All Hail, Oprah!

On Monday, Ms. Serensky entertained our class with a short anecdote about her conversation with her mom the previous night, which stemmed from her avoidance to pack her lunch. Her mom informed her that she needs more self-worth and therefore should watch Oprah. Ms. Serensky humorously responded, “You’re mistaking the problem, I have too much self worth… that’s why I do not want to pack my lunch.” A non Oprah fan nor critic, I remained puzzled for the rest of the day. What makes people love Oprah? Why do people feel she has the power to help a person gain self-worth? What makes Oprah so popular? Is it more than her amazing free gifts for the audience? These questions obnoxiously lingered in my head until finally, I decided I would spend a few minutes to research the amazing, Oprah Winfrey. Merely typing “Oprah” into the search box on Google, returned about 28,300,000 results, so I figured I would have to refine the subject. Next, I decided to search “Blogs about Oprah.” One website title jumped out at me, “An Oprah Rant” I quickly became absorbed in the site on the screen. The author, strongly biasedagainst Oprah declared, “The few clips and shows of Oprah that I’ve watched have frighteningly elicited an involuntary physical response in my body that makes me want to seek a blazing hot fork and jam it deeply into my cornea.” Wow. I never knew a single, seemingly harmless talk show host could excite that intensity from an audience member. Amused by this Oprah rant, I searched for more. In a blog titled, “Had Enough of Oprah?” the author began, “A nod from Oprah Winfrey moves best-seller lists. Stocks rise when her name is attached to a company or product. Millions listen when she speaks at Coretta Scott King's funeral, and millions more cheer when she loses 20 pounds.” I still cannot comprehend how one person, one talk show host, can elicit these reactions from so many people. As I continued to sift through the seemingly endless sites regarding Oprah and her show, I found nothing that seemed to answer any of my questions. Whether positive or negative, the number of sites dedicated to this woman and her show fascinated me. Yet at the same time, as I continued to read intense rants and overly complimentary brags about Oprah, I became extremely frustrated as one man commented, "Does Oprah have some sort of mind-control device we don't know about? Her impact is scary." I feel as though people should not let one person, one talk show host become this powerful in their lives. I believe everyone, Oprah fans or not, has potential. If people want to empower others, should they not at least be people with whom they have had meaningful interaction? I just do not understand.

Talk bubble reads, "Bad news... Now you're running second to Oprah."