Oprah
If we knew all the answers, we'd be on Oprah.
- authors of Questions on Gender
She's the world's only African-American billionaire. Her show gets 22million viewers every episode (mainly women). Millions of women view her as the epitome of strength and success, growing up in rural poverty and making it to who she is today. Heck, even my social work textbook written by prominent academics on Gender says: 'if we had all the answers, we'd be on Oprah.'
Been watching some Oprah shows on cable over the CNY week. And frankly, it does turn me off quite a bit sometimes.
I remember Jan told me when I was on ulu island: "when Oprah said on her show 'i've donated $10million of my own money towards the Katrina survivors, so you guys should donate something too.', I could NOT respect her anymore.' How true.
What I'm upset about is how the shows are conducted and the potential ramifications of how they're done. The episode I watched was about a woman who was pretending to be in a lovely family and happy with her marriage when she really wasn't. Strangely though, her husband had been faithful to her and was bringing home the bacon consistently, and she loved him. But somehow she just wasn't happy.
She appeared on the show, and when she did, the TV screen showed her name. "Ms XYZ. Living a Lie.'
You know, almost like living a lie is her identity. Like we watch the news and it says:' Mr ABC. CEO of TUV Company' Argh. It's so incredibly deeply labelling. What about the nice, good things about her life? Her kids that she loves? Her friends? And her husband who is working hard day and night to bring home the bread and butter?
This woman didn't get to talk much throughout the show. It was mainly Dr Robin Smith (a psychologist.. argh i could be a psychologist too if all it took was to talk like her), and Oprah who were doing the talking. They'd say something like: 'U're living a lie. You're not happy with your marriage. Tell me, what is your intimacy with your husband like?'
Argh of course she'd say :'not as good as I want it to be.' she's on national tv for goodness' sake. Basically she sat on the couch and Oprah and Dr Smith just kept talking.. and she basically spoke about 3-4 sentences in 15minutes.
At the end of the day, they both told her. 'Stop living the lie. You gotta know yourself. You don't understand yourself. Don't be afraid to be yourself. Be the woman you want to be. Don't be scared, be brave. Know who you are inside, in the core of your being.' And of course, she starts to tear a bit and the camera zooms in on her and some of the audience who are tearing too. Thanks arh.
It's all about 'yourself'. Nope, nothing about the kids, nothing about her friends, nothing about her husband who may not have even done anything wrong. They didn't explicitly say anything about leaving the relationship and the family, but don't you think those things they said were really quite strongly worded towards a certain direction? Especially to a woman you barely know and on national TV. But oh well. I wonder how that woman and her family is now.
I guess that's our world.
And of course, it's a TV show.
Watched by 22million people.
- authors of Questions on Gender
She's the world's only African-American billionaire. Her show gets 22million viewers every episode (mainly women). Millions of women view her as the epitome of strength and success, growing up in rural poverty and making it to who she is today. Heck, even my social work textbook written by prominent academics on Gender says: 'if we had all the answers, we'd be on Oprah.'
Been watching some Oprah shows on cable over the CNY week. And frankly, it does turn me off quite a bit sometimes.
I remember Jan told me when I was on ulu island: "when Oprah said on her show 'i've donated $10million of my own money towards the Katrina survivors, so you guys should donate something too.', I could NOT respect her anymore.' How true.
What I'm upset about is how the shows are conducted and the potential ramifications of how they're done. The episode I watched was about a woman who was pretending to be in a lovely family and happy with her marriage when she really wasn't. Strangely though, her husband had been faithful to her and was bringing home the bacon consistently, and she loved him. But somehow she just wasn't happy.
She appeared on the show, and when she did, the TV screen showed her name. "Ms XYZ. Living a Lie.'
You know, almost like living a lie is her identity. Like we watch the news and it says:' Mr ABC. CEO of TUV Company' Argh. It's so incredibly deeply labelling. What about the nice, good things about her life? Her kids that she loves? Her friends? And her husband who is working hard day and night to bring home the bread and butter?
This woman didn't get to talk much throughout the show. It was mainly Dr Robin Smith (a psychologist.. argh i could be a psychologist too if all it took was to talk like her), and Oprah who were doing the talking. They'd say something like: 'U're living a lie. You're not happy with your marriage. Tell me, what is your intimacy with your husband like?'
Argh of course she'd say :'not as good as I want it to be.' she's on national tv for goodness' sake. Basically she sat on the couch and Oprah and Dr Smith just kept talking.. and she basically spoke about 3-4 sentences in 15minutes.
At the end of the day, they both told her. 'Stop living the lie. You gotta know yourself. You don't understand yourself. Don't be afraid to be yourself. Be the woman you want to be. Don't be scared, be brave. Know who you are inside, in the core of your being.' And of course, she starts to tear a bit and the camera zooms in on her and some of the audience who are tearing too. Thanks arh.
It's all about 'yourself'. Nope, nothing about the kids, nothing about her friends, nothing about her husband who may not have even done anything wrong. They didn't explicitly say anything about leaving the relationship and the family, but don't you think those things they said were really quite strongly worded towards a certain direction? Especially to a woman you barely know and on national TV. But oh well. I wonder how that woman and her family is now.
I guess that's our world.
And of course, it's a TV show.
Watched by 22million people.
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