I’m not particularly a Martha Stewart fan. I understand she has a reputation as being a raging egomaniac. I understand she broke the law. I’m not saying she didn’t do anything wrong or that she doesn’t deserve to get locked up.
But for fuck’s sake, could the media be any more voyeristic and gleeful about it. As I type this there is a special on E called “Martha Behind Bars.” Every talking head show on CNN and Fox has been running segments on “what Martha can expect in prison.” They all seem to be especially delighted to hear that she will be strip searched and will not have any privacy. Some of them even ask hopefully about her chances of being victimized by other inmates (I’m looking at you, Bill O’Reilly).
If this was OJ, or Scott Peterson or anyone who had actually committed a truly egregious crime I might understand why people would take such pleasure in it, but its just Martha Stewart. She unloaded some stock after getting an illegal tip. She didn’t kill anybody. Why all the hate?
It seems like I’m seeing a national celebration of schadenfreude which doesn’t really seem that warranted. OK, a bitchy rich lady got some comeuppance, but is it really that entertaining to watch her get humiliated and stripped of all dignity?
I just don’t see how this is news. Why does the public need to know this crap?
Am I the only one who detects a faint hint of misogyny behind all of this?
Apparently there is a lot of pent up resentment of her in this country. I don’t care for her at all. I’ve heard too many accounts from those close to her who have either witnessed, or been the subject of, tremendous verbal abuse by her, and in the case of her husband, both belittling and physical abuse. It’s obvious from her behavior that she doesn’t care one whit about anyone but herself and/or her company.
However, even I didn’t feel she deserved jail time. She has suffered (and lost) more than enough in my opinion.
But I think a lot of people just detest her and they are gleeful that someone who regards herself as being so much better and above everyone else as she apparently does is getting her just deserts. Poetic justice, so to speak. The same thing happened with Leona Helmsley. People just love to see high falutin’ folk who treat others badly get their comeuppance.
When one develops a reputation for acting like you’re above everyone else; when almost everything you do or say is done or said with such a palpable superiority; well, let’s just say we all make the bed we lie in.
It’s not that such crimes happen; we all know they happen. But it’s “news” when such a towering, brittle image is broken. It’s like seeing the schoolyard bully finally get his ass kicked. There’ll be more glee in such a case than when the guy who usually gets his ass kicked gets his ass kicked.
It’s not a jail sentence, it’s a pie in the face, like in the old silents where the snooty rich lady who looks down her nose at everyone falls facefirst in the mud. It gets a laugh! It’ll always get a laugh. That’s all this is: a collective laugh.
When the people see what they deem is an occasional whiff of justice, they revel in the moment, IMHO.
OJ walked-that’s a separate subject.
IIRC, a certain air of glee surrounded the conviction of Harry and Leona Helmsley.
When wealthy, prominent people seem to tip the scales of justice, a measure of outrage is felt by the common man. Unable to hire a dream team of attorneys, and perhaps having only a court appointed public defender, Joe Average is a world apart from Martha. Therefore, when we he sees her brought down to his level, he feels good.
Just to be clear, I’m not talking about taking pleasure in the convention, I’m talking about the voyeristic interest in the details of her actual prison time.
I think that’s what we’re talking about, Dio. People are amused in a kind of perverse way to think of her having to submit to cavity searches, showering with 60 other women at the same time (or however many it may be), sleeping in a bunk bed, living in a drab environment, etc. These things are all diametrically opposed to the life she’s always known and striven for, and so there’s a certain amount of satisfaction to be derived from the fact that she’s having to live this way and experience these humiliations and deprivations. And of course, the media knows this, so they’re broadcasting and publishing the things people are interested in seeing…such as what her cell looks like, where she’ll be showering, what her daily routine will be, etc.
You tell that to my friend Tommy. Oh, wait. You can’t. He’s dead. He brought Martha hunter green when she asked for kelly green. She got really mad. She hit him. She screamed and scratched him. That’s when she lost a ring. It fell in the sink. She told Tommy to get it. He stuck his arm in, and she turned on the disposal. He would’ve only had minor injuries. But, that witch got behind him and shoved. He begged for his life. Matha just kept screaming “Kelly green! Kelly green!”.
Yeah, I suppose the coverage is a bit much, but it’s not like she’s going to freakin’ Pelican Bay…She’s going to Camp Cupcake for the love of Pete. The coverage HAS to follow! Are they gleeful? Not so sure, but I know it amuses the hell out of me.
I’m with you on this one, Diogenes. I don’t understand it either.
And I agree. Media critics have noted the stain of misogyny in her treatment.
I recall reading a list of the most abusive and hated senior management in business. This was quite a few years a go, and the list was virtually all men. The CEO of Simon & Schuster publishing house was noted for taking perverse pleasure in embarrassing and humiliating his staff and editors. There are businessmen aplenty who degrade and humiliate their company’s people all over the nation, and plot ways to cut their benefits and security while obtaining bonuses for themselves. Documentarian Michael Moore has made a career out of filming these assholes. But do they get the vitriol that was saved up for Martha Stewart? Or even Leona Helmsley? Dominic Dunne wrote in his column for Vanity Fair magazine that he was taken aback by the amount of public hatred. A close friend of his called him and said, “I hope she gets 20 years!”
This isn’t to say that Martha Stewart committed no wrongdoing. She did, according to the law. And it isn’t to say that she was perfectly nice to everyone. There are enough stories out there, some starting to border on being urban myth. But she isn’t being punished for being a bitch.
The media, which has to sell ink and paper and airwave time rehashes stories using more and more simplistic methods. It’s easy to create a story when you have a clearly defined villainess. So much easier to sell someone’s humiliation.
Definitely a lot of misogyny here, no matter how vigorously some try to protray it as a bit of much-needed comeuppance. I think Stewart should only go to prison if all the strockbrokers who were playing fast and loose with the rules in the last few years go to prison. We all know that ain’t gonna happen, so it becomes a matter of persecution rather than prosecution. All this stuff we’re reading – including the posts on this board – are stopping just short of “Burn her! She’s a witch!”
Ol’ Martha saved a big wad of dough through a stock sale tied to an insider tip, then watched as ordinary investors took a bath. Then she stonewalled and denied all the way through her legal proceedings, and even now portrays herself as a persecuted victim of big bad government. If there is a certain sense of satisfaction at her having to do some time (and I don’t see that in media reports, just the typical interest in detail relating to a celebrity), it’s not surprising.
Oddly, some of those who are protesting her getting a raw deal are the same folks who rage about white collar criminals paying penalties that are traditionally light. If some down-and-outer committed burglaries that netted the same amount of money involved in Martha’s case, I doubt they’d be getting off as easily.
Nobody’s claiming Stewart is a saint. All the evidence points in other directions. I’d just be happier if I thought all – or at least an appreciable percentage of – the stockbrokers who played fast and loose with SEC rules regarding things like IPOS were ALSO being sanctioned.
And for the record, I’ve posted in another thread that I don’t think white collar criminals should be punished with jail time. They don’t generally represent a physical threat to anyone. I think the appropriate thing would be to force them to work at McDonald’s and then try to live on their salary and survive with their health benefits. This is a lot crueller than you might think.
Let’s all remember that Martha Stewart was not convicted of insider trading. She was convicted of lying, which traditionally wasn’t a prosecuted crime. I’m willing not not label it a witch hunt only because they’re now using the same dirty tactics to prosecute male criminals.
I definitely think some Americans delight in seeing a powerful woman taken down, however, I like the coverage, and I liked learning this morning on the crappy top 40 radio that no one spoke to Martha at her first lunch in the big house, and that she had turkey on white bread. Why? Because I’m rooting for her. I want her to triumph. I want her to be richer than before, to prove that we’re finally past the point where women have to be Mary or Eve. I want her smart, powerful, and imperfect. Martha Stewart is a folk hero. She certainly doesn’t deserve to be, but there she is.
On the radio they said, “I hope Martha finds the biggest butch in the joint, and takes her out.” They believe Martha has it in her to accomplish just such an act. So do I. I want to see how this plays out.
From what I’ve heard of Martha, I probably would not like her. On the othe hand I find it disturbing that so many people were ready to lynch her. All just because she had a reputation for being a spoiled arrogant jerk. She’s guilty because she is rich and mean. Why not put all that hate on people who really deserve it and got away with a lot worse. (I never mentioned OJ).
She made vast pots of money by making the finicky details of her lifestyle and accoutrements a subject of public discussion. It stands to reason the public will continue to be interested in the above when they’ve been straitened.
I have to agree with the OP. My newspaper had diagrammed sketches of her jail cell the other day, for Pete’s sake. When have we seen this for any other public figure who has gone to jail? A lot of people who have done far worse things, or been much wealthier have gone to jail with much less scrutiny and cheering.
I feel the need to head to K-Mart and buy those Martha Stewart cruets I’ve been hankering for.
