I’m posing this question in a vague sort of way, so as not to load the deck, so: what’s with Oprah?
Does anyone watch this show? Personally, I am “forced†to watch it and when it’s on I can’t shut my mouth. I just want to analyze it to death.
I’m not talking about the subject of each show, but what the subtext of the show and Oprah’s behavior is overall. However, specific shows do say it all for me.
What are your thoughts about it?
What have I learned from Oprah…hmmm.
That black women are the superior race, and men are by and large inferior and hapless.
Oprah is a very good example of western capitalistic values personified.
Here we have a newly rich black woman – the ideal minority group suffering society’s prejudices - representing the promise of the ‘American Dream’, gaining authority through her ascension in the system, by playing by the rules…Or did she cheat?
Her wealth becomes a symbol of her wisdom, her success a symbol of her tenacity and her adaptability to necessity. Her opinions become drops of nectar myriads of women and some men, aspiring to be ‘just like her’ or to learn from her example, feed off of and worship like a queen. They bask in her televised presence and try to attain her greatness through osmosis.
The first thing that struck me, when I first watched her show, was the expressions of excited adoration plastered on the faces of her, mostly female, audience, when she made her entrance into the studio like some kind of Cesar; eyes wide open, mouths agape, hands clapping in an expression of ritualized grooming, projected through space, by the sound of applause and vocalizations.
The audience was, ooing and ahhing- a form of adoration towards the alpha female by all those wishing they could be just like her, or just like her public persona.
Then she sits on a throne, before her subjects, them hanging from her every word, her well quaffed head, her manicured fingers, her well dressed and now thinner physical body and her face-painted visage, the masked pinnacle of American materialistic superiority.
An ideal made flesh.
She then presents her subject matter, in accordance with her understanding of it and how highly she values it.
I once saw her spend an entire show talking about her ‘favourite things’, an amalgamation of feminine self-pampering gadgets and ostentatious, excesses, being televised into the homes of the middle-class, engulfed in day-to-day matters of survival and mostly drowning in a sea of debt, as they attempt to mimic the lifestyles of the rich and famous on borrowed time and credit, and watched in poverty stricken living-rooms where mere mortals live vicariously through her symbolic essence and drool over all the things, all the stuff they can never possess, but must have as a way of becoming ‘happy’.
A taunt, used as a marketing tool for a specific value system.
In another show – yes I tune in from time to time as a way to conduct social research gulp 
- she presented her favourite books: A selection of romanticized fiction about man/woman surviving diversity- a clear projection of her own psychology - her positive message a consequence of her success story, her excited optimism a result of her hindsight, after the fact.
One day she tears up at the sight of her own past suffering, as it is expressed by the words and experiences of others, whose lives become her product and their exploitation becomes her success.
She then sooths her guilt through philanthropic methods, before she returns to her sanitized environment and sterilized existence.
She’s earned it… Or has she just been in the right place at the right time?
Then, on another day, she expresses her own indifference towards her audience through all the stuff she’s made accessible to her needs and which she now flaunts behind the ‘you too can have it’ or ‘you must have it’ attitude.
“Look what I’ve got!!!â€
Sometimes she showers her audience with gifts of welcomed relief from their need.
Little droplets of her life, to make theirs fuller; little connections to her spirit that the recipient can point to and say to her own friends:
“Oprah gave that to me!!†thusly gaining envy, through second-hand means, and glory through association.
Her studio audience and her fans become witnesses to her life. The mirrors against which her ‘making it against all odds’ is made poignant and her sacrifices are made necessary.
And they, American housewives, attempt to live like her, despite their economical distances.
The American Dream used like a carrot, the one lottery winner used for marketing gambling and forcing the masses to borrow their way into ‘happiness’ and to live the ‘ideal’ life even if they have to sell their futures to do it.
Then, when the studio lights are turned off and the audience is escorted out of her presence, after a period of autograph siging and chit-chat meant to display her approachability and down-to-earthness, she returns to her castle(s) on the hill, hobnobbing with her rich-and-famous kind, jetting to France or Los Angeles for shopping sprees and lunch, where she will undoubtedly gather more knick-knacks and books for her up and coming shows.
Satyr.
That was about as close to what was on my mind with my having told you what to write. It was also very well presented.
On a variety of occasions I have done internet searches for critical analysis of her show and have found nothing to speak of at all. A few might say that they dislike Oprah, but can’t articulate why. I find it amazing that I consider her sinister and no one else does. Satyr, now that you have mirrored my observations it makes me feel like less of a curmudgeon.
Questions and observations:
Is it the case that the audience is supplicated in a politically correct manner to a black goddess? Is it the case, that all of the perfect girls have a need to be admonished and that is what fuels their perfectionism? If that is the case then I wonder what they really view Oprah as.
On the surface that doesn’t sound weird, rather it sounds very nice. Here’s the problem: you are a person that makes 30,000 dollars a year and they want to have more and have things get better. Oprah gives you a scarf worth 800 bucks, which is about two weeks salary for you. The gift is something that you can never really have. That’s a good thing, but also a reminder of your financial status and or failure. The item will not last. If you use it, in a year or two, the thing will look like trash. It might also be the case that you could loose or break whatever it is that was given to you. Then, your ultimate luxury item will be gone. How will you feel then? Additionally the item that she gave you might be more valuable than anything that you own. To Oprah, these items are just giveaways. It’s my opinion that these gifts are actually a way for Oprah to put everyone in their place and actually make them understand what’s it’s like to feel poor. It may be a strange form of abuse.
Sometimes Oprah will give extremely useful gifts to poor people. Mostly, these are black people, as far as I have seen, but still the gifts have an edge. On one episode she gave cars to people. This made the news as none of the people had the money to pay the tax on the cars. After the embarrassment she took care of it. Another time, she gave a poor family a house. Houses come with property tax that must be paid every year as I recall. How will dirt poor people keep that up? It is likely the case that they will have to sell the house as it will make them go broke. Has anyone heard about how in India a rich person would give you a sacred white elephant as a means to destroy you?
If Oprah just gave money to people then I would not complain. What she does is give out things that she thinks that you need, and that, is a refection of her psychology.
It has also been my observation that women that become fixated on animals have the opinion that humans aren’t as good as animals in so far as trust and emotional investment go. That of course sounds true, but is actually insane, because most of us know that animals aren’t capable of too much choice, so their compliance with us is not based on any form of willpower, thus its value is forth far less that than of a human. This kind of thinking is both negative towards humans, but also slightly (sometimes greatly) delusional.
In total, I think that Oprah represents a very original form of hatred.
Brilliant piece of writing Satyr.
I haven’t seen Oprah for years - she hasn’t made it over here yet, and given the almost zero black population, and lack of parity in culture, I don’t think she ever will.
There are, of course, chat shows on topical social themes, queened by Oprah-clones though.
The host of any show dealing with emotive issues who is successful, must have become adept at: pre-reading and manipulating mob-psychology; choosing issues that either are black and white, or easily painted as such, to ‘debate’ as histronically as possible; choosing guests that exemplify the poles, rather than the grey mid-ground, and are either easily swayed to emotional display, provoking sentimental/sympathetic responses from the audiences, or easily hated, and too stupid to appear anything but smug and/or aggressive and, of course - choosing the right TV studio audience. We must not see the figurehead as the entire ship - the host has a whole production crew dedicated to the same goals.
In short - they know the tools of their trade well, and use them to build something, that though appears to be an open forum for discussion, ie: a process in making, including the audience in its construction, is in reality, a slickly finished product, ready for consumption.
Does a workman hate his tools…? Does the scientist hate the mice he runs through his mazes…? No - as long as they work for him - he gives them no more thought than he would the chair he is sitting on. If they break, or take a wrong turn, then he may curse them, but in reality - curses his own lack of care in maintainence, or lack of care in construction, the tools or the mouse are, once again - excluded from the process.
I don’t think Oprah, or the makers of chat shows, actively hate their audiences, or the consumer hands that feed - rather just don’t see them as entirely human. Or at least, not the same species as themselves. They certainly don’t see them as individuals.
TheAdlerian
I agree… somewhat.
The ‘whiteness’ of her audience is mostly a result of it being representative of national U.S. demographics.
Besides, mostly whites can afford to spend the money to travel there and take an hour or two out of their schedule to participate in the show or watch it from home.
But Oprah does act as a black vengeance against her ‘peoples’ oppressors.
She thinks of it as ‘giving back to her community’.
I don’t know if it’s a “secret tactic†but it is part of natural human behavior.
In essence her television show is her living room, in which we are invited to enjoy her presence and experience her life, her friends, her concerns, her acquisitions, as guests.
She flaunts them, in memory of her past poverty, and gives them away as a form of dominance and guilt.
We become accessories to her living and living props, becoming witnesses to her existence.
But I don’t think this is done on a wholly conscious level.
She’s totally cut-off from reality, quarantined behind her wealth and only able to relate to the world from her, now, warped perspective.
“Let them eat cake.â€
Whatever connection she has to everyday reality she gets from memory.
This aspect of her personality speaks more about her past abuse and the resulting fear or inability to surpass it. A scar always itching in her psyche.
To fully understand it, more information is necessary, but I could see a few possible reasons for it.
Her selection of a black male, the most docile, calm, soft-spoken, shy, calm, unthreatening black male possible, coupled with her not having children might be a caused by her not wanting to risk having them exposed to the possibility of abuse. To protect them from life, by not giving them birth.
Or this could be a result of her missing childhood. She now lives her lost past, plays with her toys and enjoys her public games. Having a child would refocus her energies on it and off of her.
The most striking thing about the Oprah phenomenon is how it has evolved through time.
In the beginning she was this overweight black woman doing a show that was not that different from any other and frequently exploited the misery and ignorance of her guests, just like many, many other "reality’ shows.
The average woman could relate to her. She was unthreatening, imperfect and average.
This, for me, would explain her success.
A ‘blackness’, millions of black women could finally relate to, as it mirrored their own reality, and millions of women, in general, could feel comfortable with because it was so easy.
One reason George Bush got elected.
Then a transformation occurred - a result of wealth and sudden success.
She got herself a trainer, a cook, a nutritionist, an army of supportive elements.
We watched her reinvent herself in accordance to a western ideal. An ideal she wanted to live up to.
She altered her physical form – better lighting, clothes, hair and make-up, altered her public image.
She became the symbol of female power in the west: wealthy, successful, famous and, most important of all, attractive.
She now changed her show from blatantly sleazy and base, to a more sophisticated bourgeois creation; a representation of her own changing life, her newfound abundance and her bought respectability.
She now tries to ‘help’ and ‘enlighten’ her fan-base. Acting like a surrogate mother, a mother she undoubtedly misses in her own life.
Her dogs serve multiple purposes.
They are primarily a focal point where she can pour out all of her feminine motherly instincts, without them being overly demanding so as to refocus her energies away from her and the spotlight off of her.
Secondarily they are a symbolization of wealth, as it is often expressed by whites and their canines. A wealthy woman must have a living accessory and since slavery has been abolished the dog fits the part.
Thirdly they become the only thing she trusts and can be herself with. Not even her quiet “companion†deserves such trust and, given her past experiences with men, he will never get it.
Image worship has been around ever since the beginning of civilization.
In today’s America we find this kind of adoration replacing religious symbols as a way of admiring the ideal we wash to achieve in ourselves.
We are given values and then living metaphors to inspire us with their marketed façade.
If Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump are America’s idealized heroes then what does this say about America and how can we connect it with the overall economic and political landscape? What does this adoration reveal about western North American psychology exporting itself around the world and how does it explain the global cultural resistance to it and the current ‘anti-terrorist’ campaigns and ‘anti-cultural’ wars?
Oprah is but a minute symptom of a larger disease.
Shyster
Ah shucks 
Satyr,
You really have done an excellent analysis of Oprah. I’m very impressed!
Anyway, just to backtrack, I don’t think that Oprah is purposely doing anything to be sinister, rather I think that it’s more in the passive-aggressive realm. Frankly, I have little experience with the psychology of rich people but I get the feeling that her “goodness” is warped.
You broke down what I was observing very well, but what do you think the effect is of giving a poor person an 800 dollar scarf? What do you think that says and does?
Tab,
This show is not “cheesy” or “sleezy” in any overt way. The host almost always is giving something away or helping out. However, it seems to me that much of her help has to do with band-aid solutions that frequently involve high-end gifts. As I mentioned, if you are poor (really poor) and are given a house in the US you would then have to sell it as quickly as possible in order to pay the taxes on it. A car is much the same deal.
Meanwhile, Oprah just caught two sex offenders the other day, so she’s clearly not that bad. However, be sexual abused was one of her issues, and that says something.
Satyr,
More than brilliant. I am printing it out. Actually, I copied it and sent it to Oprah’s website. It was really well thought out and wonderfully written.
If you would write a book, I would read it. Doesn’t mean that I would meet you for drinks and dinner because you’d spend the time yelling at me and making me feel like hiding under the damn table. You do need to soften up that scary edge of yours, ya know. 
Hey Bessy!
Which part of the website did you send it to?
Also, what are your thoughts?
Hi Ad,
I have been trying for the ILP rehab for weeks, but it isn’t working… and so it goes.
First of all, I have always been struck by her obvious racism. I mean, I guess being brought up in a poor Southern environment with tons of racism, who could blame her, but it just gets to me when she starts talking like a black Mammy when one of her sistas stands up in the all white audience. She turns on a dime soundling like she graduated from Radcliffe into the Sista routine. SO obvious. I must admit, I read Satyr’s piece twice, and agreed with every eloquent word. The gift giving, the self importance, the carrot dangling in front of millions of whom will never even begin to dwell in such utter luxury. I met her. Can’t tell you how, but I have a relative high up in the biz, so I meet tons of celebs… and she is without a doubt the rudest son of a bitch you ever want to meet. Looks right through you, as if you were trash under her Manolo Blanik, and $85 pedicured feet. I can’t even watch the show anymore and will never understand the nature of the adoration of those women in the audience. As I said, Satyr has it going on with his whole shtick, and I could not have said it better. You can email “her ppl” on the website. I did it before when she was a bitch to me at one of the big award shows I had the honor of attending. I wouldn’t give her the time of day.
Also, Ad, I have enjoyed your thoughts as well on this thread. Interesting how a thread like this can bring on so many other issues of our materialistic and twisted culture. Good one.
TheAdlerian
Pretension behind compassion.
The recipient is both grateful and resentful in return.
But let’s be fare to Oprah. It’s tough being rich and famous.
Well….relatively speaking. 
A lottery winner has to disappear or become cruel when relatives start popping up with their hands outstretched and with fake smiles on their needy faces. If he isn’t generous enough to all he’s accused of being pompous and snobbish and in return he accuses them of being envious and petty.
Human beings are fun!!!
I suspect that, as it often happens with romantic ideals such as wealth and fame, the promised rewards weren’t as fulfilling to her as she had originally thought they would be.
They never are.
The carrot is never as filling as it appears when you run after it on an empty stomach.
The mind tends to exaggerate life to make it more interesting.
Ideals reward us more with their promise than their reality.
Bessy
If I get a visit from Oprah’s goons I’ll blame it all on you.
Are you sure? 
I rarely yell.
Why?
You do need to soften up that scary edge of yours, ya know.
Don’t!