Martha Stewart is not happy

To us spectators on the other side of the ocean, she might not immediately seem like an essential or familiar figure. Yet, Martha Stewart is an omnipresent, ubiquitous force in the American market. She has been a staple of U.S. television since 1993, the year her eponymous show debuted. Even before that, her influence was extended through multiple products bearing her name: cookbooks, magazines, videotapes, product lines, and even classical music CDs designed to accompany the meals made using her recipes.

The Netflix Documentary on Martha Stewart

Cooking and wellness served as the catalysts for her rise as a public figure, an entrepreneur, and an influencer avant la lettre: the original influencer before influencers existed. The documentary focusing on her – Martha: A Picture Story – released on Netflix on October 30, didn’t leave her pleased. The entrepreneur criticized the project, calling it "lazy" and unrepresentative of her true story, lamenting its disproportionate focus on her legal case, which she described as "stupid and unfair." She also took issue with the inclusion of an interview with a former prosecutor, which she deemed inappropriate.

The Controversy and Back-and-Forth with Director R.J. Cutler

The director, R.J. Cutler, renowned for documentaries like The September Issue and Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry, publicly responded to her critique, stating that he expected such a reaction: "It’s not easy to be vulnerable and simultaneously examine oneself objectively."

But Who Is Martha Stewart Really?

Buy Me, I’m for Sale

Martha Stewart, as mentioned, was the influencer avant la lettre: the first American woman to become a billionaire by selling what she excelled at most – her image. She rose to fame in the 1970s and 1980s for her talents in homemaking and event planning, turning these skills into a highly lucrative career, starting with luxury catering and later building an empire. Even Joan Didion defended her in a 2000 New Yorker piece, writing: "What she offers, which the more narrowly professional home and cooking magazines and programs do not, is the promise of [...] shared fortune." Didion consistently asserted in her essay that Martha Stewart's intent was always to teach and share her skills with ordinary women. But it's highly doubtful that she herself fits that description.

Part Trad Wife, Part False Feminist Icon

Her television career represents her crowning achievement: Stewart is admired and celebrated because she embodies a bold woman who redefined domestic activities, celebrating "feminine values" that contemporary women often shy away from embracing. She transformed these into something honorable, building a multimillion-dollar industry around them. She’s like Carrie Bradshaw, but in reverse: while Carrie uses her oven to store shoeboxes, Martha Stewart proudly uses hers – and uses it well. This celebration omits a crucial truth: Stewart, much like contemporary trad wives like Nara Smith, is an entrepreneur, not a typical housewife. Their videos – or shows – are highly constructed and curated, and their advocacy of "care" is recycled and detached from reality. It becomes a sort of false revolutionary model but remains ultimately an empty one.

Every Contemporary Heroine Needs Her Fall

Like any perfect heroine, Stewart had her downfall when she was arrested in 2004 for insider trading, obstruction of justice, and perjury. After a brief stint in prison – just five months – Stewart reinvented herself, yet again, as a television icon, endorsing products with Snoop Dogg and becoming a brand ambassador for luxury skincare brands like Clé de Peau. However, she did not hide her displeasure about the documentary made about her: "Those final scenes where I look like a lonely old woman hunched over in the garden? I asked him to cut them, but he refused," Stewart said. "And he [R.J. Cutler] didn’t even explain why. I can rise above this and still work seven days a week." Yet another sign that Martha Stewart is far from fitting the mold of the average woman, for better or worse.