Does Martha Stewart mean anything to you? In the United States, this octogenarian has long been considered one of the most influential women on the planet. Queen of lifestyle and household arts, influencer before her time and business woman billionaire, she also left her mark on pop culture. She has played herself in series like Ugly Bettywas entitled to his animated double in the Simpsons and inspired the (unbearable) character of Judith King in Orange Is The New Black.
If you have completely missed the phenomenon, a documentary recently posted on Netflix may enlighten you. Titled Martha Stewart, an American iconit traces the rise of this self made womanbut also his brutal fall and his – lunar – passage through the prison cell. A sawtooth journey sprinkled with a good dose of sexist attacks.
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“Perfectly perfect”
Born in 1941 in New Jersey to a mother who was a teacher and a father who represented pharmaceutical products, Martha Stewart, the second of six children, first worked as a model and then a stockbroker on Wall Street. But it was thanks to her talents behind the stove that the young woman conquered the hearts of American housewives in the 1980s. First by offering her catering services in restaurants to the moneyed entourage of her publisher husband, then by developing a whole range of expertise around household arts, from cooking to decoration and gardening.
In 1982, she published Entertainingand best-seller in which she distills her advice for taking care of your home with taste and refinement. “Martha wanted to show the American woman that she could bring beauty into her home,” describes a journalist in the Netflix documentary. The mantra of this house fairy? Let everything be “perfectly perfect”. An attention to detail which has earned him his fame but also his share of criticism.
His detractors criticize him for his obsession with perfection as well as the promotion of an inaccessible lifestyle and an unattainable ideal. For her part, Martha Stewart, interviewed at length in the documentary, sees herself as a “modern feminist” who “rehabilitates” previously “denigrated” activities. And the recipe paid off since it quickly became a reference for many American housewives.
Greenbacks and prison coaching sessions
Martha Stewart is also a real empire built up over the years. After the success of her first book, she launched several lifestyle magazines (around cooking, marriage, children, decoration, etc.) and presented her own TV show every week. It also signs a derivative product collaboration with the very popular K-Mart supermarket chain, which has nearly 77 million customers per month. And it's the jackpot for Martha. In the 1990s, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, her company, recorded almost $200 million in annual sales. The fifty-year-old thus becomes the first female billionaire in the United States.
But it's also the beginning of the end for the house fairy. Entangled in an insider trading case then in a highly publicized trial for obstruction of justice, Martha Stewart received a five-month prison sentence in Connecticut in 2004. She was then 63 years old. In her documentary, Netflix reveals the memories she recorded in her diary at the time. She talks about her fears, her discomfort, but also the coaching sessions she gives to her fellow inmates or the gardening books she gives to her cellmate. Chase away the natural…
Upon her release from prison, Martha Stewart caused a sensation with her little poncho knitted by a fellow inmate. But, as she herself explains, she has lost her “mojo” and is struggling to get back on track. Against all expectations, it was during a show with Justin Bieber that the sixty-year-old and her scathing humor caused a sensation. She found the love of the public again and met the rapper Snoop Dogg, with whom she created a new cooking show, a hit. In 2023, at the age of 81, she also caused a sensation by appearing in a swimsuit on the front page of the magazine Sports Illustrated. A first.
“People love to see Miss Perfection fall”
Martha Stewart, an American icon traces the professional rise of this outstanding cook and business woman intractable. The documentary also reveals her intimate life, her moods as well as the many trials she had to face. Particularly the sexist attacks and denigration in the press that she suffered throughout her career.
Some present her as a tyrant, “a great white shark” or as a “bitch” hungry for money and power. He is criticized in particular for his perfectionism, his ambition and his authoritarian character, all qualities praised in a businessman.
The sequence in the documentary on the media hype around his trial and the fascination with his spectacular fall is particularly interesting. “People love to see Miss Perfection fall,” comments one of the speakers. The less glamorous side of the American dream.
