This year I discovered the BBC television series Two Fat Ladies. It features two women who drive around the UK, preparing meals and talking about cooking. They are fat, smoke cigarettes, flirt with boldness and skill, make literary and historic references far beyond my education, speak several languages and clearly enjoy life. When I tell my friends about this show, they all give the same responce: didn't one of them die? I think the message here is that successful women who enjoy life are punished for it in the end.
There's a non-fat lady in on television in the USA who is being punished for her success in a life she enjoys. That's Martha Stewart. Martha Stewart sold some stock in her own company in December 2001. Her sale was entirely legal, and much less than other stocks sold at the same time by others. Stewart was not accused of selling stock illegally - instead, she was accused of saying she was innocent of selling stock illegally as a way of driving up her stock. The case that she sold stock illegally was not pursued, only the case that by saying she was innocent she hoped to drive up her stock. So for saying she was innocent of a crime she was never charged with, Martha Stewart is now in prison.
A few days ago I heard Rosie O'Donnell call in to Air America. She claimed that she had called NOW to ask if they were going to issue a statement of support for Stewart. O'Donnell claimed that the reply she got was 'I don't think Martha Stewart is a member of NOW.' So no support for Martha from NOW. No support from the mainstream press - only snickers that the mean rich lady went to prison. Stewart has her own prison blog, and there are fan sites, but there isn't much general support for her. She was a successful woman who enjoyed life, and so she must be punished. By sacrificing one relatively wealthy executive, the super-wealthy executives of Enron and Halliburton could continue their important work. After all, she was a woman, and she's mean, and she likes things, and stuff. Martha Stewart went to prison, ha ha ha.
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