| Martha, My Dear |
October
2002 |
The Fall of Martha Stewart
It certainly looks like Martha Stewart is going to spend a little time in jail for insider trading. The SEC, FBI and others appear to have caught her with her hand in the ImClone cookie jar, and her broker's assistant is singing to avoid trouble himself. She's even been forced to resign from the New York Stock Exchange board. If the charges are true, we couldn't be happier.
Stewart rose from mean-ish beginnings to operate an empire measured in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. It seems the idea of losing less than a million on a bad stock trade was more than she could bear, and so she allegedly violated the insider trading rules the rest of us live by. Her firm's own stock tanked as a result costing her far more than the ImClone deal ever could have. Penny wise, pound foolish.
And yet, no one appears to be upset by her crimes against culture. Her taste, while often subdued, smacked of the petit bourgeoisie from which she came. She stands for a mass-produced luxury, not to be mistaken for elegance, which she could comfortably sell at K-Mart -- a store which must be respected for never being above itself, never pretending to elitism, and always smelling of caramel corn. Who could have imagined that such a place would lose in reputation by associating with her?
Her fans are legion, the arts 'n' crafts crowd, those who fuss over centerpieces. Yet, she is no artist, no visionary. After all, Versailles could not have been made with a hot-glue gun.