Not A Good Thing

[chenanceou]

This is a rant. This is a rant about a somewhat controversial celebrity.
My opinions do not reflect those of LJ.

I like Martha Stewart.
No, I don't know her personally, so this is the I like reserved for celebrities. It usually translates to: I like her work and have a vague idea that I would find her interesting to talk to if I sat down next to her at a dinner party. What I know is that I have a great admiration for someone who took the extremely unappreciated task of homemakers and elevated it to an art form. Not to mention the whole from caterer to big Kahuna worth billions in 20 years or so.
Glad we got that out of the way.

Now, I'm not into housekeeping at all. I'm the kind of person who hides the mountain of laundry in some closet for as long as I have clean underwear and who has written down contracts establishing I don't do dishes and then had live-ins signing them to acknowledge they accepted those terms. I'm one of those women who is driven bonkers by men sitting down waiting for the meal to be announced as if it was their birthright to be waited upon. If one day I ever get married - he better have skills (ironing, cleaning, vacuuming, hospital corners). No wonder I'm not.

Anyway, I digress. This is about Martha. Parodies and satires abound when it comes to the woman and I get they're funny. What I don't understand are the people out there who criticize her for establishing an unachievable level of perfection for homemakers. Hello! Only someone totally stupid anal would go for the exact same result one gets on a magazine or tv show. If you stop and read the list of staff on both of those you will see it does take a village. Martha is selling a product - would you buy it if it was lopsided and runny? No. You want it to be beautiful and as perfect as you can get.

Then there's Martha herself. Not one of the warmest people in the kingdom and you know she has control issues. At the same time she tells a large number of people staying at home that what they do matter - that they are as important to the family as their commuting partners. This is the woman who doesn't have any problems showing a gay couple on her magazine and featuring them as an example of great entertaining at home (and without the whole: "look they're gay and ain't I nice to put them in my magazine?"). This is the woman who managed to teach me how to make a very good Caesar's salad in her 101 article. This is the woman who made herself into a brand name by working her behind off.

Driven. Ambitious. Perfectionist. Controlling even. Oh, don't forget female! The female is very important since all those qualities are suddenly turned upside down due to her lack of a penis. She's a bitch, you see. Any woman who makes it to the spotlight and is brave enough to not pretend it was all some accident and Oh! my... I have no idea how I got everything I did! is usually labeled as one. I'm of the you call me a bitch as if that was a bad thing school, but it drives me up the wall when they do it out of ingrained paternalistic, chauvinistic preconceptions of what a female should be.

If she's guilty or innocent of insider trading, fraud or whatever else they pile on her should be decided in a court of law and by the testimonies and evidences presented there. Not, and I can't emphasize this enough, by the joy some people get from seeing someone who strove for perfection and is a self-made woman getting into trouble. She's worth billions and she isn't hugable? Let's burn her!

Public opinion is mostly manipulated in some way and the vast majority is as fickle as can be in their tastes. A small minority takes the time to question what is served to them by the news or to look past the general opinions flying around. I'm guilty of the first and will only do the second when it's something that grabs my interest - so not saying I'm the bastion of insight or anything like that. I'm just sitting here and wondering why Martha is being crucified when there are many others involved in the same case that aren't being fed to the media. I know, hon... She's a celebrity and her face has been all over for years now.

It's the Ivory Soap syndrome. You know? The Ivory Soap model way back when? She later went on to become a porn actress of some notoriety due to the fact she had been the Ivory Soap 99.99% pure girl. No! Not saying Martha is going into porn. What I am saying is that people get a cheap thrill out of seeing something that was all square and neat being hacked to pieces.
Make no mistakes - with her image compromised, the corporation stocks going down and her losing the helm of the company by stepping down (a company she built) - she is being hacked to pieces.

I started this because I put myself in her shoes. If I had been accused of wrongdoing and was still waiting trial - wouldn't that mean I was innocent until proven guilty? Don't call me naive; it's a matter of the law and of principles. Otherwise, why bother having a legal system?

Chen