All it takes is 40 pounds to bring an icon down to our level. About a week ago, Oprah appeared on the front of her eponymous magazine talking about her recent weight gain. Media outlets picked up on the story with an acute fervor and more than a little bit of schadenfreude. Watching a celebrity, however generous and beloved, balloon to 200 pounds and drape themselves in purple sweats is just too good a story to pass up. For regular viewers of her show and celebrity gossip hounds (I fall into the later category) Oprah's weight gain isn't shocking news. In fact, it has been gradual enough to escape too much notice. It's only on a slow news day that a story of her slowly expanding waist line seems to pop up. Oprah's weight has never been a private issue, but even with her love of full disclosure, appearing on the cover of O to address the fat issue is a bold move.
But, like all things O, there's more method than madness behind her latest over-share. "I'm embarrassed," she writes in the magazine. "I can't believe that after all these years, all the things I know how to do... 'How did I let this happen again?'"
We gossip about her like we would a next door neighbor, with more than a little speculation as to how she could let herself go like that, but with Oprah we are more than willing to forgive. Even Ruby Gettinger, the 477-pound star of her own weight-loss reality show called Ruby, feels bad for Oprah. "My heart goes out to her," she said in a recent interview. Wow, things really have to be bad when a woman who weighs close to 500 pounds expresses sympathy for you.
Of course, this kind of weakness is what binds Oprah's loyal viewers to her. She's never been shy in front of her audience and that has made all the difference. Sharing makes her more like us: fallible, weak and fat. By "coming out" on the cover of her magazine and confessing (rather than denying and sneaking off to get lipo) she's earned a sympathy that most celebrities aren't given.
For example, take Oparh's lady-in-waiting, Tyra Banks. The former super-model's weight has been a constant source of tabloid fodder. Tyra's tried everything, from proudly parading her ample tush and bosom in a one-piece down a catwalk to tackling her critics on the air, to catch a break on the issue of he weight. Despite embracing her curvaceous and by no means unhealthy physique, Tyra's never been afforded the sympathy given Oprah. Is it because Tyra started out rich and skinny or simply that Oprah's always been a more accessible role model?
In her article this past Sunday, Washington Post columnist Robin Givhan writes that its precisely because we've seen her yo-yo back and forth over the years we can identify with her. She says, "Ultimately what makes Winfrey's tale of weight loss and gain so compelling is that it's so common." The Daily Beats' Jessi Klein paints an even more culturally poignant view of Oprah's weight gain. The extra 40 pounds are not just about her, but about us all.
Klein says that Oprah's self-medicating through food is much like the rest of America's need to take comfort in material possessions. She writes "Oprah having a muffin top is not the same as a family losing their home-but the cravings that caused her to overindulge on éclairs are not so different from the ones that led us to binge on SUVs." I think that might be taking the comparison a bit too far, but Klein's article is interesting because it does point out of how, eventually, all things can be traced back to the Big O.
The real lesson of Oprah's weight gain and our obsession with it, is, as Jessi Klien writes, that "None of us, no matter what the size of our wallets, can be perfect." And that's what makes this story so interesting. Most of us at any rate, aren't laughing and snickering behind her back, but feel genuine compassion for her as someone who is struggling with their weight. It's a courtesy we don't extend nearly enough regular people, much less celebrities.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-16-2008 @ 2:22PM
Argus said...
This isn't a "bold move" by Oprah, its a moneymaking one. She knew that she could capitalize on this thing and so put it on the front cover to sell magazines.
Reply
12-16-2008 @ 3:00PM
Franklin said...
How horrible!! A businesswoman using her business savvy to make money! She would be much better off just ignoring an easy way to increase her profits, wouldn't she?
I don't watch/listen to/read Oprah or anything about her, but using the resources at her disposal to capitalize on a situation that'll benefit her business is just a smart move. Anything less would be rightfully viewed as a bad business maneuver.
12-16-2008 @ 5:23PM
Argus said...
Did I say it was a bad move? I simply pointed out that she was clearly taking advantage of an easy business opportunity. Get a grip.
12-16-2008 @ 6:45PM
GL said...
It's also not bold because it isn't news and not something she has never talked about.
12-16-2008 @ 7:38PM
Franklin said...
You're a funny little boy, Argus. "I simply pointed out that she was clearly taking advantage of an easy business opportunity." Pull the other one you fucking pussy, you didn't "simply point out" anything. You acted just like what you are, a sub-25 (and probably a sub-18) year old male who incorrectly thinks snarkiness is clever. You then acted on your ridiculous assumptions to shit on a smart business move and didn't have the balls to stick to your guns, but rather reply saying you were just pointing things out.
If anyone needs to get a grip, it would be you, Argus. And while you're getting that grip, yell up the basement stairs and ask "Mother" for a spine and a pair.
Get a life.
12-16-2008 @ 7:37PM
Lenny said...
It's pretty clear you were making it out to be some cheap attempt on Oprah's part to make money. Well, I've got news for you, Oprah's stock-in-trade -is- self-promotion.
Take your sour grapes elsewhere.
12-17-2008 @ 1:07AM
StillBash said...
Hey Franklin. Asshole much?
12-17-2008 @ 1:00PM
Joe said...
Argus and Franklin are agreeing with each other.
Ahh, the Internet.
12-17-2008 @ 12:47PM
Franklin said...
Bash, as a fucking german you have no right to judge anyone, you should just be happy your country was allowed to exist. Judging you on your behavior here, you're a seriously uninformed and overly opinionated asshole whose relevance is nonexistent.
You can't even find anything in your own craphole of a country to talk about, so you have to come here and talk about American television. So what we have is an ignorant loudmouth from a land whose people are, by their own doing, so uninformed, so irrelevant, so lacking in creativity and imagination and so filled with the potential to become again a genocidal mass-murdering horde that they take their vile hatred of everything to the web where they can be anonymous in their derision of everything because at heart these people, these germans, are nothing but cowards. They, and you are one of them, fear everything and react with a desire to extinguish everything they fear, effectively making them destroyers.
That is who you are and what you are; irrelevent, unnecessary, unwelcome and unable to comprehend anything beyond your ignorant hatred. You calling anyone "asshole" is the most ridiculous and outrageous example of hypocrisy ever to exist on this planet.
12-17-2008 @ 12:43PM
Argus said...
I actually do have a life, so unlike your post, I'll make this brief. Franklin, your rant is childish beyond belief. Show some class. Copious swearing and personal insults do not make a good argument. If you feel you must have the last word on such a petty topic, go ahead. I have better things to do.
12-16-2008 @ 2:39PM
MissP said...
It's amazing that Oprah's weight gain can cause such a stir in the media and make headlines. But at the same time, I can't think of any other celeb who has so visibly yo-yoed back and forth between size 6 and 16. See what I mean here:
http://misspredicto.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/miss-predicto-talks-oprahs-weight-gain/
Reply
12-16-2008 @ 3:00PM
khia213 said...
Not a member of the cult of Oprah, but her issues with weight do tell a comforting tale to the average Jane. If Oprah, with all her money and all her experts can't keep the weight off, then all the rest of us have an excuse. With her money, she could pay somebody to smack that cheeseburger right out her hand!
I don't love Oprah, but it is nice to see a woman whose success isn't vested in the fact that she's a size zero.
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12-17-2008 @ 1:10AM
StillBash said...
Yeah right. As if there's anyone who could tell somebody that rich and powerful anything. In the end the person is still on her payroll and if she doesn't want that person on there anymore, he's gone.
Read Robbie William's Biography. That guy has been battling with his weight for ages and it's pretty simple - once you can get every woman no matter how you look and once you have that much money and everybody tells you how great you are, you don't take shit from anybody.
God I can't believe I'm talking about this but at least I managed not to talk about her :-)
12-17-2008 @ 12:04PM
Franklin said...
Another ignorant and myopic rant by Bash.
"As if there's anyone who could tell somebody that rich and powerful anything. In the end the person is still on her payroll and if she doesn't want that person on there anymore, he's gone."
Spoken like a true german. If you're in power, your word is absolute, just like your fuhrer. I bet you miss him.
12-17-2008 @ 1:17PM
Franklin said...
"I have better things to do."
Apparently you don't, but you'll say so because you know you just had your ass handed to you on a platter. You won't because you were just proven to be a liar. You won't because you're a coward. Run away to mommy.
Reply
12-20-2008 @ 10:47AM
luvz2praise said...
Shame about what Oprah? Inspite of what society says and thinks everyone is not made to be skinny. Except who you are and love who you are and move on.
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