Martha

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Half way through and I'm loving the new Martha documentary. Most surprising so far: her childhood thru stock broker years.

Her dad was physically (belts + stick whippings) and verbally abusive, and her mother was not motherly at all. With six kids at home, the dad loses his sales job and the family had to grown their own food and barter with neighbors for other basic needs.

Martha somehow earned a scholarship to Barnard and also sent most of her modeling paychecks home to help support her younger siblings. Someone above mentioned that Martha had the "privilege" to pursue her passions. I would argue that she forged her own path that enabled her to do that. She was already a very successful woman when she was introduced to her first husband by a fellow Barnard classmate (the guy's sister). He was in law school at the time but didn't even go into law.

Until now, my opinion of Martha Stewart has oscillated between IDGAF to pure dislike. Now, I kinda dig the woman. No wonder Snoop is a big fan.

Her life was profiled in a well rated book called "Just Desserts". Just a note that she has only now at 80 something acknowledged the more sad and painful parts of her upbringing. She always presented her father with rose colored glasses, And it is noted that even in childhood and her teens she was an embellisher and her daughter and others have said she "believes these things happened" in regard to certain memories of childhood but that whether they actually did was not always corroborated with people there. Obviously, this was part of social climbing then. She was a housecleaner and helper to two wealthy women in college to earn money. We heard nothing about that but a whole lot about her modeling. It's all very selective. See the ny times especially today...she hates certain aspects of the doc.

I think it’s understandable to have mixed feelings about that upbringing at that time. For most baby boomers or older, it was very common for the father to be the disciplinarian and to use corporal punishment. And it was not uncommon to use a switch, belt or stick for spankings. My own father, who is actually a great guy, did that during the 50s and 60s because that’s what parents were told you were supposed to do for kids who were disobedient in any significant way. He always hated it and stopped doing it in the late 60s, 70s when the norms changed. So I can see her both being really complimentary about a dad that worked hard to provide and stuck with them even when times were tough, but at the same time later recognizing that this wasn’t the best modeling of parenting and that there were some effects on her of that.
I don’t think most people realize how much parenting norms have changed in 80 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Half way through and I'm loving the new Martha documentary. Most surprising so far: her childhood thru stock broker years.

Her dad was physically (belts + stick whippings) and verbally abusive, and her mother was not motherly at all. With six kids at home, the dad loses his sales job and the family had to grown their own food and barter with neighbors for other basic needs.

Martha somehow earned a scholarship to Barnard and also sent most of her modeling paychecks home to help support her younger siblings. Someone above mentioned that Martha had the "privilege" to pursue her passions. I would argue that she forged her own path that enabled her to do that. She was already a very successful woman when she was introduced to her first husband by a fellow Barnard classmate (the guy's sister). He was in law school at the time but didn't even go into law.

Until now, my opinion of Martha Stewart has oscillated between IDGAF to pure dislike. Now, I kinda dig the woman. No wonder Snoop is a big fan.

She is self made for sure. The reference to privilege was that she did marry rich (she mentions her honeymoon was 5 months!!) and could buy a multi-acre estate fairly young, start her own catering business and have enough connections to grow it. Clearly she was extremely savvy and did way more than is possible for most people. But I do think she had privilege from her marriage, her modeling and her stockbroker job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Half way through and I'm loving the new Martha documentary. Most surprising so far: her childhood thru stock broker years.

Her dad was physically (belts + stick whippings) and verbally abusive, and her mother was not motherly at all. With six kids at home, the dad loses his sales job and the family had to grown their own food and barter with neighbors for other basic needs.

Martha somehow earned a scholarship to Barnard and also sent most of her modeling paychecks home to help support her younger siblings. Someone above mentioned that Martha had the "privilege" to pursue her passions. I would argue that she forged her own path that enabled her to do that. She was already a very successful woman when she was introduced to her first husband by a fellow Barnard classmate (the guy's sister). He was in law school at the time but didn't even go into law.

Until now, my opinion of Martha Stewart has oscillated between IDGAF to pure dislike. Now, I kinda dig the woman. No wonder Snoop is a big fan.

Her life was profiled in a well rated book called "Just Desserts". Just a note that she has only now at 80 something acknowledged the more sad and painful parts of her upbringing. She always presented her father with rose colored glasses, And it is noted that even in childhood and her teens she was an embellisher and her daughter and others have said she "believes these things happened" in regard to certain memories of childhood but that whether they actually did was not always corroborated with people there. Obviously, this was part of social climbing then. She was a housecleaner and helper to two wealthy women in college to earn money. We heard nothing about that but a whole lot about her modeling. It's all very selective. See the ny times especially today...she hates certain aspects of the doc.

I think it’s understandable to have mixed feelings about that upbringing at that time. For most baby boomers or older, it was very common for the father to be the disciplinarian and to use corporal punishment. And it was not uncommon to use a switch, belt or stick for spankings. My own father, who is actually a great guy, did that during the 50s and 60s because that’s what parents were told you were supposed to do for kids who were disobedient in any significant way. He always hated it and stopped doing it in the late 60s, 70s when the norms changed. So I can see her both being really complimentary about a dad that worked hard to provide and stuck with them even when times were tough, but at the same time later recognizing that this wasn’t the best modeling of parenting and that there were some effects on her of that.
I don’t think most people realize how much parenting norms have changed in 80 years.

+1 yes, most definitely

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love Martha. She has aged impossibly well.

There is plenty of plastic and nip tucks.

[Anonymous]

She seems like a sad, lonesome lady.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She seems like a sad, lonesome lady.

She’s the furthest thing from it. Read about how she spent lockdown. She’s a vibrant active business titan.

A lot of the comments in here are gross and would never be made about a very successful man.

[Anonymous]

SIL worked for her accountant. She's a B****, awful to staff.

[Anonymous]

She’s brittle because that is how she grew up. And she’s had not one but two betrayals by men. First her father - who was abusive and yet called her his favorite.. and then her husband. I feel for her. She is brittle. The doc doesn’t make me envy her at all. It was the exact epitome of “all that glitters isn’t gold”.

[Anonymous]

I love her and think she’s fascinating.

She has a very intense, rather cold and sometimes strange personality. I think that’s fairly common among highly successful business people.

I think what gets people going is the jarring contrast between her shark-like personality and her field, which we see as warm and fuzzy. And because it touches this big sore/raw area in women’s lives: the pressure to create (at least the appearance of) domestic perfection.

Had she built, say, a cement company? I don’t think it would be as interesting to anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She always promoted herself as a "teacher" but as someone who has had many teachers, I always found her to be too rigid and sort of boring. The best teachers help you find your own way...she was didactic and basically just talks at the reader or viewer. Like a task master...like her father.

As a big Martha fan, I think that was partly the brand they built. It’s really interesting to see the contrast between the old brand, and even the recent blog, and her MarthaStewart48 insta account which (at least used to be) pretty unfiltered. Her caption writing was so different (dare I say sloppy) than the blog or the old show scripts. On her daytime show you got peeks of it here and there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She seems like a sad, lonesome lady.

Everyone is ignoring that she was a horrible mother. Horrible.

[Anonymous]

Can someone answer this: Is she Jewish? I always assumed she was but she never talks about her ethnicity or faith. Maybe it’s in the book?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone answer this: Is she Jewish? I always assumed she was but she never talks about her ethnicity or faith. Maybe it’s in the book?

She was raised Catholic, her ex husband is Jewish, and I don’t know if she practices any religion now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone answer this: Is she Jewish? I always assumed she was but she never talks about her ethnicity or faith. Maybe it’s in the book?

She was raised Catholic, her ex husband is Jewish, and I don’t know if she practices any religion now.

According to W, still Catholic as of 2021

https://www.wmagazine.com/culture/martha-stewart-prison-nativity

[Anonymous]

Martha’s story reinforces how dangerous it can be to be a woman even if you are attractive and rich. She is a true feminist and her story shows there is still no equality for women.