On Oprah

So today was Oprah's final show.  I'm quite proud to say that I never watched an episode, save a taped copy of one that a professor showed as part of a class when I was getting my Master's.  Popular culture kept me quite apprised of her as the years went by, however: her weight fluctuations, her book club, her giveaways, her magazine and TV network, and never more so than now -- her final show.

The Life section of today's paper ran a restrospect of her career today.  Apparently, Oprah's first national show was titled "How to Marry the Man/Woman of Your Choice."

"O" the irony.

I will never understand why Oprah's largest fanbase, the demographic most likely eagerly to acquiesce to being influenced by her, was housewives: a group with whose life she has absolutely no personal expertise.  She has had the same boyfriend for 25 years and yet has never made it down the aisle.  She has never raised a child and, now in her late 50s, mostly likely never will.  And yet women who have succeeded in their personal relationships where she has failed tune in to her every word of advice about how to live.

When she announced the creation of her network, I read a magazine article about it in which she basically stated that she first intended to retire when her show ended but then realized that she had a continuing obligation to "influence" even more of the world.  I may be alone in my opinion, but personally I don't believe that the world would be a better place were everyone more like Oprah.  Maybe a more self-obsessed place. 

Buh-bye, Oprah.  Don't let the door hit you on the way out.