CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, June 9, 2003

Martha Stewart Serving?

One time this observer happened to watch Martha Stewart on television. The Domestic Diva demonstrated “the” proper way to fold bath towels. Her demonstration was so clear and convincing we have folded our bath towels the Martha Stewart way ever since.

At her zenith, Martha Stewart was the world’s most successful businesswoman. Not bad for a New Jersey girl from a large and relatively poor Polish family. But her father was not poor in enthusiasm. He mentored Martha to a first place in virtually every activity she attempted.

In her youth, she was a stunning New York fashion model whose academic achievements won her scholarships into a prestigious New York finishing school. And, before she founded her media and product-merchandising empire worth millions, she was a highly successful stockbroker earning over $100,000 per year back when female stockbrokers were almost unheard of.

If ever a female achieved the feminist goal of breaking through the “glass ceiling” of corporate America, it was Martha Stewart. If ever there was a female Horatio Alger, it was Martha Stewart.

But, for some reason, Martha Stewart never became the poster girl for the feminist movement in this country. And, despite her generous contributions to the Clintons and other Democrat political candidates, the feminist Left has largely ignored her enormous achievements. Somewhere I read Hillary’s staff, much less Hillary, won’t return her phone calls in her time of need.

While one might understand how the Clintons might distance themselves when the Domestic Diva is now in deep do-do, she was never embraced by the feminist movement to begin with. Why?

Here’s the answer: Martha Stewart broke through the corporate “glass ceiling” so despised by the feminist-Left by doing something even more despised by the Feminazis – she raised homemaking to an art form. Even her rather late-in-life divorce failed to win her higher standing with the anti-traditional-values feminist movement.

Martha’s not alone. Here are some other accomplished women whom the Feminazis refuse to celebrate: Former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher; former UN Ambassador, Jeanne Kirkpatrick; former National Endowment for the Humanities Director, Lynne Cheney; and Violeta Chamorro, the woman whose free election displaced the communist dictator of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega.

Nor will they celebrate the accomplishments of women currently in power such as: Senator Elizabeth Dole, National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice; Labor Secretary, Elaine Chao; or Congresswoman, Barbara Cubin. Why? Because all of the women named above stand for traditional values.

Conversely, the feminists support liberal politicians even when they have track records of harming women. For example, Senator Ted Kennedy who ran his car off a bridge, leaving one of his female staffers to drown. They refuse to condemn the serial sex-predator, Bill Clinton.

But their biggest failure is their silence about the continuation of the 14th Century treatment of Arab women. The liberation of the Afghan women from Taliban oppression was met with even less enthusiasm than they show for Martha Stewart.

Why aren’t they railing against the genital mutilation of young Arab women or the forced extraction of the two upper center teeth of some Arab women so they can pit dates with their teeth more effectively?

Why? Because the feminist movement in America is part and parcel of the political Left and it will only promote and protect those who march to its anti-traditional-values, pro-abortion drumbeat. Deviate from far-Left orthodoxy and you are dead meat. How sad because there was and still is noble work to be done on behalf of women of all political persuasions and parties.

No, they won’t speak up for Martha Stewart, the most successful woman in world corporate history. Instead, the Feminazis are probably hoping a convicted Martha Stewart will end up in the prison laundry putting a fine patina on those government-issued sheets and making sure her fellow inmates have properly folded towels. To the feminist-Left, that would be exactly what Martha Stewart deserves.

William Hamilton, a nationally syndicated columnist and featured commentator for USA Today, is the co-author of The Grand Conspiracy and The Panama Conspiracy – novels about terrorist attacks on Colorado’s water supply and on the Panama Canal, respectively.

©2003. William Hamilton

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com