Marthadom Two Penn State Researchers Study Martha Stewart’s Influence On American Culture

Two million subscribers read her magazine each month.

She’s got a cable television show. Regular appearances on “CBS This Morning.” A syndicated newspaper column. A line of home fashions at Kmart Stores. Paints. A mail-order catalog business.

She’s been on Leno. Topless look-alikes spoof her on “Saturday Night Live.” A paper doll book dresses her in leather. A parody version of her magazine asks, “Is Martha Stuart (sic) Living?”

All that exposure has caught the attention of two Penn State researchers who will argue in a book they’re writing that Martha Stewart is America’s greatest cultural influence since Thomas Jefferson.

The book, by Virginia Smith, a lecturer in English and American studies at University Park, and Lynda Goldstein, an assistant professor in English and women’s studies at Penn State’s Wilkes-Barre campus, will be called “Reading Martha Stewart: It’s a Good Thing.”

As the title suggests, Smith and Goldstein have a generally favorable view of the former Wall Street broker who built a $200 million empire, remarkably, by espousing cooking, gardening, crafts and other tasks that take a long, long time to do.

The Penn State researchers are looking beyond the criticism that Stewart is all about “stuff,” and that she’s reversing the empowerment of women over the last few decades. While she’s teaching the readers of her magazine to make little sake cups out of cucumbers, they say, she’s also instilling a new American ideal: that domesticity is good, that it is for everyone, and that it is - and should be - taking on a more important role in our society.

Smith and Goldstein plan to contact Stewart this summer for an interview.

When given a brief outline of some of Smith and Goldstein’s findings, Stewart had favorable things to say about the study.

“It’s wonderful to have a positive discourse on homekeeping and homemaking done with an intellectual and intelligent approach,” she said through her publicist, Susan Magrino. “My subject has become of great interest to many people, and I am pleased to see it approached and respected in this way.”

During a Women’s History Month presentation in March at Penn State, Smith and Goldstein compared Stewart to the founding fathers in the influence she has had over American culture.

Maybe she didn’t write the Declaration of Independence, but like Jefferson, she’s having a far-reaching impact on American taste and style, they say. They cite a Newsweek article claiming that “social critics unanimously agree the most important American cultural figure of the 21st century will be Martha Stewart.”She is a role model, say Smith and Goldstein. “Here is a woman who’s risen to power in America not because she’s married to a president, not because she’s a sex object,” Smith said. “Martha Stewart’s not only done it on her own, but challenges liberal intellectual notions about what the good life is.”

Smith said one of the hallmarks of Stewart’s style is that, unlike most magazines and television shows that teach you to cook a meal in 30 minutes, Stewart revels in old-fashioned rituals.

“She gives much time and thought to the beauty and pleasure of ritual - the kind of ritual you can create for yourselves around significant events in our own lives,” said Smith, who has taught women’s studies courses and has an interest in domestic culture.

Rather than simply doling out how-to instructions, Stewart weaves through her work a narrative about old-fashioned American ideals and images that hark back to the teachings of Franklin and Jefferson: Work hard, and you can accomplish anything. Home is a sacred place.

“If you pay attention to her … rhetoric, she tells you to use your home as a ritualistic, sacred space,” Smith said.

But Smith and Goldstein say that while magazines like Family Circle, Woman’s Day and McCall’s construct woman as a frugal consumer obsessed with weight, child-rearing and husband-pleasing skills, Stewart’s magazine inspires “ungendered” others - she never refers to readers as “she” - not just to bake cookies, but also to change the filters in air conditioners, replace old doorknobs and keep bees.

According to Stewart’s spokeswoman, readers of Martha Stewart Living magazine fit a certain image. About 83 percent are women. Their median age is 41. Sixty-eight percent are married, 77 percent own their principal residence, and 60 percent make $50,000 or more.

Sure, Stewart’s done a good job of capitalizing on the “baby boomer yuppie movement” that has people spending incredible amounts of money on home and garden supplies, Smith said. But Goldstein says Stewart’s fans are less homogeneous than some people think.

“They’re not little slaves to Marthadom,” she said. “It overlooks a number of her fans who are not middle class, white, so-called ‘soccer moms.”’ Fans can access Stewart through television and discounted magazines, she said.

“I think anyone who reads her as standing for a single thing, whether that single thing is hyper-domesticity or perfectionism or highbrow, white middle class … is going to rebel against that,” Goldstein said. “She doesn’t represent a single thing. She’s much more contradictory.”

Could Martha madness be as simple as merely believing Stewart is a creative person with ideas people can adapt to fit their own lifestyles? Some think so.

“When I look through (her magazine), I look at these great ideas and think, ‘Wow,”’ said Bernadette Myers, manager of the B. Dalton Bookseller in the Nittany Mall in State College during an interview at her store recently. “You have to admit, this woman is incredible. That’s why … she’s so easy to joke about. She does cooking and it’s perfect. Gardening, and it’s perfect.

“But I don’t think you have to use everything she talks about. She’s trying to provide ideas on how to stimulate your creative sense.”

Miriam Chronister of York, Pa., who was questioned about Stewart during a person-on-the-street interview in downtown State College, said she has subscribed to Stewart’s magazine for two years. Like Stewart, Chronister has dipped balloons into melted chocolate to make chocolate bowls for Easter candy.

“It’s the type of thing I do - cooking, crafts and decorating,” she said. “The only negative is she’s capitalizing on it, and I’m not.”

When asked what she thought about a scholarly study of Stewart, she said, “They’re making a big deal out of what I feel is just basic.”

Scotti Mullen, 34, of State College, said: “It’s amazing anybody would pick somebody like her and study her. She’s a glorified version of Heloise.”

Mullen is a fan of Stewart’s ideas - not her image. “Her persona … is kind of arrogant,” said Mullen, who watches reruns of Stewart’s show nearly every day at noon. “She would probably rub me the wrong way. But she’s creative. Her sense of style is what I would like to have.”

With three kids and a job designing toys, Mullen doesn’t have time for Stewart’s more elaborate projects. Her kids won’t eat exotic dishes. But she likes Stewart’s gardening tips and less time-consuming crafts. So she’s a fan, even though others in her family are “anti-Martha.”

“They probably think she’s a bit much, that it’s unrealistic for someone who wants to live that way,” Mullen said. “They all laugh, but one of these days, I’m going to have a Martha house.”