Oprah and the Price of Success

What if, every time you went to the kitchen for a snack, your phone blew up with a few thousand condemnatory messages? By the early 2020s, Oprah Winfrey was accustomed to the extraordinary fact that every ounce of her body had its own crew of both admirers and detractors. Late in 2023, OprahDaily.com articulated the goal of its online presence:

— To bust medical myths and legitimize obesity as a chronic disease that requires intervention like any other condition, rather than a failure of willpower
— To discuss the safety and efficacy of the new weight loss drugs, such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro
— To help surface and bridge the inequities and prejudices and remove shame and stigma of living in a larger body.

The website also states that the show aimed “to mainstream the science and psychology” pertinent to the obesity epidemic and to give its diverse and unique audience “all the tools they need to manage their own medical care and mental health.”

Oprah talked about how rough it was to recover from knee surgery while at the same time inevitably gaining pounds, meanwhile still believing the whole enterprise of weight loss depended on her ability to summon willpower. When she heard about the GLP-1 medications, her gut feeling changed and she expressed the determination to try something new, saying,

Whatever your choice is for your body and your weight health, it should be yours to own and not to be shamed about it. I’m just sick of it, and I hope this conversation begins the un-shaming of it.

The world held some solace for her body issues, of course. Unlike most of the population, she could afford to hire custom clothing designers with a genius for draping the generous figure gorgeously. Still, it must be difficult to become comfortable with the knowledge that every time you step up on stage or out in public, millions of eyes are out there ready to judge you, inch by inch. That stuff can mess with your head.

The revolution

Early in 2024 when Oprah announced the end of her association with WeightWatchers, some fans and some chronic critics were upset. People can be very judgmental about the kinds of non-essential drugs they approve of for other people, regardless of whatever pharmaceutical help they themselves may depend on. The GLP-1 products are a sterling example of that impulse. When Oprah revealed that she used that particular remedy, some folks were outraged and others were sorrowfully disappointed — just like when any celebrity turns up in a certain genre of “the news” for any reason.

When Oprah made a decision about how to resolve her lifelong struggle with obesity, fans were already upset because she had discovered something better for her needs, and she was excoriated for realizing what was best for her. It was an honest revelation: “I can’t accept myself if I’m over 200 pounds, because it’s too much work on my heart. It causes high blood pressure for me. It puts me at risk for diabetes…”

That isn’t fat hate, but a simple realization by someone who simply wanted to stay alive and continue to contribute to society by entertaining and educating the public and engaging in philanthropy. By generously sharing her own life experiences, the poor woman became guilty of upholding the standard of the fat-phobic imperative, to be harshly judged by people who were gleeful about what they like to call flip-flopping.

The New York Times described Winfrey as someone who “has spent decades as a dominant figure in the country’s conversations about weight and dieting,” which is one way of saying that perhaps the public should leave the beleaguered woman alone already, and go pick on somebody else.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Oprah Discusses Weight Loss, Obesity, and Ozempic in Her Most Candid Conversation Yet”, OprahDaily.com, 09/20/23
Source: “What Oprah Winfrey said about drugs used for weight loss like Ozempic, Mounjaro,” 09/21/23
Source: “Oprah to Leave Weight Watchers Board,” nytimes.com, 02/29/24
Image by U.S. Govt./Public Domain

Oprah and the Costs of Fame

In such a full and varied life as the one created for herself by Oprah Winfrey, there is a lot of sameness and also plenty of change. Against a backdrop of ongoing novelty, the media star worked hard to keep the content of her various productions fresh, relevant, and compelling. In 1998, Donald Trump was a guest on her show, where he hinted at perhaps having presidential ambitions.

The following year, Trump told the Larry King Live audience that if he ran for president, his VP pick would be Oprah, whom he described as great, terrific, special, fantastic, brilliant, wonderful, and exceptional (although perhaps not for the identical reasons that cultivate those adjectives from her fans). In social media posts, he quoted some of her original inspirational mottos.

In 2012, he announced “I adore Oprah,” and in a 2013 social media post, praised her for encouraging Lance Armstrong to say things on air that would “totally destroy his life.” The next year, Trump’s family was on Oprah’s show, not for the first time.

People who produce TV and people who like to be on TV really need each other, and all of show business is built on complicated relationships based on popularity, statistics, and many other factors. Status can fluctuate, influence can be resisted, and a lot of things can happen, especially when someone is a supremely multitalented woman who might even “beat herself up” to the extent of thinking, “Yeah, but I’m just basically famous for being fat.” It would not be unusual if such a thought crossed Oprah Winfrey’s mind. It’s all part of the struggle.

The weather changed, and a few years later, having been elected president without Oprah’s endorsement, Trump publicly described her as an asker of biased and slanted questions and a presenter of incorrect facts. Apparently she had said a few things that could be taken as roundabout criticisms. A poll said that if the presidential race was between the two of them, she would win. Before long, these two worldwide famous people had other disagreements as well, and Oprah urged voters to support the U.S. Constitution and the Democratic presidential candidate.

Celebrities everywhere

Around the same time, Oprah also talked with celebrities about weight issues. Actor Kirstie Alley, a veteran of a 30-year acting career, described herself as a food addict who had always been told that 135 pounds translated onscreen as “too fat.” She confided to Oprah and the audience, “I’ve hated myself. You beat yourself up.” Millions of the show’s viewers felt exactly the same — as did the show host.

Some time in 2022, Oprah showed the world a video in which she threw away a cake, symbolizing how she intended to “reset” her diet for the year. Apparently some viewers took that image as an admission that she hated all the overweight people in the world. This was read as her being a major contributor to “diet culture,” for which she was grudgingly forgiven a couple of years later.

Earthquake

Who can forget the huge controversy that ensued when Oprah quit WeightWatchers? The year 2017 had been a good year for both of them, with the program experiencing revenue growth, and her losing 42 pounds. Oprah was admired for her courage in admitting her problem and publicly working on it. But all along, there had been unease among some fans who felt put down or even betrayed. By literally buying into the company — she owned a lot of shares — it was almost as if their hero had become one of the oppressive fat-shamers making a profit from their misery. Some fans were never able to keep the different factors separate.

The situation became complicated when Oprah discovered the new weight-loss drugs and resigned from the WW shareholders board, and the organization reformed itself around a subscription telehealth platform through which members could be prescribed GLP-1 drugs, and things got crazy all over again and a lot of people had strong negative feelings about Oprah, even if they were not quite sure why.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Trump once said Oprah should be his VP,” YouTube.com, undated
Source: “The Long History Between Donald Trump and Oprah Winfrey,” Fortune.com, 02/19/18
Source: “Oprah to Leave Weight Watchers Board,” NYTimes.com, 02/29/24
Image by Pat Hartman

Oprah’s Ultimate Payback — Good for Bad

A 2017 article described Oprah’s concern for how girls born into poverty could be helped to achieve better lives for themselves and their families. It seems reasonable to assume that her own struggles contributed to forming her compassionate mindset.

She worked so hard to create a career and a presence in the world, it would have been only fair to assume that life would be smooth sailing from then on. But no. For decades, the weight issue hung around her neck like an albatross, causing her to be disrespected and even ridiculed. It is totally understandable that her ambition would be to help girls and young women chart their paths into lives that would bring them wisdom, success, and peace of mind.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if adults could just dish out excellent advice and the young would unhesitatingly assimilate it? But to pass along wisdom is not that simple or easy. As Oprah said,

Every person has their own big questions that no one else can answer. One lesson I learned from all my years of interviewing is that the key to getting the answers you need lies in asking the right questions.

And nowhere is this more true than when a person questions herself! Some of the crucial queries are, “What makes you, you?” And, “Why does your presence on earth right here, right now, so truly matter?” Consequently, this leader created an institution where girls in grades 8 through 12 are given, along with a first-rate academic education, the opportunity to learn skills that will help them, their families, and their entire society — the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.

Changing the world

In 2002, it started with a dream that materialized into a 52-acre campus in South Africa that includes 21 classrooms, a 600-seat theater, a 10,000-volume library, six laboratories, and very livable dorms whose design and fittings were supervised by the benefactor herself.

Each year, more than 6,000 hopeful candidates vie for the 60 places — meaning that only 1% of the applicants can be accepted. Oprah describes the student body as made up of individuals who possess resilience, courage, spirit, tenacity, charisma, and intelligence. OWLAG opened in 2007, and on the 10th anniversary, Malina Saval reported on it for Variety.com.

Up to that point, Oprah had invested $140 million in the school and its students. Saval wrote, “She pays for every sock, every uniform, every set of braces… When she visits, she spends at least a week on campus, conducting fireside chats with each student and teaching what she calls her Life Lessons 101 course. She is like a mother to these girls…”

The founder told the reporter, “When most girls come to my school they have suffered six major traumas on average… There was a time at the school during 2007, 2008, 2009, when we were losing a parent a week.” The reporter added, “Those same girls now attend top-tier universities… They’ve pursued post-doctorate degrees and secured prestigious jobs in major cities around the world.”

Rather than (like so many wealthy and successful people) turn her back and say, “I got mine, you go get yours,” Oprah Winfrey took her life experience, disappointments, aspirations, and ambitions as raw material and converted them into a powerful force for good. One final quotation from “Mom O”:

What poverty does is brainwashes you to believe that you are not enough. So what our school does is work at creating a foundation of worthiness. It’s a patriarchal environment, where they come from. Just being a girl makes you “less than.” I stand before them and tell them there is no bar, there is no ceiling. We’re not just going to crack the ceiling; it doesn’t exist.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “What Oprah Knows for Sure About Life’s Big Questions,” Oprah.com, 12/12/17
Source: “Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls,” OprahFoundation.org, undated
Source: “Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy for Girls Marks 10 Years,” Variety.com, 08/03/17
Image by U.S. Embassy South Africa/Public Domain

The Privilege to Give

Most of us who are not doctors or professors do not keep up with the medical journals. But we are all familiar with the previous decades’ level of obesity awareness, because it has been extensively (some would say oppressively) personified in — tah-dah! Oprah Winfrey.

Make a movie about the atomic bomb, and call it Oppenheimer. Make a movie about the never-ending struggle against body fat, and call it… Oh, never mind, let’s get serious. As Oprah has said,

I’ve been on this journey for most of my life… I don’t know if there is another public person whose weight struggle has been exploited as much as mine over the years.

Oprah has talked about a 1990 incident proving there are some human frailties from which wealth and fame cannot shield a person. It was the sort of humiliating misconception that could happen in anyone’s mind, no matter what their scale of living. On the cover of TV Guide magazine, there was a picture of her with the text, “Best and Worst-Dressed List.”

In a regular person’s life, it could have been a neighborhood news-sheet. In either case, the surprise was pleasant for only a second, until Oprah realized she had not been chosen as best-dressed. Instead, she had been picked to represent being a terrible example: “bumpy, lumpy and downright dumpy.” How many dollars would compensate for that embarrassment?

No such thing as bad publicity

The life of a star has a lot of downsides. An aspiring professional entertainer gets used to attracting disrespectful comments from segments of the public. It just comes with the territory. To be publicly recognizable is no asset to most people who value their mental health. But there is a tremendous upside.

Not everyone out there is paying attention to you for harmful reasons (especially if you are as charismatic as Oprah!). Exposure is the price of attention, and attention can be a very positive factor, because when the admiring fans hear about what you are doing, at least a percentage of them will do it too. So a wealthy, famous person is not only able to contribute financial support to a favorite cause, but is also able to inspire others. If the beloved entertainer can donate millions, even if that is only a fraction of their income, the ordinary person feels more like “What the heck, I’ll kick in one-tenth of a percent of my income, too.”

Oprah Winfrey’s influence has been vast because people believe and trust her, and sense the importance she places on retaining a genuine self, amidst the glitter and acclaim. Her rough childhood counted, too. Oprah had enough experience with the serious problems of life to want to help other people who face frightening challenges.

An Oprah-approved institution

We mentioned Shades of Hope Treatment Center, where in 2011, Oprah produced the reality TV show “Addicted to Food,” which followed eight people through the program. Oprah had been familiar with the facility for years.

Since the fall of 2003, singer Wynonna Judd had been confiding in her, in front of the cameras, about her severe food dependency. Like the ordinary citizens who were later featured on Oprah’s network show, Judd checked into the residential treatment center.

When the songstress was later interviewed by Larry King, she described her problem:

It was consuming a lot of my life… I mean food to me is what alcohol is to the alcoholic… You know the business. One minute you’re number one. The next minute you’re number zero. And I had just been using food for every emotion I had. If I was joyful, we’d go out to eat… [I]t became too much, so I did something about it.

People are not born knowing how to fix themselves, but there certainly are learnable skills that can lead strongly toward wellness. In many cases, this happens for many reasons and in many ways. This is why we need such institutions, as well as the current technology that fosters sophisticated levels of self-help.

Oprah’s charitable contributions, even when they have nothing to do with obesity, all aim to help build people better lives. We will next take a look at another of her projects which, while not directly connected to obesity, is aimed at helping young women build lives so satisfactory that they automatically preclude a lot of the self-destructive psychological pain that brings on addictive behaviors or even just carelessness, either one of which is capable of leading to medically significant obesity.

[Note: The photo is a wax figure.]

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Oprah Reveals The Secret Behind Her Recent Weight Loss,” Essence.com, 12/08/23
Source: “Change is here. Hope is here.,” ShadesOfHope.com, undated
Image by Petr Kratochvil/License: CC0 Public Domain

Oprah’s Perennial Appeal

Oprah Winfrey is a certain kind of icon. She is absolutely not just another self-destructive doomed genius; never was and never will be a psychological basket case like Amy Winehouse, for instance. Oprah is brilliantly intelligent, and glamorous, capable of being a force of nature when necessary, and clearly a natural-born leader. But none of that could have happened without her relatability.

The reason people follow her is neither that she is so glitteringly different, nor that she is so very typical, although both are true. Her existence and accomplishments have led her to become a sort of template. At one point, during a panel discussion on “The State of Weight,” Oprah confirmed that her highest number had been 237 pounds, and added, “I’m Oprah Winfrey, and I know all that comes with that, but I get treated differently if I’m 200-plus pounds versus under 200 pounds.”

In other words, despite being wealthy and famous, she could still totally connect with the millions of women who feel that more body fat makes them “less than,” which had become the enlightened way to say “inferior.” Sitting for a magazine profile, she told a journalist,

I don’t know if there is another public person whose weight struggle has been exploited as much as mine over the years… This is a world that has shamed people for being overweight forever, and all of us who have lived it know that people treat you differently, they just do.

This talking point shone a light on the psychological double-bind that imprisons women regardless of their situations in life. The ambient culture brainwashes us every day into believing that carrying extra pounds is unacceptable and probably even immoral. That cruel mindset leads women into feeling scorn, rather than compassion — not only toward other women — but toward themselves. Just to put the icing on the cake, so to speak, we are supposed to go whole-hog with that belief, and are expected to condemn our sisters for being in the same physical condition that we fear and dread — if we are not in it already.

Through keeping an eye on Oprah, we follow every important twist and turn of the obesity issue in the fin de siècle period, and in the early years of our present century. As surely as Willie Nelson is Country & Western, Oprah Winfrey is Obesity Awareness.

History

Our take on the saga began with “Oprah Through the Years, Part 1” and so far has progressed through Part 21, and this conscientiously thorough coverage practically guarantees that there is something in it for everybody.

Then, the Childhood Obesity News blog gave Ms. Winfrey a well-earned break for a while, pausing an overview of her career about 10 years into the present century. In 2011, she produced a TV reality show called “Addicted to Food.” The venue was the Shades of Hope Treatment Center, a place to exorcise pain from the hearts of people who grew up in families characterized by dysfunction and/or abuse and/or addiction.

The program relied on numbers less than some others have done. Clients’ weights could be usefully recorded for the sake of the science, but did not have to be shared. One of the most audacious features of this program was the no-entertainment standard, which precluded both printed and televised media. You’re there to feel things, as a route to fixing yourself — so no hiding out in any media la-la land. (It does seem like this principle could usefully be emphasized, in programs everywhere, a lot more than it is currently.)

Here is a typical Shades of Hope quotation:

Your body, mind, and soul were designed to heal. Because we are holistic beings, all of these aspects of ourselves come into play when we heal — no matter what you’ve been through or are going through right now.

Next time, we pick up with Oprah again. Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning what might be called a universal truth. When it comes to kicking a habit, one factor carries over into many different therapeutic approaches: Their most outstanding and characteristic feature is the emphasis on keeping the commitment every second of every minute of every day.

Some people just are not cut out for that. Recovery is a long-term condition if ever there was one, and the better at it you are, the more chance you have of living long enough to develop real expertise. People can be quite adaptive when they want to be, which is why a tool like BrainWeighve, for an excellent example, can be surprisingly useful.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Oprah Reveals The Secret Behind Her Recent Weight Loss,” Essence.com, 12/08/23
Source: “Change is here. Hope is here.,” ShadesOfHope.com, undated
Image by vargas2040 cropped by Machocarioca/Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic