if i only knew...

Interesting article on AlterNet: The

Interesting article on AlterNet: The Ego of Oprah. I have only seen about 2 Oprah shows in my life, because we don't get her show here in Europe, but i wasn't evry impressed. While i sometimes visited her website and found nice causes, articles, inspirational things, i always thought most of her stuff is more her own self-made-woman marketing and NOT sincere at all. When i last saw her show, i watched the audience weep and look somehow enchanted, hocus-pocused ... in a bad way. The look on their faces was all about emotion and not about thinking. The show was about following your dream and making it your passion and guiding light. There was a self-help author giving advice and Oprah agreeing with her. We saw 2-3 women who followed their dreams and now live happily ever after. When i looked at the women's faces in the audience, some crying, some watching with their mouths wide open from fascination, some smiling like they have just heard that they are getting a baby, i kept thinking they are just thinking "oh, wow, i *have* to live that life too!". Which i think its a very very bad thing. Because the women were emotionally monopolised into thinking they have to do it this and that way and they will have a better life. The story wasn't about individuality, but about a certain kind of idealized womanhood that they should follow. And they gave in to this rhetoric, you could see it on their faces. I don't think Oprah is doing good to these women, i think she is manipulating them emotionally and in the meantime selling her magazine, her ad spots during her show, her book labels and her image. Quote from the above mentioned article that inspired this entry:
"Perhaps most telling detail is that every issue of the two-year old magazine has featured Winfrey's own face on the cover of every single issue -- a level of self-promotion even Rosie O'Donnell and Martha Stewart have not insisted upon in their self-named monthlies."
That's what i am saying. Even her magazine cover promotes that you should be her. And not yourself. Very sad.