[lbo-talk] Free Martha!

[Michael Dawson -PSU]

Nice piece, very funny, but I don't buy either the feminist analysis of her
unpopularity or Doug's conclusion.

I think Martha's not liked because she's an obvious snob.  Her accent,
mannerisms, attire, dress, etc., all convey that.  Her persnicketiness about
food and decorating (and the extreme labor-intensity/leisure-time
requirements of "Martha Stewart Living") also sends the message that nothing
but "the best" is good enough for Martha -- and everybody knows what it
takes to live that way: $$$$$.

I think her appeal is actually based on the social-climbing pipe dreams of
segments of the working and middle classes, and that her unpopularity is a
case of the healthy rejection of that by the majority, who see that Martha
Stewart would never let rabble such as them them set foot in her house and
that she doesn't have a clue in the world about the pressures and
constraints of ordinary people's lives, despite her tie-ins with K-Mart.

I also don't think there's an ounce of feminist impulse, explicit or
implicit, in anything she does.  The claim that men resent her because
treats the home as a business-place is ridiculous, a true reach, IMHO.  MS
does not treat the home as a business place.  She treats it as a museum of
self-display, just as upper-class wives have done for centuries.  And her
cold personality has absolutely nothing to do with shattering gender
stereotypes.  On the contrary, I'd say her ability to go through the motions
of what she does without any genuine joy, yet to actually sell that mode of
being as "a good thing," is profoundly anti-feminist.  It sends the message
that the conventional arrangement of upper-class households -- men off at
the office and/or club, and joyless, isolated women making the home
proper -- is something to which everybody ought to aspire.

Finally, this, too:  Why should yet another multi-millionaire get to
obstruct justice?  If a common street criminal set up a similar fake alibi,
s/he would get 10 extra years without the blink of an eye.

If the evidence of obstruction is there, then send Martha to jail.  Two
wrongs don't make a right.