Martha Stewart Living and the Marketing of Emersonian Perfectionism
2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 3; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2752/174063106778053246
ISSN1751-7427
Autores Tópico(s)Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes
ResumoThis paper proposes that perfectionism is an aspect of American popular culture through complex negotiations between commoditization, standardization, and efficiency. I focus on the centrality of home as a site for the cultivation of the self in Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay “Self-Reliance.” I then explore how home and perfectionism are visualized in several key examples from Martha Stewart Living. In the reader's hands, Martha Stewart Living represents perfectionism as a series of related events in terms of the contemporary role of women in American culture, the so-called return to domesticity, and other social-historical contextual frames.
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