Martha Stewart was sentenced yesterday to five months in a minimum security prison and five consecutive months of home detention for lying about her sale of ImClone stock in 2001, “a small personal matter.” The five months she’ll spend in a federal prison camp in Danbury, Connecticut, isn’t geographically far from her Westport home or her 153-acre estate in New York — but it will be a far cry from what she’s used to. That’s okay though, as the Toronto Star reports, Martha’s like Mandela: she can handle it:

‘I could do it,’ she said, according to excerpts released by ABC late Friday. ‘I’m a really good camper. I can sleep on the ground. There are many, many good people who have gone to prison. Look at Nelson Mandela.’

That Martha would chose to compare herself to the former South African President doesn’t faze her fans, who see her as a trailblazer who taught them to embrace beauty — and her company’s products. Their supportive words are found on Martha’s trial web site, maintained by her company:  

Please do not despair. No matter where you are, you will still be you. And when you are done, I will be right there to support you by watching your show, and buying your products.

You have helped me gain the confidence needed in my own ability to entertain and create that enabled me to undertake some of my own challenges without too much reservation. I just held a Celtic Wake for my beloved mother’s memorial service, and entertained 70 people in my own home (2500 square feet) with food, beverages, and bagpipes.

I am and will continue to support you with all my heart … K-Mart is our local “everything” store and my home is proof of my feelings for the Martha Stewart Brand Products. Once again I wish you the very best. This too will pass Martha.

Martha’s a hero to Kmart, certainly. Our positions on Martha’s lucrative aesthetic brokering and subsequent sentencing reveal more about our society’s complicated feelings about female power and domesticity than they shed light on a public figure. Martha’s case stands apart as a female prosecuted for her own actions, and not for spending her husband’s money, a woman who built her empire on traditionally feminine crafts and was convicted for playing dangerously in a predominantly masculine market. Her actions aren’t heroic, but her fame opens the door for much needed dialogue about gender and business.

llouison