Martha Stewart may not be too well known in India, but in the US, she was once a cultural phenomenon. RJ Cutler’s documentary, Martha (on Netflix), covers her rise, fall and rise, in her own words, and those of friends and associates, kept off screen, to avoid the talking head format.
The daughter of a salesman father and teacher mother, the blonde beauty followed the rule book of time—modelled for a bit, then married a handsome young man, had a baby. Then, she broke the mould, by becoming the only woman to work at the stock exchange and making a success of it.
She was yet to find her true calling as the “perfectly perfect” woman, who gave respect and purpose to millions of homemakers around the country. After buying a run down farmhouse, Turkey Hill Farm, she made it a place of rustic comfort and beauty. Her love for gardening came from her father, who made his six kids slog it out growing vegetables and flowers, which came in handy when money was tight.
She proved herself as the “hostess with the mostest” for parties at home and events for her husband’s publishing business. Then, she started a high-end catering business, and with the 1982 book Entertaining, became the guru for homemakers who wanted to make perfect dishes and lay the perfect table. She had the taste and sophistication women aspired to, but also business acumen, that made her launch a series of books, an eponymous magazine, and go on to become the first self-made billionaire in the US. That her 30-year marriage broke up, didn’t even matter—she was hobnobbing with the rich and famous.
In spite of feminism taking root in the US (and the world), it was still unacceptable for the male establishment to have a powerful woman among them. It was inevitable that attempts would be made to pull her down – the media constantly portrayed her as a mean bully, when that aggression would have been admired in a man.
She was accused of insider trading, for offloading stocks of a friend’s company, having prior knowledge of its failure. A case that involved $45000 should not even have gone to trial, but Stewart was subjected to the most vicious witch hunt by the media. The shares of her company tanked, her magazines and TV shows shut down, and she was sentenced to five months in prison. In spite of all the indignities she had to face, Martha came out stronger, and slowly regained her reputation and her legacy.
From being the ice princess, she reinvented herself into a woman who understood the vocabulary and lifestyle of the youth, by partnering with rap star Snoop Dogg.
Now 83, Martha Stewart is as sharp and fearless, burnished by her life of achievement as well as trauma. In a New Yorker essay by Joan Didion that’s quoted in the film, she writes that Stewart wasn’t just a superwoman, she was Everywoman, took on the image of the traditional roles that women had been raised to play and then made them empowering. She was, the film states, the “first influencer,” before the word was coined. The post-women’s movement female did not want to be just a homemaker, so Martha made homemaking glamorous and aspirational.
Today, when everybody wants to be stylish and chic, they owe a hat tip to Martha Stewart who first showed them how to attain perfection.
Directed by RJ Cutler
On Netflix
