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Reportedly Oprah is considering retiring from her daily talk show when her current contract ends in 2011. Maybe she worries that there is nothing new left to talk about or that she is on auto-pilot rehashing lessons already learned. If today's show is any indication, sadly I wonder if Oprah has already mentally checked out.
I have a great deal of respect for Oprah's success, intelligence, business savvy and her philanthropy. However she rubs me the wrong way when she idealizes skinny as the holy grail, on those days she offers ball gowns as the antidote to "shlumpadinka" jeans and t-shirts or when she follows up a show chastising foolish spenders with a show extolling the fabulousness of shoes that cost several hundred to thousands of dollars. Even those days when she uses her platform to launch the careers of her "friends" like Dr. Oz and now Peter Walsh, I can admire her mad brand and empire building skillz.
But on days like today, I fume.
The topic seemed benign enough: Beauty Secrets from Around the World. But my jaw dropped increasingly lower as certain practices went by unchallenged with no critical questioning or commentary applied and, even worse, giggled at and extolled.
Certainly there are cultural practices that are in some cases thousands of years old and have roots in beliefs that are very different than ours in the United States and the West. And there are deep, nuanced discussions to be had about those practices and how we consider and judge them. But, yes, bird poop facials are funny and I think it is OK to laugh at times.
However, it is stunning that when you are showing women of color around the globe seeming to fetishize some Nordic porn star ideal by straightening their hair, adding extensions, dying it blonde, whitening their skin, enlarging their breasts, skinny-ing their noses and valuing aging while sexy as long as you stay under a size 12, you don't even raise an eyebrow or acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, this might be the teensiest bit problematic.
But wait, it gets better. Oprah had a woman on from the African nation of Mauritania. The young woman talked about how Oprah might think her fat (Oprah protested "no!" as the woman was still smaller than Oprah) and how she wanted to lose weight but was discouraged to do so by the women in her family. Video was shown of how bigger women are considered more marriageable in Mauritania. In some rural parts of the country, much like geese for fois gras, girls are force fed to fatten them up. We watch as young girls are taken to "fat camp," fed starchy grains and fatty camel's milk until they can stand no more and vomit at which point the feeding resumes. To which Oprah responds with glee to the fact that big butts and stretch marks are valued and plans to move there.
Sigh. No mention of the fact that Mauritania currently lacks a functioning government because the democratically elected officials have been overthrown, slavery flourishes and terrorism is rampant.
Look, I know that the Oprah show is probably not the forum for a nuanced discussion of such global concerns. And a daytime television talk show, even Oprah's, would quickly lose most of its audience if the focus were such a downer. But, really, I am shocked that her producers did such a poor job of doing even a modicum of research before writing up Oprah's cue cards. However, I'm even more shocked that a smart, perceptive, talented woman such as Oprah would react so shallowly.
Oprah, if you're that jaded and married to an advertiser-driven world view, maybe it is indeed time to bow out gracefully and focus on building your brand through surrogates and network owner moguldom.
Related reading:
Sharon LaFraniere at the New York Times "In Mauritania, Seeking to End an Overfed Ideal"
Oprah's community discusses the show
Bloggers are blogging:
Some share my outrage:
Living Oprah writes Frowning causes wrinkles ... but I can't help myself today.
Be forewarned: I was incredibly upset by this morning's show. You may wonder how on earth I could let an episode all about beauty secrets from around the globe get under my skin. Well, I'll tell you...but first, I want to temper what I'm about to say by admitting that
