Martha Stewart and Sports Illustrated: Erasing Our Story of Ageing? No. I think not.
Martha Stewart on the cover of Sports Illustrated sparked a lot of chatter Last week!
Is she erasing our story of aging?
No. I think not.
I need to talk about it. About her. I do.
I have been a big fan, I purchased my first magazine in 1994. I ate up her Kids magazines, and all the pretty birthday parties that were in there, that I never had the time or mental energy to follow through on.
Ah, motherhood.
I even paid a bit of attention when I heard she was doing jail time. What would her cell look like? Would she have bedding coloured after her araucana hens eggs?
I want to talk about the lady who's making waves at 81.
Yes.Martha Stewart.
This week she is still all the rage – and causing rage – for being on the cover of sports illustrated at 81.
I am still a fan and also very aware that I am saying this as a white woman. Who is also privileged, not in the way that Ms. Stewart is, financially, but the colour of my skin, and even my body size, does offer me privilege.
Let's also go into this episode with the stark reality that magazines sell a fantasy.
The swimsuit addition of sports illustrated sells a fantasy for the male gaze. They also perpetuate a fantasy that women buy into, with diets, and self loathing
I purchased Martha’s magazines for the fantasy that they conveyed, of Pinterest type homemaking to make your everyday life feel special. All with a dash of perfect lemon curd.
I'm currently asking myself:
Am I still inspired by Martha?
Is this another form of toxic beauty media?
Is it a gateway for ageing women to be featured more and more in pop culture?
Is this magazine cover representing discrimination, against age and race, especially in the time we are in?
Are we losing a grasp on what's real now?
And the one that speaks to my heart:
Is Martha living UNconfined in her midlife, (which is my credo,) and letting go of the rules society has placed upon her, OR is she confining herself in the media trap of youthful beauty culture and the instagram like filter feels of adobe photoshop?
Let's talk about it. I don't think this has an easy answer,
My thoughts on Martha Stewart on Sports Illustrated
Let me share my first thoughts as I came across Alex Light’s Instagram post, featuring the cover of Sports Illustrated. My first thought was:
DAMN her hair looks good. I’d love to have a bob like that.
I’d love to have hair like that.
My second thought was holy shit, she looks young.
I had no idea that Martha was 81.
She's one of those people that seem ageless to me. And I don’t mean because of photo retouching and expensive beauty treatments.
She's just someone who I always picture in LL Bean Linen shirts, or her own company's popover shirt. Yes, Martha has a clothing line. And she always looks the same, timeless.
Or course she ages.
And I don't think she wears LL Bean or Land’s End :)
I’m not a big celebrity watcher, and my fashion days fell by the wayside being in the sandwich generation, flitting between parent care, child care, career and home responsibility.
The Martha Cover, on this instagram post, was juxtaposed with the popular black and white picture circulating the internet of another beautiful older woman in a bikini, with skin that’s seen some sunny days. Her skin is aged, she's not young, and you can see that.
She's got a feather necklace that hangs down into her cleavage and her look is somewhat defiant as if to say F*ck YOU, you I AM HERE. This woman is also beautiful.
That photo is by Natalie Grono, the Australian photographer.
Now, Elon Musk's mom was on the cover of Sports illustrated at 74, and I don't know if she caused this kind of controversy? Probably. I just didn't pay attention at the time for the aforementioned reasons.
Maye Musk stated that she wanted to inspire older women.
Martha Stewart said she wanted women to know they can look good at any age.
Perhaps that’s Martha’s reasons for being on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Whatever her reasons, they are none of my business.
What is my business is how media images like this might kick off feelings about who I am as a regular person. And yes, who I am as a white woman.
And how this might affect the thoughts of the women I work with.
Your thoughts on Martha Stewart.
It seems that images like this one trigger big feelings in you as well.
I’ve seen comments like:
This makes me want to have a tummy tuck.
This is racist and discriminatory.
This sets us back as a collective.
We’re not allowed to age naturally and this really drives it home
I don't want to spend my life being wrapped up in staying ahead of the ageing process no matter what
This is a baby step to featuring more older women on the cover
Go Martha.
I love her but let's be realistic, she has cash at her disposal for taking care of herself
This cool but also disturbing
Yay for visibility & sexiness of older women
81 is the new 21
Being older and plus sized is doubly hard
All of these comments are valid.
Is this a discussion with a complete right or wrong answer here?
Let’s unpack some of this
I mean what did my mom say about opinions? They're like A**holes, everyone has one.
This is racist and discriminatory.
For sure, featuring a white woman like Martha on the cover of sports illustrated as the oldest model is discriminatory, and racist. It upholds the white standard of beauty and body.
There are many other older women of colour that could have been featured.
In fact I want to hear who you think should be on the cover, with my Speakpipe link in the show notes, or any other thoughts on this episode.
Maybe the media company who runs sports illustrated had a short list of options, and those women said NO.
I don't know.
The intellectual property of Sports illustrated is owned by Authentic Brands Group., of which Shaquille O'Neal is the largest shareholder.
Also pop a voice note or comment if I have any facts wrong. I did try to fact check myself.
Who knows if he has any say in what the choice was in this cover, If he did then we have another topic to consider here… I digress
We’re not allowed to age naturally and this really drives it home
This cover can also be seen as ageist … perpetuating toxic beauty for us ageing women here, coming to terms with an ageing changing body.
Those comments I paraphrased certainly show that we are tired of toxic youthful unattainable beauty ideals portrayed by the media. Not all of us can afford a facial let alone plastic surgery to turn back time.
I have been privileged to have access to both, and even to the reversal of breast implant surgery, which was NOT cheap.
The comment of “Cool, but also disturbing" was alluding to the thought that if this is what some people want to celebrate as far as an ageing ideal, then we are all in trouble.
Most of us as women, and men too, make no mistake, don't have the genetics or means to buy into ALL the things on the market to defy ageing and look like this.
Go Martha, and yay for baby steps and the visibility & sexiness of older women
I can see this too.
Is this yet another gateway for increased visibility of an age bracket that is sorely misrepresented in pop culture? Maybe it is. Maybe there are some of us who will find this inspiring and feel more free to celebrate the age we are in. And there will be some of us disheartened.
It is nice to see some sexiness of an ageing woman, as we are far from losing our sexuality as time marches on. If you're in menopause or perimenopause giving me the finger as you listen because you lost your libido, I am sorry I am not meaning to gloss over the fact that this happens. Of course there are physiologic changes to our bodies.
There are emotional changes to our minds.
What I am saying is that ageing women can be sexy. Being sexy comes from within, and within your mind. Just look at Mama Gena on the internet. Being sexy is also about confidence and deciding you are desirable even to your own self.
Back to the questions i asked
Am I still inspired by Martha?
Yes. I am.
She's gone from being on wall street to authoring cookbooks, catering to television, partnered with Canopy Growth in CBD products for people and pets, of course with meyer lemon flavour. She’s a business mogul, and to get to that place you gotta be confident and driven, and basically not give an EF about what others think of you.
You have to be UNconfined by others' opinions and thoughts in your own head to get that far.
Is this another form of toxic beauty media or a gateway for ageing women to be featured more and more in pop culture?
Maybe it’s both.
On toxic beauty: remember, we're talking about publications that sell a fantasy.
It's up to us whether we buy into that fantasy or not. Yes we can take it in as pressure that we can’t age gracefully and naturally, or we can use something like this to have deeper conversations about ageing and beauty, discrimination and whiteness, or how this affects our really impressionable youngsters, without cancel culturing the person who sparked the conversation.
It seems that Martha is living her post menopause years unconfined.
Hasn’t she been doing that for a long time? It's not the only controversial cover she's done. She's been on SPY magazine in a nude shot in the late 90’s.
She’s known for a few of her thirst trap pics on her Instagram page.
OK, I'm going to admit that I truly didn't know what a thirst trap was until I did a little fact checking to make this episode and video. Or I did, and called it the duck lip face. A thirst trap is a shot that is sexy, and grabs your attention. Makes you thirst for more so to speak …
Is this a media or a gateway for ageing women to be featured more and more in pop culture?
Maybe. Maybe there are some women who will feel good about there age because of this, and of course there will be some that wont.
It's certainly sparking conversation!
Are we losing a grasp on what's real now?
Most of us know this isn't real. Social media, media in general, we can argue we have lost a grasp of whats real for a long time now. And yes this especially affects our youth and young adults
As for the question I asked earlier is she living unconfined and letting go of the rules society has placed upon her, OR is she confining herself in the media trap of youthful beauty culture and instagram like filter feels of adobe photoshop?
Only Martha has that answer.
Maybe from our collective perspective in the peanut gallery here, it's a bit of both.
But is she erasing the story of normal ageing from our collective consciousness?
If she is, she isn't the only one doing it. We, the consumer, have to look deeper, and past Martha for why this is happening
Wrap it up
Her tagline on IG says elevating the everyday. Martha is far from every day. She has put a little specialness in my days through the years.
Whatever Martha's reasons for being on the cover I'm here for it.
And if you're one of the women feeling like Martha is collectively erasing our story of youth, I get you. But she is not the first one and not the last
At the end of the day, if I’m settling into the part of the non diet space that helps women tune in and celebrate their own sense of self, while ageing, then busting Martha for her choices and privilege isn't preaching acceptance and autonomy. You do you boo.
But the non diet space also has its roots in inclusivity and less marginalisation, and If we’re turning the conversation to discrimination, ageism and race, well then we have a lot more to unpack here.
I’ve got a guest I'm hoping to have here to talk more about this with me. They haven't said yes yet:)
For now, I’m gonna leave Martha Stewart alone.
She's not the first celebrity, or business mogul, that triggers thoughts about ageing in all of us.
This is an opportunity to ask ourselves, what is this bringing up in me?
Slamming Martha on the cover of Sports illustrated isn't going to help me live by my own rules, feel good in the skin I'm in, whether I choose to drink green juice, eat the cake, or get some more plastic surgery.
At the end of the day, slamming Martha on social media is not gonna help me live a life that is unconfined for the last years that I’ve got remaining, it's not.
I will take some of her advice though.
Be fearless. She says, okay, I'm here for that.
Take care of yourself. You know what? I'm here for that too.
Whether it means trying to feel good in the skin, I'm in, drinking some green juice or green smoothies, eating the cake, having the pasta, having some sleep, working on my stress, or gosh, what if it is plastic surgery and I decide to get that one day again?
Mm mm I don't think that'll happen. But what I'm saying is YOU DO YOU, BOO.
Do you and figure out what this is bringing up inside you.
That's all I got today.
I will probably get a lot of things wrong as I speak about other things here on the internet, and I welcome your comments. I'd love to hear what you thought about this little video chat.
I'm not discounting that I might have a lot more work to do on myself as an aging white woman who's making comments about somebody else's life here in an episode on YouTube or the podcast.
So with that in mind, maybe we should all write our lives in pencil, carry an eraser, and be ready to change and be open to new ideas. Until next time.