tells Brooks Barnes:
“My magazine, my Martha Stewart magazine, which you might say is traditional, was the most modern home magazine ever created. We had avant-garde photography. Nobody ever showed puff pastry the way I showed it. Or the glossaries of the apples and the chrysanthemums. And we prided ourselves so much on all of that modernism. And he didn’t get any of that.”
THEY GOT THE PUFF PASTRY WRONG.
And that’s Martha Stewart in one sentence. The world around you may be crumbling, but goddamn it, that puff pastry is going to be PERFECT.
File under “Fucked Up Priorities.”
So why the need for Marta Stewart to air her dirty washing all of a sudden? Is she trying to sell the Netflix documentary or is she trying to “impression manage” the bits that she doesn’t think are very flattering.
Either way, I don’t think that CL has much to fear; her place in our world is secure.
LFTT
Um … 83 years old … mortality. The world WILL remember Martha as avant-garde. A puff-pastry goddess. And HOT, y’know.
Another CL zinger. BTW I’d take the Tracy pastry any day.
I love Martha and I don’t think what she did sounds so bad. There, I said it.
If the kiss on the honeymoon was it, yeah I agree. Young folks do stupid things. But, she was an odd duck, and she is right she should have pulled the plug on that marriage early on. But I don’t see her as a chump.
As far as her “felon” if the law were applied equally, most of Congress and the Senate would have prison in their past. It is no accident that they go in with not much and come out at the end stupid rich, then they lecture us about what we need to sacrifice. Insider trading at it’s best/worst.
They should ALL be prosecuted. I’m finishing up a finance and accounting degree right now, one semester left. I want to go into fraud. I wanna catch ’em all, like it’s goddamn pokemon.
“you go girl” And I mean that, best of luck to you.
I see her as a chump. Just because you appear strong doesn’t mean it hurts less… Did you know she was prosecuted in the insider trading case by James Comey?!
And?
I am glad she was prosecuted, I just wish they all were. But they won’t be, nor will I let it change my values.
I’m guessing her husband being back at the hotel on their honeymoon was a sign….
… also, she was 19 years old when it happened!
She would have likely been much happier as a single business woman without children. She made it clear that motherhood was not a natural inclination for her and I am guessing being a monogamous wife was not natural for her either. She seems to draw different boundaries for her own infidelities vs.her then husband. Kissing another man on your honeymoon feels like the eventual kiss of death to a marriage, but maybe thats just my take on all of this.
Martha Stewart’s daughter described having to raise herself as a kid, how holidays were grim, kid-unfriendly affairs and how she often went hungry because no one had bothered to stock the photo-op kitchen with food. On top of reports that Martha was a control freak who emotionally battered her employees, it all kind of validates my mother’s impression that the women– like her own mother and sister in law– who who pride themselves on excelling in traditionally hyperfeminine displays like maintaining picture-perfect homes and overly curated food presentation are often conversely callous and unmaternal.
braincramped, it’s definitely not just your take on it. If my FW XW had kissed another man on our honeymoon, I think things would have ended rather quickly. At least, I hope they would have. At my current point of character development and knowing my worth? Absolutely.
The FW XW was a devotee of Martha’s for many years. She may still be, for all I know. All I do know is, as CL said (I’m putting my own spin on it), both Martha and her former husband seem like sad, pathetic cheater types. Can’t really muster up much sympathy for either of them. And since Martha is in the spotlight, her problems w/the documentary (mockumentary?) are disturbing. Again, as CL said (pretty much).
Glad to be away from toxic people like that. I’m sure we all are. Happy Halloween, CN and CL!💀👻🎃
Martha is certainly unique. I admire what she’s created from nothing and her ability to bounce back from adversity- but I don’t think her personal life is admirable at all. She seems to value surface over substance, how things look is more important than how they really are when the cameras aren’t rolling.
I live on the east end of Long Island, Martha had a lovely house out here years ago, and she was well known to the locals as a horrible neighbor and generally mean person. I wouldn’t want to have her life, despite all the wealth and success it seems rather sad to me
Former BIL had coworker related to MS, the daughter interned for MS company one summer, said MS was not very nice. I do wonder if the same would’ve been said if she was male…
Oh I totally agree- if Martha was a man, she’d be admired for her aggressive approach to business- because she’s a woman, she just gets the Bitch label
She’s not warm and fuzzy, but you don’t get where she’s gotten without being hard edge
Still, her life, while interesting, is not something I aspire to
“Young women, listen to my advice, if you’re married and your husband starts to cheat on you, he’s a piece of shit. Get out of that marriage.”
Props to Martha for this! I hope it resonates with viewers. As Martha would say, “It’s a good thing.”
She married at 19 or 20, arguable too young. I would add: “Young women, listen to my advice. Don’t get married at 20. Wait until your cerebral cortex is fully developed. You’ll know you’ve found the right match when your husband turns you on as much as an ogee arch.”
*arguably
I never was a MS fan, but I do love her quote “it is a good thing”. We have to be able to look at the positives for sure.
I was raised in the late 1960s, 1970s and started adulting in the 1980s. During this entire time I was taught and told that women were just as good as men at everything, if not better especially when it came to relationships and judgement. Don’t get me wrong. I think women should be paid the same as men at every level for every job and are entitled to all of the health care available to them for everything involving their bodies and minds. But what I’ve learned since I started adulting back in the 1980s is that women are just people and people are fucked up. You have the good, you have the bad and you have everyone in between. The thing that gets me is that she was on her honeymoon when she kissed another man. That is some fucked up shit regardless of gender. I think Martha wanted her daughter to know who she was before she died so she could control the narrative after she was dead. Otherwise her daughter might write a book titled “Martha Stewart, a Designer’s Life: Mommy was a convicted felon and she cheated on my dad but she made incredible Crepes and Table Settings.”
I’ve been thinking a lot about the phenomenon of guy chumps and wondering what drives she-cheaters– if it’s somehow different than what drives male FWs or if there are shared demented belief systems between sucky people of both genders. So I did my usual thing of searching around the web for social research on it and ran across a rash of studies and papers about something called “hyperfemininity.”
At first I assumed this was all coming from some demented Incel/Redpill manosphere source but instead it seems to be a relatively recent hot topic with feminist social scientists. One of the papers– apparently a dissertation from about ten years ago– correlated hyperfemininity with sexual coercion towards men, including deceptive and manipulative behaviors: https://scholarworks.umb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1046&context=doctoral_dissertations
I gather that the basic idea is that “toxic masculinity” has a complimentary counterpart in “toxic femininity” and both can be destructive to intimate partners in heterosexual relationships. Of course there’s a difference between rates of extreme violence between male and female perpetrators but when looking at rates of negative relational strategies and coercion, there seems to be less of a gap.
Initially I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea because part of the exaggerated expression of femininity in so-called “toxic femininity” that’s described is subordination to men. But, ah, not just any men– only the ones who embody the toxic, dominant, knuckle-dragging ideal. The rest may be viewed with contempt as are other women.
I started to realize that patriarchal bias is as contradictory as white supremacy in many senses. White supremacists, for example, tend to have this bizarrely exaggerated concept of the virtues, purity and evolved civility of white people which– in the course of expressing their often violent and uncivilized hatred for other races– they completely and utterly contradict and, oops, end up expressing all the savagery that they projected onto targets. By the same token, a woman who views herself as a superior example of femininity and feels disdain towards women who don’t strive to the same cartoon ideal of femininity, softness and subordination may end up being, conversely, a raving, domineering, aggressive battle axe as she polices both other women and men towards her preferred concept of gender norms.
What’s really happening in both constructs is that bigoted people draw self esteem from their perceived elevated status within a particular artificial hierarchy and the idea that they– more than other, inferior types– best express the ideals of this hierarchy. The key thing in all forms of bigotry is “externalizing” all the negative human tendencies, impulses and traits that the bigot wishes to deny in themselves onto some designated scapegoat. But this externalization only has the effect of blinding themselves to these negative traits, tendencies and impulses in themselves and– tada– actually making them all the more prone to express those awful things.
In other words, it really doesn’t matter what the artificial hierarchy is based on– pimps up/hos down, race, class, etc. It’s belief in artificial hierarchy itself and the temptation to externalize all human evil onto designated scapegoats that makes people more prone to embody all the worst human traits.
Anyway, I found it interesting the chumps of both genders might have a conceptual “enemy” in common.
After all of that I’m sticking with my thesis – people are just people regardless of gender, wealth, family notoriety, etc. I think the motive for the documentary now is that Martha wants to control her life story past her life. BUT she can’t and I’m looking forward to the daughter’s book 🙂
Again what says it all for me is the insider trading: that very profitable financial cheating, the extra helping of monetary kibbles, with the sly.knowledge that she’s getting more value than anybody else to the detriment of other investors. They’re all the same, wealth, privilege and an overweening sense of entitlement are the loadstones of their essentially vacuous and venal lives and the extramarital bonking is just another manifestation of how they use other people.
I agree. I see entitlement. I remember when she got arrested and people were trying to say she didn’t realize what she was doing was wrong. She worked on Wall Street! She knew exactly what she was doing! Like she was just some little housewife who likes to make cookies being prosecuted for making a wittle mistake. Ugh. I’m not a fan. I don’t hate rich people but I sure do hate entitled people and the rich have the means to take their entitlement to the next level.
Rich people who commit financial crimes make me extra sick. They’re already rich but it’s not enough, they have to steal and cheat too. It’s just flat out greed and entitlement.
Well said, KatiePig!
I find cheating on the honemoon the piece de resistance (unless it’s an open marriage). Why do that?! I had a man grope my behind in a wedding picture. I wish I were joking. I just don’t understand this level of entitlement.
Interesting how she never said any of this before. A big part of me wonders if she’s making shit up & embellishing to get back at her ex husband for cheating on her? Or to show him that he didn’t chump her after all? Or to show him that other men desired her even if he was out chasing other women? I think she wants to portray herself as a boss & not a scorned woman. Maybe I’m on the wrong track but I know she was devastated when her husband left.
I get the feeling it’s just a glimpse into what happens when two inveterate FWs marry each other though my guess is that incident in the cathedral started as sexual assault. Anyone who’s been to Italy at the height of summer has probably seen what a perv feeding frenzy major tourist destinations become. Maybe lax rape enforcement once made Italy the “go-to” vacation spot for traveling rapists but, last I was there, no woman of any age or description could stand still for three seconds without getting mobbed. So I wonder whether Stewart just encountered one of these “rape tourists” laying in wait for any unsuspecting female with a pulse who came along but she was too dissociated to resist and just recategorized the incident in memory as a flattering mutual tryst.
I’ve also known women who were such boundary-less, damaged, narcissistic black holes in need of attention that encounters which, to any normal person, would represent traumatic sexual assault by smelly maniacs with rotting teeth, were perceived as “adventures” or some kind of homage to their irrestistableness.
My exact thoughts on what likely happened to 19-year-old newlywed Martha in Italy.
Martha comes across as someone who has had to repress a lot of traumatic incidents. I still can’t get over the horrific story of her father slapping her for getting engaged to a Jew. I give MS credit for breaking her generational curse of her dad’s white supremacy.
Oh, I think you might be onto something with that. With her ego, I could see her doing that.
About priorities and the perfect puff pastry…
I get what you’re saying, but at the same time, sometimes when everything is falling apart, it can be meaningful to focus on one small thing and do it well.
About a week after my horrible D-Day–I’ve shared this before, but it involved an armed FBI raid where we were all held at gunpoint and handcuffed because, as it turned out, my husband had a child porn habit–my best friend was scheduled to host a large tea party for her mother’s 80th birthday. (Her mother had been one of my late mother’s best friends since college.)
I had been asked to make the scones. After D-Day they were of course not expecting me to do that anymore, but I said that I still wanted to. We had a newish oven and I wasn’t sure how it was going to work, but the Goddess of Scones wrapped me in her power and I produced 60-some perfect scones (which I’ve never been able to replicate since)! It felt like a triumph—like, life can knock me on my ass, but by God I can do this one thing.
Good for you. What a horror to process!
I agree that cooking can be such a comfort. When juggling three jobs during my mess, one time I made my college kids blueberry muffins because I felt bad for neglecting them. They were soo appreciative, and we got to hang out and laugh. Therapy!
I’m so sorry. You are powerful! That’s incredible you were able to do that. I’m sure your best friend already knew you were amazing but wow, that’s so impressive. Everyone who knew what you had been through had to be in awe of you that day.
My ex got caught for the child porn and child luring after the divorce and I was so thankful it didn’t happen while we were married. I don’t know that I could have kept it together. I think you are mighty!
Martha is not at Meh. Her marriage ended many years ago, her x has remarried twice since then. I read her biography years ago, it was not very kind to her, but she was clearly devastated by her divorce (and boy, I sure do sympathize, since I’m walking that painful road myself right now)
Goes to show how deep the pain goes when you’re chumped. But I give props to Martha, she sure is a survivor
I’m at the point where I think all famous people have a screw loose. You’d have to be disordered to want fame in the first place, but then to share the most private details of your life and BRAG about being a shitty person?
I don’t get it. Let me die with close relationships, anonymity, and self-respect.
She’s a very strategic businesswoman, period. Whether she emphasizes her chump-hood or bright blue enameled cast iron pots, there’s a reason.
During my mess, I worked for a major department store, and the Martha Stewart goods were trash. You could tell that they displayed them prominently, discounted them, and counted on the volume. However, if you opened the boxes and compared enamel cast iron pans, the Martha Stewart ones were cheap but flawed. But which did we sell more of? Not the Le Creuset. The Martha Stewart ones sold like crazy.
What is the old saying “any publicity is good publicity”
She’s reinvented herself into a sex positive woman. It’s often gross. I think some people refer to it as being a pick me. Gotta talk about sex, sex, sex, and men dribbling bodily fluids over you. The grosser you get with it, the more empowered and liberated you are. Anybody who doesn’t like it is just a prude bigot and a misogynist. Everybody point and scream at the prude bigot who doesn’t want to hear details about other people’s sex lives, like this is invasion of the body snatchers! LOL Consent is not an option, it’s MANDATORY!
A few years back she started posting sexy pictures on social media. This is just a continuation of that. That’s why she wanted more of the sex stories in her documentary. Must let the whole world how much she likes sex and how she is available. I thought it was weird back then but after dealing with my divorce, it makes more sense to me now. She’s probably a psychopath, they put on new personalities like outfits. They can be very successful too and she definitely has been.
I do feel for her though with the girl she gave a home to who still slept with her husband. It’s such a kick in the teeth when you help someone and they respond by helping your spouse abuse you. I’ve been there. That’s a special kind of pain.
Since when is a kiss with a stranger considered cheating or even noteworthy? It doesn’t register on my radar for cheating. I don’t care why, when or where it happened. The fact that she was on her honeymoon, makes all of this conversation idiotic and boring.
Now, the prison term that she handled like a boss, and the fact that she was even prosecuted at all is very interesting.
Susie Lee’s point that most of the US Congress are guilty of some form of insider trading and will never be prosecuted for it is very interesting.
Misogyny, higher levels of scrutiny for women, and dual standards for women, that’s all interesting.
Lifelong feminist here, raised by radfem parents. I don’t know what’s “misogynistic” about holding women to the same standards as men regarding deceit and betrayal. If both initially agreed that the bar for cheating begins at flirting, that’s the bar for both. If both think an occasional one night stand is okay, so be it. It’s all about sexual consent.
The one exemption I can think of for cheating is the phenomenon of battered women sometimes “monkey branching” slightly more often than average just to have a body guard on hand while they make their harrowing escapes. I don’t think it’s something to cheer over necessarily because it reflects a kind of protection racket dynamic where, because the justice system and social fabric commonly fail to protect abused women, some basically have to fuck somebody to get an adequate security detail or a place to live when they bolt. I’m sure many would rather not. Plus it’s not actually a great idea because, about 50% of the time, domestic violence victims merely end up with subsequent abuser (because abusers love to wear the rescuer disguise). But, all the same, the behavior doesn’t necessarily reflect an inherent character flaw. The same person might never in a million years have cheated on a normal relationship.
She had other affairs. If you watch the trailer, the producer asks about it and she says “Yes, but Andy didn’t know about that.”
Just must say as often as possible how much I adore Tracy and how she is like a microsurgeon, finding those precision point…. But yet tying into this the big picture of the cheater and their modus operandi..how they operate and slither around in this world. Thank you Tracy as my gratitude never ever ends. She is so eloquent in her writing ✍️ and just gets to the ❤️ heart of the matter.
Then I want to add my thoughts about Martha Stewart. To say loud and clear that she is not a Chump. Maybe she WAS one once, but after you are kicking out OW ,and yelling at hubby and demanding he cease and desist such disgusting behaviors..and then you find out again?? She is a volunteer 🙋♀️ for whatever reason at whatever age. Maybe I stayed for the kids, for the financial support, for comfort, for sex, for food and clothes. Maybe for the church or duty..if I stayed and knew my partner was a cheater, I’m a volunteer. Maybe I’m afraid of dying like I was with both cheaters…still I made an exit plan and executed it. No Martha Stewart WAS a Chump at one time and emotionally shallow as all get out, but smart and rich. Lots of cheaters/ chumps are smart and rich but I’m sticking to character as my compass…. and cheating investors by inside trading is reprehensible no matter who prosecutes you.At 83 you can spill all your beans, and whine about the outcome..but Ms Martha is nobody’s Chump and does not get a pass.
I love this take. I lately thought of Martha Stewart as the worst judge on Chopped. I would get so annoyed by every episode she was in because she would inevitably make the most snooty comment bragging about her billionaire lifestyle with her gardens and whatnot. Nope. I’m out. Not surprised she pointed fingers to her ex husband with zero self reflection or accountability.
I think this is quite a mean-spirited take on Martha. Yes, she kissed a guy in the Duomo on her honeymoon. She was 19. Her husband actually was a serial cheater and ultimately married the floral arranger he was banging in their barn.
What I really take issue with here is how this post absolutely denigrates Martha for becoming the first American woman billionaire that recognized, and monetized, the creativity of female arts; gardening, cooking and entertaining. She was an innovator in absolutely every respect.
She was made an example of, sent to prison not for insider trading but for lying to the feds. Jim Comey wanted to take that uppity Bitch down a notch!
I’m disappointed to see Tracey be so harsh towards another woman, let alone another Chump.
I agree. Martha Stewart literally is telling women to leave their cheaters and she clearly pressed on and prevailed in the face of institutional misogyny. This is the core message of every post on this website! What is going on here?! Why is she still so threatening to some of you? For heavens sake, she literally went to jail! She is eighty-three years old! She deserves our respect!
She lives next door to her adult daughter and grandchild. She is fearless and authentic, vibrant, funny, wry — man, she is such an inspiration. For her to get this kind of hate in THIS group is perverse. We still have so far to go in regard to internalized misogyny. Is it possible these hateful comments and lack of empathy towards Martha Stewart are based in fear and envy? … Like lots of men feel about successful strong women who can get along just fine without them??
💯 Also, Martha was actually twice Chumped in long term relationships. First by her gross age-digging ex husband of 27 years. Next by her boyfriend of 15 yrs, Charles, who told Martha while they were in bed together on vacation that he was about to marry another woman named, Lisa. WTF? Hence, twice Chumped.
We in the black community love us some Martha. Period.
Sounds like two classic chump situations to me!
💯 “Martha” was a film example of how men want to humble women, from her husband who married Martha’s employee half her age and then he abandoned their daughter, to misogynist James Comey and his modern day witch hunts that gave us Trumpism. Like the Barbie movie told us: “Men hate women and women hate women.” Period!
See also from Cecilia Regina: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFvTRC8A/
Good points. I can’t condone cheating by either side. But, she certainly worked hard to be successful and also seemed to have a sense of humor about it all.
You should never lie to the Feds. They can lie like hell to us, but hey they know what’s best for us, just ask them.
I think Martha sold the impossible dream to those of us who don’t have lighting crews, food stylists etc. That being said, I take absolutely nothing away from her as a very driven self-made million/billionaire. In the real world I recently put a couple of her books in the free book exchange because hey, as I say, I live in the real world. On the other topic though, I’d been married about 10 days and given up my job in Switzerland to move to DC. We were visiting Shenandoah National Park and were in the gift shop when my new husband raced over to a woman and they threw their arms round each other and hugged for ages. I was nonplussed to say the least, but he brought her over to me and introduced her. Turns out she’d been stationed at the US Embassy in Egypt at the same time as he had so they knew each other from there. So no harm, no foul. Mind you, I wished she’d kept him in retrospect!
So like, I thought we were gonna “discuss the contradictions of Martha Stewart.”
Without tryna make this a diatribe, what about the fact that this “doyenne of domesticity” (was she really??) became a billionaire “promoting a lifestyle of retrograde, aspirational, feminine homemaking”?
Her entire shit was a lie! She was not any “doyenne of domesticity!” She was a cut-throat, hard-hitting business woman with a huge staff and top-notch NYC talent production and marketing team – hands down.
And more power to her, I GUESS?
Problem is, she was portraying herself as a domestic goddess, giving the women who were ACTUALLY in the domestic trenches an inferiority complex, and basically mocking and talking down to her audience or followers, if you will.
Martha was/is an anathema. She promotes what she is not. She’s a poster child for a double life and impression management. She is a projection of the falsehood of the “perfect” wife/homemaker/hostess with a side of shoving it in your face (“spin that sugar around those balls, girl! Ha ha!)
It’s disgusting – a mockery of what so many chumps did on their own – create homes, and beauty, and moments of events and holidays and poured themselves into for their families, posterity, memories…
She’s NOT a torch-bearer for women or homemakers or tradition. She’s a hard-core opportunist and likely narcissist.
Fuck her pastry balls and drab gray billionaire empire and Snoop Dog OPPORTUNISTIC alliance (no offense to SD.)
She is NOT a good thing.
I’ve tried some of her recipes. Tasteless but I guess as long as they look good?
I always thought she was fake.