I Want A Girl With A Short Skirt And A Long Jacket

"...one of our most productive citizens is being targeted for destruction by our most unproductive entity, the federal government..."
-from mises.org 26 aug, 2002

martha stewart has been indicted for insider-trading, and has launched a website where she tells her side of the story: marthatalks.com. she says, among other things, that she is innocent, that she simply returned a phone call from her broker, and that she had pre-authorized a sale of the stock at a certain price. which seems quite simple, really, and not hard to believe. it's not as if we are talking about millions of dollars worth of stocks. so why is it being scrutinized at all?

alan reynolds at the cato institute wrote an interesting article called "the interminable persecution of martha stewart" which sums a few points up nicely.

underneath it all, i think the reason martha stewart is being pursued with such tenacity is that the people with the power of pursuit are primarily male, and do not like to see a women succeeding in the way and at the level that she has. people, both male and female, are put off her by personality, because she is extremely dominant and many people are uncomfortable seeing a woman in that role. people seem to get a sick thrill out of seeing her fail, there is an urge to see her broken that i do not see so often with powerful men.

i would hesitate to assume this had to do with her being a woman and not just that it was about her being martha stewart if the reaction had not been the same with oprah winfrey when she was attacked by the Texas cattlemen's association, carly fiorina during the hp merger with compaq, and suzy wetlaufer at the harvard business review after her affair with interview subject jack welch.

there is something about me that squirms at saying this, that hates making it about male and female. but it's more comfortable, isn't it, to let men be the ones who are barking orders at one another, sleeves rolled up, cigar hanging out of the mouth? perhaps there is something that feels emasculating about having a 50 year old woman there telling everyone what's what and and where to get it. the boys' clubs were nice places, i guess...but so is martha stewart omnimedia.

Saturday 07-Jun-03