Viewing tip: Martha, about how lifestyle guru Martha Stewart became loved and hated
In the eighties and nineties, she rose to become the queen of lifestyle: Martha Stewart. The American businesswoman created a perfect image. Every housewife wanted to be like her. But her perfect image fell apart because of an insider-trading scandal in 2004. Martha reached the absolute top in no time, and fell just as hard. Still, she managed to pick herself up (a little) again. The Netflix documentary Martha tells her story.
You wouldn’t think it, but before her lifestyle empire, Marta Stewart had completely different careers. She started out as a model, then switched careers to become a stockbroker and later started a catering business. Martha loved having guests over and pampering them. She combined that passion with her knowledge and skills in her first book, Entertaining, which came out in the early eighties. Martha’s success seemed unstoppable after that. She wrote dozens of books, launched a magazine, became the host of television programs she had developed herself and sold hugely popular merchandise. It seemed that Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia —her company—was doing very well.
‘Bitchy’ Martha
But the lifestyle guru also encountered some fierce storms in her life. She was betrayed by her husband when he ran off with a woman who worked in their garden. Staff members and acquaintances revealed that Martha was not actually as sweet, fun and nice as she made herself out to be. In fact, she was called a ‘white shark’ and a ‘bitch’. The biggest storm came in 2004, when Martha became involved in an insider-trading scandal. She was convicted of insider trading. As a result, she eventually spent five months in prison. Her company also became worth considerably less overnight. She apparently lost a lot of money—causing her billionaire status to disappear as well—but she still remained richer than we can imagine. As of 2024, her net worth is still estimated at around $400 million (!).
Perfectly perfect
Martha’s ability to get so far in her career is undoubtedly (also) due to her perfectionism. Perfectly perfect is her motto; one she also writes in the books she sells during signing sessions. Her perfectionism shines through clearly in some scenes. For example, she is visibly and audibly irritated when an employee uses a knife that is too small to cut oranges. It is the bitchy side we had already heard she possessed. Martha finds it difficult to admit that she is not always perfect herself. You can see that in the documentary too. Apparently, Martha also had an affair at the beginning of her relationship with her ex. But ‘oh well, it was nothing and meant nothing’. In other words, my mistake doesn’t count.
Scenes like these make the documentary even more fascinating than it already is. Because no, this is not a documentary designed to praise Martha to the heavens. It also shows her less pleasant, sometimes even Karen-like sides, proving that she is far from perfect. Perfection does not exist, even though she made it seem that way in her programs, books and magazines. For hundreds of thousands of housewives at home, that was simply unattainable.
First influencer
The documentary takes a chronological look at Martha’s life. It starts with her family home, follows her career and love life, and moves toward the stock-market drama in 2004 and her time in prison afterwards. Finally, you see what her conviction did to her, and how she ultimately picked herself up again and built a new image. Spoiler: Justin Bieber helped her with that. Whichever way you look at it, it seems Martha really was the first influencer. And well… We still listen to her, don’t we? Whether she tells us what we should or shouldn’t keep in the fridge, or shows us how to make scrambled eggs with our coffee maker.
You can watch Martha on Netflix.
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