OPINION: Martha Stewart is a feminist icon in ways you never imagined

Editor’s note: sarah archer I am a design and culture writer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, Vox, and The Washington Post, and her books include Midcentury Kitchen and Catland: The Soft Power of Japanese Cat Culture. There is. She writes a newsletter.cold war correspondent” The views expressed here are her own.read more opinion On CNN. New CNN Original Series “The Lives of Martha Stewart” Sunday premiere, January 28th at 9pm ET/PT.

CNN
—

It’s rare to meet someone completely uninterested in Martha Stewart. She has rabid fans, detractors, defenders, apologists, and critics.

For some of us, she is best known for her downfall. In 2004 and 2005, she was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction, and lying to federal investigators regarding stock sales, and spent five months in a minimum-security prison. To someone in their 20s, she would probably seem like a quirky and very funny serial entrepreneur.

In recent years, she’s opened a signature restaurant in Las Vegas, participated in a relentless roast of Justin Bieber on Comedy Central, invested in a CBD startup, promoted BIC Lighter with Snoop Dogg, and made an unexpectedly fruitful public appearance. enjoy the perks of friendship. This shows Martha coming into her own with a relaxed public image that would have been unthinkable 30 years ago. She models for Skechers on her Instagram feed, and in 2023, at age 81, she appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in a swimsuit. This isn’t the Martha I remember, but it’s nice to know that this terribly funny swimsuit model was Martha. she’s been there forever.

The Martha of my youth was a kind of intellectual domestic goddess whose media persona and steely perfectionism were both polarizing and fascinating. She was a master of “housework” and had a particularly gentle and unambiguous impression, but she was also a self-made millionaire who specialized in the art of polishing various types of metal, and she was not self-deprecating but straightforward and confident. He was also a television icon full of personality. She endured brutal media coverage and never seemed to consider disappearing. Her insight that women would happily watch others do elaborate domestic projects on TV is undoubtedly the ancient seedbed of today’s social media influencer landscape.

Although the ornaments of her empire seemed personal and feminine: baskets, gardening supplies, and flour-dusted marble countertops, her empire flourished in the business world. If critics resist characterizing Martha as a feminist symbol because she deals in the domestic sphere, it is important to note that Martha has always been an explicit model of entrepreneurship; It should be noted that there is a problem.

For women who remember the “Martha Stewart Living” media empire at the height of its influence in the 1990s, she can evoke a sense of inadequacy. Unlike her mid-20th century counterpart Julia Child, Martha’s sincere charm and warm acceptance of her misfortune endeared her to audiences across the country. perfection. The sight of Martha dressing her Thanksgiving turkey, rewiring an antique lamp, and building a dove bar from scratch reflects a woman’s feelings about her domestic sphere and her place within it. Provides a kind of Rorschach test to find out. And this is not because Martha herself is a perfect housekeeper. This is because the stage for her professional ambitions and success happened to be the flourishing of her family.

I was in high school when “Martha Stewart Living” became a weekend television staple, and my mother would wake me up on weekends and watch the show while I ate breakfast. We were both intrigued by the confidence in his unique voice. Collecting transferware pottery and Fire King jadeite, sophisticated Halloween decorating ideas, advice on the best way to clean windows, tips for buying furniture at auction, and quirky pet expert Mark Morrone. I learned a lot from everything, including the section about insights from people.

Concepts of ease, shortcuts, speed, or seeming ease rarely surfaced. Ingenuity, quality, and the value of good information were paramount. To women of Martha’s generation (who had reached the age of majority in 1974, when women won the right to claim credit in their own names), Martha’s high standards felt like an impossible obligation; It may feel like an unmet standard (even in that form). Not having the time or inclination to do these things in the first place) meant failure as a hobby, or worse, as a woman.

In my case it was different. As a teenager, reading Martha’s magazines and enjoying Martha’s TV shows was a little like reading Vogue or watching the Olympics. I marveled at what I was seeing, and dove down a research rabbit hole, inspired by Martha’s penchant for antiques and historic paint, occasionally imagining what it might be like on a hardwood floor. I wanted to apply a complex gingham pattern and that’s it.

I loved Martha because at the time, I didn’t really think about what it meant to be valued as a housekeeper, mother, and hostess while working full time. Back then, as now, I wondered what it was like for Martha herself to be at a disadvantage, as a working mother, trying to advance her career as a stockbroker, caterer and media mogul. I didn’t imagine there would be one.

Part of Martha’s message was the appeal of avoiding off-the-shelf products and making things from scratch. This ethos is deeply rooted in her 1970s natural food movement, and Martha’s own hard-working childhood experiences make her perfectly equipped to teach others how to make preserves and plant gardens. I was there. But she wasn’t exactly anti-business either. She passionately defended a particular brand: her own.

A cultural phenomenon, a zeitgeist thinker, and—yes—influence long before the concept existed for most people, Martha’s toolkit draws from the aesthetics, techniques, pleasures, and challenges of the domestic world. Constructed. She was never a housewife as we understand her. From her modeling to catering, from Wall Street to Turkey Hill, she has used her expertise developed as a child and young woman to build businesses in creative areas that feel natural to her.

This paradox is why people still have such strong opinions about Martha, and why there was such enthusiasm for Martha among adults I knew in the 1990s, especially women. It helps to explain. Like the chatter that followed Vogue editor Anna Wintour, there was always talk in the publishing world that Martha was demanding, exacting, and difficult to work with. There was little criticism of the magazine or the brand itself.that was always the case she.

Martha’s perfectionism may seem like a mockery of women balancing 1990s-era professional lives with 1950s-style family responsibilities. And indeed, the ritual of creating something from scratch unites a group of curious people. Some, like me, see it as a fun form of procrastination, while others think it’s the right kind of work for women in a gender-obsessed society. Norms. Part of the appeal is the fact that these chores take time. When women are confined to their homes, they are more likely to withdraw from professional and public life.

Housework is still as demanding as ever. Martha’s vision touted the creativity of domestic work, but work is work, and for domestic workers, too many face low wages, workplace abuse, and other forms of insecurity. I am. In heterosexual marriages and cohabitations, women still take on the lion’s share of housework and caregiving.

To make matters worse, the domestic reality for many American women is receding. Following Dobbs’ decision in 2022, the hard-won victories of the 1970s certainly look very vulnerable. Even no-fault divorce, first legalized in California in 1969 and as central to many women’s ability to assert personal autonomy as credit cards, has come under increasing attack. Everything that allows women to live fulfilling lives: health care, personal autonomy in finances and relationships, access to educational opportunities, career advancement and worker protection, and access to child care. It remains shamefully out of reach for too many Americans. woman.

At a time when the brand of feminism has seen better days, and the fruits of its hard-won victories are even more shaky than they have been over the past 50 years, it is timely to consider Martha’s career and cultural impact. Thing. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that homey content is hotter than ever. Trad wives pepper their Instagram feeds, cleaning their homes with baking soda by candlelight and mixing home-woven tableaus with decidedly regressive beliefs about family and gender.

In the 1990s, Martha went from being a simple caterer to a media personality, and it may have seemed like she had struck gold in the television and publishing world by chance. Because she communicated in a historically feminine domestic language, her acumen as a strategic businesswoman was underestimated by nearly everyone. But most of all, she’s a smack dab who directly benefited professionally, creatively, and financially from the advances of second-wave feminism.

Why does Martha continue to fascinate us? Perhaps it’s nostalgia. It’s not about antiques or short-cut baking, it’s about America’s promise that women like Martha can monetize the mysteries of home economics on a grand scale and put it in the service of empire, rather than the other way around.