Cho on Stewart

Saucy comedienne Margaret Cho, whose recent blog entries are much less fun than what's listed on her side bar, hits the nail on why The Man™ capped Martha Stewart. The Money Quote, surprisingly refreshing for the side of the aisle known for envy-politics:

The problem is that Martha Stewart was not a homemaker. She was an entrepreneur. She was not selling the recipes and party plans and 'good things' in order to promote stay at home moms and give undue labor to keep women's minds from wandering to books and feminist theory. She was promoting the idea of perfection, wherever you could have it. It was about that notion of perfecting something, and then it becoming yours. This was the American Dream as it could be made accessible to American women. You could empower yourself through action, and that is probably the danger that Martha Stewart represents. She is the authority on independence, and that is what we don't want from our mothers and for our daughters.[Bold and Italicized Emphasis Mine, but the whole paragraph is damn good!]

Nicely said but I disagree just a little... I don't buy into the big conspiracy of the Hegemonic Oppressors keeping The Other down by using her as an example, and she's an inspiration to far more than just women. Plus most beautiful people and members of the middle and working classes who buy into the Envy Cool-Aid of know nothing of her less-than-posh start.

But Cho definitely gets the angle by which the prosecutors caught their fish. People hate her because she makes reaching that “perfection” look easy. I've tried one or two of her experiments and they aren't that hard (but I really don't recommend the Vidalia onion sandwiches) once you put your mind to it – and in there lies the rub. Some people would just rather seethe and eat the sandwich with the crust on. And with that, she makes a good target for hateful envy, and the prosecutors knew it: Try Cruella DeVille by leveraging her unfair street image and let the charges you want (fortunately the judge threw out one of the more contentious charges) ride on her back like a coat made of puppy fur. And making a bad precedent is easier than blowing half an hour watching Nigella Lawson fondle the recipe of the week. And with that, methinks the people who resent her for selling those 300-threadcount K-Mart sheets are going to regret their victory when The Man™ asks them about that call they got from their broker last month.