Martha Stewart Anonymous
Oct 15th, 2008 by madeleine
The idea that as modern women we can “have it all” pushes us to achieve more and more. The images in magazines and on television project the modern woman as being a laughing mother/professional career woman in a crisp white shirt and without a hair out of place. We’re sold hair dye, deodorant, lipstick, and skin cream based on this concept. We’re reminded often that our foremothers worked hard and sacrificed much for us to be free and equal, but with that comes a sense of obligation on our part. How can we let them down by not taking advantage of that and well… “having it all”?
We like to think that we have moved beyond the unrealistic expectations that we imagine our grandmothers had to live up to. In the 50’s, the show Leave It to Beaver epitomized the perfect mother in June Cleaver. Always wearing a smile and pearls, June was unflappable, the house spotless, dinner hot and hearty on the table at five o’clock every day. She was standing at the door with cookies and milk at the end of every school day and brought her husband his slippers and a paper when he arrived home from work.
We congratulate ourselves for reaching a level of society where we can look back on June Cleaver and the like as women who sacrificed their own dreams and needs, in order to be a good wife/mother/woman. Now we have our own careers and our husbands have to fetch their own slippers. But we are foolish to throw around such easy congratulations… living up to the standard of June Cleaver would be a piece of chocolate frosted layer cake compared to the new standard we are living with. In true Modern Woman fashion, we have raised the bar. I’ll see your hearty meal and raise you an international corporate empire, celebrity status, a television show, a few magazines, and dozens of cookbooks. In other words, a Martha Stewart.
Today we have Martha setting a whole new level of achievement for us. June may have been stuck in the kitchen making wholesome pot roast dinners and chocolate chip cookies all day, but Martha has us coming home from a full day at the office just in time to encrust citrus infused tilipia fillets and hand-roll lavender crepes stuffed with crème fraiche and drizzled with fresh raspberry coulis.
We’re still running the household, but now it’s under the added pressure of having a well-paying professional career, breaking glass ceilings, and looking flawless while doing it. After all, Martha runs a huge company and then heads home to host elaborate dinner parties complete with handmade party favors. She never raises her voice and heck, she even went to prison gracefully.
While Martha has us creating our own personalized wrapping paper, there’s a boatload of svelte celebrities taunting us into yoga and pilates and pole dancing classes in an attempt to make our bodies supermodel slim immediately after childbirth. A multitude of do-it-yourself television shows encourage us to re-tile our bathrooms, faux paint our living room walls, or build our own brick chimneys.
Isn’t it time we asked ourselves if this is too much?
