It’s Become Harder to Hate Martha Stewart

There’s something far more interesting about Martha now that she’s actually living.

Martha Stewart photo courtesy of dailymail.co.uk

In the 1980s, if Martha Stewart said something was “a good thing,” I found it repulsive.

I really couldn’t stand her much-admired brand that focused on perfection. Gag me with a spoon!

I’ve never bought into the idea that the surface image of perfection in living as she defined it-entertaining, cooking, decorating-will lead to actual perfection and happiness in the reality of living life.

C’mon, Martha, be real. Where are the five or six practice centerpieces you completely screwed up before getting that one perfect version you demonstrated on camera? Show us how many people helped you set up the already-portioned 29 ingredients to the “simple” holiday turkey you’re cooking with ease!

I remember feeling sort of validated in my disdain for her perfection pose when the news broke in 1990 that she and her husband, Andy Stewart, were divorcing. Finally, one of the beautifully decorated Easter eggs that she gathered from her chickens she raised in her backyard and then placed in a basket she wove, cracked.

It was imperfect, and everyone saw it!

But I softened on her in the early 2000s when she was arrested for taking advantage of her friendly relationship with a CEO of a publicly traded company whose stock she held. I had my reasons for not feeling any joy in celebrating this huge crack in Martha’s hand-blown glass facade.

Martha Wasn’t Too Perfect to Pick Off

As much disdain as I had for the brand of perfection that Martha peddled, I did feel she was made a scapegoat when she was convicted in New York of obstruction of justice and other charges. My opinion at the time and also now is that as the country’s first female billionaire, she was a showy target for some point-proving by prosecutors who needed the world to see that they would go after and “bag” a CEO breaking the law.

Who now recalls that she was not convicted of violating the Securities Exchange Act related to insider trading, but was convicted of lying to federal investigators and obstruction of justice?

While the prosecutors could not prove she manipulated her knowledge of the company’s information to sell stock for profit, they did prove that she had an elitist attitude toward her broker’s assistant and made an incriminating remark to her then-best friend on their vacation.

I truly felt that Martha got a bum deal over that. She went to prison for five months while so many others who brazenly violated the law and robbed thousands of people of their savings did no time. I respected her for getting right back on the horse when she was released from prison and immediately set out to resurrect her previously gangbuster business in the years that followed.

I felt that now she was almost one of us- trying her damndest to do everything right but falling short. She no longer annoyed me, but I still didn’t root for her success, buy her books, or watch her on television.

It would take another decade before Martha finally did what made me relate enough to her to call myself a fan: she embraced her imperfection.

Even Martha is Perfectly Imperfect

I recently watched the Netflix documentary, “Martha,” which included a lengthy recap of her appearance on Comedy Central’s roast of Justin Bieber in 2015. She not only talked about “doing time,” but joked about it! Definitely not something the old Martha would do.

I don’t know if it was a last-ditch effort from a woman in her 70s to earn because she had no other money-making offers at the time or whether a visionary agent sold her on this move in a very different direction with her typical brand.

Whatever the motivation, she created a new spin on her old image, found a new audience in a younger generation, and made her career relevant again at an age when many celebrities are just living off their past hits.

On the dais for the roast Comedy Central roast, she sat next to Snoop Dogg, politely took in his unavoidable second-hand blunt smoke, and told jokes that no one could ever imagine her allowing at her dinner table in previous decades.

I felt like Martha was finally free of perfectionism and had caught on to something much more precious: authenticity.

Now that’s a brand I can root for and support: being truthful about your down times as well as your up times. Talking to people from the same level as they stand, not from above.

I love a celebrity story that embraces all parts of their life journey without a rewrite or a filter to make that past more perfect.

Martha’s subsequent friendship and partnership with Snoop Dogg is such a delight to watch and has given them both success beyond the reach either could have on their own. Snoop says that meeting and befriending Martha gave him access to a branding expert and business mogul that has helped guide his own business success.

I think Martha gained much more from hanging with Snoop.

Martha’s finally freed herself from living in the glass house that she created to look so beautiful but that trapped her in an unsustainable, false world of perfection. Now, she’s really one of us- and that’s a good thing.