Say what you will about Martha, but the fact is she's a pretty admirable lady. Simultaneously embodying business mogul and fantasy homemaker she bridges the "traditional gender boundaries... [and] exemplifies the (masculine) utilitarian individualism at the heart of the 'do-it-yourself' movement." Wajda describes her as a "dominatrix of domesticity" which makes me laugh. I remember years ago a friend suggesting a great idea for reality TV - Martha moves into a frat house. Who do you think would move out first? Would Martha lose her mind trying to deal with keg parties and dirty bathrooms or would she whip those boys into shape and have them serving miniature puff pastries filled with brie and asparagus at the next kegger?A sophisticated business woman, Martha has put her finger on the social anxiety surrounding the home. By promoting a "lifestyle in which the individual is not only laborer but also CEO of his or her own household," Martha sells us a nostalgic sense of comfort and family. And we're buying it. $500 million dollars worth at a time.
To me the irony of Martha Stewart is that while she promotes the "do-it-yourself," self-sufficient ideal (going so far as designing her company's Stock Certificate in house) it is through "purchases of those ideals" that the American consumer buys in. (pun intended)
Ethically, should Martha Stewart be capitalizing on our social insecurities and frantic need for comfort and perceived self-sufficiency in the home? I, personally, don't think she is doing anything more or less insidious than any business person out there. Maybe it feels insidious because unlike Bill Gates or Conrad Black, there is a sort of motherly attraction to her, like just maybe, in a different world, she could have been your mom (in an omnipresent, Big Brother kind of way.) You could even say she's up front about it, the company is called the "Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia" after all.
Martha herself may provide a fantasy ideal and a comforting sense of bygone times when there was someone keeping the home, but she has an army of people working behind her. As Wajda points out, "Martha Stewart the person must become Martha Stewart the 'brand.'" This branding of her person/identity is what is so effective at bridging that gap between public and private, Martha "invites us into zones of intimacy" which at once make us feel comfortable with her and also feel more desire for comfort in our home.
Intentionally or not, Martha, as a modern day Miss. Manners, has brought into question the division of public and private, of business and home, of DIY and consumer, of male and female, domains. If you ask me, that's a good thing.
I think Martha Stewart also fosters a sort of "domestic community" in a sense. Part of her relevance as a celebrity is due to the number of women in the workplace today, who don't necessarily have loads of time to put into their home. Martha Stewart is all about Do-It-Yourself projects that people who may not be design-literate can participate in, and this makes her brand accessible to non-crafty types.
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to wrap my brain around the post-modernist discussion today, but maybe Martha Stewart could be considered the post-modern ambassador for domestic craft? Her self-aware "do-it-yourself, but let me show you first, after you buy my brand of acrylic paint" marketing, and making craft available to the mainstream seems like a very post-modern approach to design.
Gabe, I totally agree. It's like a "paint-by-numbers" approach to interior design and craft. The online forums and "craft of the day" newsletters, etc. come together and what comes out the other end is a sense of community, domesticity and comfort. I think her relevance stemming from the changing roles women play also finds its roots in a desire to have/be someone who does all those little things, like fold the napkins, organize under the sink, bake a batch of cookies and print labels for the linen closet all in the course of a day.
ReplyDeleteThis attraction to the lost art of homemaking is something I find very interesting. Her success points to the displacement and reassigning of roles within the home when women joined the workforce en masse and how some things just get left out because there is not enough time to do it all.