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November 20, 2007
What's Wrong with Oprah
Notice that's not a question. Sure, Oprah Winfrey is a great American success story. Sure, she uses a lot of her money for good. And maybe it's unfair to blame her for the taste and sensibility of American women, but I really think she is no longer simply a product and can now be considered a major influencer. I saw this morning that she is hosting her annual "Favorite Things" episode this week, wherein a studio full of fans scream for an hour straight while Oprah lobs iPods and perfume at their heads. Great. 'Cause the season is all about consumerism. No, what really irks me is Oprah Winfrey's promotion of every psychic fraud and self-help vulture out there, with nary a critical eye.
I watched the episode where she had con artist John Edward on. There was one woman in the audience who raised her hand and said "I'm a scientist, and very skeptical of this kind of thing." They made her look like the one curmudgeonly freak in the audience. Then there's her promotion of Rhonda Byrne and her book The Secret. Quantum mechanics indeed. Women already disproportionately believe in this crap, and Oprah's completely uncritical presentation and promotion lends credibility and connects these people with a much wider pool of people to prey on. I'm all for leading a positive life, self-improvement, and so on, but the Self-Help culture that thrives on women's victimhood does no one any good.
As women, I think it's important that we not turn our backs on things like emotion, interconnectedness, and caring, but why does that necessarily include irrational belief and acceptance of the superstitious and supernatural with no critical inquiry? We need a TV show on the scale of Oprah that can entertain but also put a stop to the Marketing Machine that is Self-Help (and here I separate actual psychology and therapeutic psychiatry from hare-brained theories to sell a book) and Psychic Bullshit. I should put Homeopathy in that basket as well, but it's a topic for a whole separate post. Science has repeatedly debunked this stuff, yet somehow that isn't being broadcast to the general public, because it's just not exciting front-page news. I absolutely love James Randi, and find him very entertaining, but perhaps from a marketing standpoint we need a perky, 30-something female version to reach the audience I'm talking about. How do we convince the marketing people it's a sell? I don't know.
Posted by mwashburn at November 20, 2007 06:41 AMPosted to Skepticism
Comments
Testify, sister!
Posted by: adamwr at November 20, 2007 09:51 AM
Here's a good link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWE5N8z2Aa4
Good post.
Posted by: Jez at November 21, 2007 08:20 AM
Thanks Jez, good link. Yeah, I loved "My job isn't to be right." Um, well, yeah it is, if you can do what you say you can do. Honestly, he should be put in jail.
Posted by: flygrrl at November 21, 2007 08:58 AM
I have little good to say about Oprah. And I'm showing your post to Drew - I have a feeling it might inspire an anti-Oprah rant of his own.
Posted by: Carol at November 21, 2007 05:07 PM
It is brave to dis Oprah. I have made a sideways comments about Oprah once or twice in my day, and it seems that even the staunchest, most independent thinkers will be like, "come on man, how can you say something bad about Oprah. Look at all the good she's done."
Um, okay, whatever. She does a lot of nice stuff for people. She's got that school. She gives a lot of stuff away. She chooses what interesting Irish writers get to be on the bestseller list.
The thing is, back in the early days of Oprah, my Grandmother was her biggest fan. At the time she couldn't hear, or see much, and she watched exercise shows because she thought aerobics was an Olympic sport. But in the early days, Oprah did it all. You know the Jerry Springer 'I'm sleeping with my sister and my niece and my mother...her name is Betty Sue.' Oprah totally invented that. And the Montel 'tough love gotta quit drugs, gotta lose weight, gotta stop being a shopaholic'...all the time on Oprah. And the best of all, the Maury Povich DNA test - who's your Daddy? - Oprah invented that. I don't think DNA evidence would even be allowable in a court of law if not for Oprah's efforts in the 80s.
There was a point many years ago - remember a few years ago when she said it was her last season...yeah, a couple years before that - when she said she was going high brow. She said she wasn't doing the nasty, controversial, trailer park stuff any more. Kudos to her for being able to stop the schlock. But the fact is, she was as low as anybody (well maybe not Springer, but she did come close). Oprah got rich on the backs of the pathetic. If she wants to be highbrow now, that's cool. Much power to you big Sister. But let's not forget how you got where you are today.
Posted by: Drew at November 21, 2007 06:15 PM
Oprah, like most people, has her good points. She's an excellent interviewer. She gives away money to worthy causes.
On the down side, she draws people away from God.
No, God isn't about some vague idea of spirituality. He isn't your higher self. God is distinct from us. Put simply, you are not God! When you write a grateful journal, who are you grateful to? It isn't just a letter to yourself. We need to be grateful to God for all the people and things He has created, or directed, to help us.
When she did the show about the socio-economic class viewers belonged to, it was not helpful to the lower classes, especially in view of Oprah's extreme wealth. What is different about this than the Indian caste system?
Oprah has done some wonderful shows about extraordinary children, but is not pro-life. What about those children, Oprah? Can they not become their best selves? Or even be born?
Posted by: Anita at November 12, 2008 01:06 AM