Courtney and I have both discussed before our love/hate relationship with Oprah. The woman is complex and frequently, I disagree with her but I do respect her greatly and the work that she has done. And as a feminist, the way the media treats Oprah in talking about her weight, well, I think it is sexist.
Yesterday, I watched an entire segment on CNN devoted to Oprah's weight. Two female news anchors concluded that it was a hyperthyroid that has led to her fluctuation in weight. yet other news outlets weren't so forgiving or "scientific" in there assumptions. One google news search brings up how much she gained, her denial in it and calling her chubby and "heffer."
I am so disgusted by this, I almost don't know where to begin. First of all, why is weight gain newsworthy? Oprah is one of the most accomplished business women of our generation who has shown to not only be smart, but interesting, complex, well-read. Why does her weight make major headlines? Secondly, between having a health problem and being really busy, yeah she might gain weight and the fact that this is looked down upon shows us loud and clear the unfair standards put on women to not only be uber-successful but to also be svelte.
I know what you are thinking. But Oprah put this out as news herself! Probably to sell her brand even more! Yes, I think there is some validity to this argument, Oprah herself has pushed the, "I gained weight and this is why" story. But I guess it is important to ask, is Oprah creating this narrative herself or is she merely buying into a narrative that centralizes the way a woman looks before what she does? She is after all a savvy business woman. I don't agree with her using her weight as a selling point but really the joke is on the US consumer for buying into it.
As I have written about before, I struggle with this myself. I am really busy and don't have time to watch after my weight non-stop. Frankly, I don't care enough to since I think I look great anyway, but the constant barrage of comments I get about my weight is infuriating. I am successful in my personal endeavors, not to mention managing multiple relationships, projects, familial obligations and so much more, yet there are some people that only notice that I gained weight.
Bottom line, it is sexist to focus on Oprah's weight in the media. Men don't have this same pressure. You would never see a special on Lou Dobb's weight gain, nor would it be lucrative for him to have a special on his weight gain (although this sentiment is changing). As long as popular culture and mainstream media outlets stay fixed on women's physical characteristics we are bound by these constraints, holding our bodies as representations of who we are. It is not fair and we shouldn't stand for it.
Related:
Kate Harding: Dear Oprah
Rachel Setzer:Oprah done with fat shaming
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I see why this could be seen as a business move but I think that, that approach ignores the fact that Oprah is not separate from our social construction of female bodies. The same forces that act on us, most necessarily act upon her.
I feel that this conversation is completely genderized. We don't dissect male bodies in this way.
Since we were just talking about Mike Huckabee, that's one thing I've wondered about. His weight loss was a huge deal - he wrote a book about it and he's made childhood obesity into one of his signature issues (that and homo-hating). He's put a bunch of weight back on. You'd think that it might attract the same level of interest as Oprah Winfrey's weight fluctuations but apparently not. Huckabee's weight is obviously not an issue by itself but I do think it stands in pretty stark contrast to the way Winfrey's been treated.
Isaac Mizrahi has some great stuff to say about Oprah, and about women's body image in general, and his own struggle with weight and self image, on On Point this morning. The audio should be up soon, it's worth a listen:
http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/12/isaac-mizrahi/
Thanks for all you do!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Oprah is kind of putting it out there, isn't she? I get the impression that she's been talking about her weight in recent interviews/broadcasts and that's behind the media flurry.
If she hadn't come out and said, "I've been gaining weight. Here's why" I don't think the media would have started stories like "Oprah's fat now." Oprah's a powerful media figure and commands a lot of respect. Journalists wouldn't just watch her show, think "She's looking chubby!" and put pen to paper. Oprah is coming out and talking about it herself. And of course that's going to be picked up by the media because she's a huge public figure.
Oh, by the way, you sort of answer your own question in this part of your comment:
"First of all, why is weight gain newsworthy? Oprah is one of the most accomplished business women of our generation"
That's exactly why.
WORD. people care b/c oprah hauled 60 pounds of meat onstage in a wagon. then put her face on a bunch of cookbooks. and friggin' discusses her weight ALL THE TIME. THAT'S why it's public news. i didn't care a whit about al roker's weight until he had a special about his gastric bypass. (actually, i still don't, but it's out there for public consumption.) oprah has made a shitload of money from publicizing her weight, so i really don't feel there should be any question about why some people are interested.
oprah has been mega-famous and rich at a wide array of sizes, because of an uplifting message and excellent business acumen. so i have serious problems with using this as an example of "women's bodies being the only thing we're worth anything for"....if that were true, she'd never have become famous, never mind one of the richest people in the friggin' industry. paris hilton, et al, is a far better example of that.
and can we all call a detente on the "obesity....is it unhealthy?" stuff? the science is inconclusive on the issue, and honestly, even if it ends up being hugely capital-B BAD!!! for someone to be fat, who cares? this is a site about social movements, not a journal of medicine. no more links to kate harding, either, please. WE GET IT. some fat people are healthy. some healthy people are fat. some skinny people are unhealthy, and some unhealthy people are skinny. moving on.
i personally think this says more about celebrity exhibitionism. WHY on god's green earth are some people so willing to talk about their private lives or do ridiculous things to be on television? (i don't think that's a sexism issue, either....seems to be equally prevalent amoung both genders.)
Yeah, it came up now because she gave a big interview about it in the latest issue of O Magazine. I'm not saying that it's newsworthy, etc, but she brought it up.
If she didn't always talk about her weight, well, then I'd generally agree with the OP. And maybe there's some argument to be made that she has to talk about her weight because she's a woman; but then, think of how much you hear about Trump's hair. (Also: a hearty pox on those who decided that society should make men have body image issues instead of helping women get rid of theirs.) But anyway, since Oprah brings it up, I think it's necessarily fair game.
obviously i misunderstood what a marginalized group is. because here i thought being the butt of every sitcom joke about the fatti, being told i am not beautiful or worthwhile, never being shown icons of beauty who look like me, and generally being tol i am a big reason that everyone elses heathcare costs so damned much counted for something. thanks so much for telling me, once again, that i don't fit in.
yes, because i clearly said above that you don't fit in. ***eyeroll***
no, you said "this is a site about social movements, not a journal of medicine. no more links to kate harding, either, please. WE GET IT." implying that FA, talking about how obesity discrimination, and generally discussing obesity is not welcome here. because YOU get it. hey guess what... just because you get it doesn't mean it isn't a big issue. FA is a big social issue, and at it's heart is the same rage and dispare about the objectification of women and the general desire to usurp her bodily autonomy and tell her she isn't good enough unless she looks like the girl on the cover of maxim. but maybe in your eyes bodily autonomy only extends to my uterus?
no, what i object to is constantly being told that fat is either healthy or unhealthy. IT DOESN'T MATTER. kate harding spends, in my mind, an inordinate amount of time trying to conclusively prove that fat has nothing to do with health. my point is... WHO CARES?!?! whether or not weight has anything to do with health (and since i am not a medical expert, i don't even pretend to know), we should all treat one another respectfully.
obesity discrimination is a WONDERFUL topic. the cultural constructions around obesity...fabulous. discussions about improving self-esteem? great.
but i'm thoroughly sick of being told by the FA community that fat is conclusively unrelated to health when the scientific community at large is far from consensus on the issue. and to insinuate that because i am concerned with my weight (among other health indicators) that i tacitly approve of discrimination and oppression of the obese is truly offensive.
unfortunetly, most every conversation about obesity has to involve some kind of medical science. there are loads of studies that show the fat=unhealthy equation to be false. sadly, most people who talk about fat issues have to spend a lot of time making people understand that couching fat hate in a worry about ones health, even if that hate is so well covered the person isn't aware of it, is still hate. and many people who've come to FA have had to undergo a whole lot of reprograming and reevaluating and reconditioning so their first thoughts aren't self-hate or shame or blame. if you've gone past that point where you understand the falisy of the equation... that's great. but let's not pretend like you're the majority. and let's not pretend like it doesn't keep needing to be said and heard and understood. also, unless you hadn't mentioned it in your follow-up i would never have known anything about your weight concerns, so lets not pretend like i said you were tacitly approving of discrimination and oppression. but your OP rather strongly implied that you see FA as not a social issue. something i find to be outight offensive.
so you think i said that FA is "not a social issue"? like when i asked for an end to the medical blah blah blah and then i went on to discuss the social issues of celebrity, weight and overexposure....you thought THAT was me saying FA is not a social issue? um....
sure, you think it needs to be repeated and said and understood? then i think we should all shut up about things about which (1) aren't yet known to science and (2) don't matter anyway. "fat is healthy!" and "fat is unhealthy!" both fall into those two categories.
whatever. based on your comments to me and to moxiehart, i feel like you just want to be angry and confrontational. have fun with that.
Oprah is a big part of the problem: Weight issues and weight loss (her own "problems" as well as others) have been part of her show for years and years. She used to equate healthy with skinny, and she's just wrong. Why couldn't she just have shows about eating and cooking and general healthy living, without the focus on weight? She is a successful business woman, but I don't think she is all that smart. Sorry. She's been giving horrible, HORRIBLE weight loss advice for a long time. As a result, I am sure lots of her worshipers who (for whatever reason) listen to everything she says have developed complexes as a result.
END RANT. Sorry.
Oh, and in the past, her idea of "healthy" food is a bunch of junk packed with high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, and sugar substitutes...all of it I am sure is crap from her sponsors. Uh, whatever happened to FRUIT? Low calorie is not always "healthy."
I disagree, not only because I am a fan of Oprah, but also because I produced a segment for E about the music producer and judge on American Idol, Randy Jackson. It ran over a period of 5 days in mini segments.
Additionally, Al Roker from the Today show had numerous segments regarding his weight issues, detailing his experience with gastric bypass, nutrition, etc.
He had a follow up segment a year later ot discuss his ups and downs with weight.
So
Huge fan of one of my favorite feminists in media or not,
you are wrong on this one.
Oprah, Al and Randy, all fit in the category of Obese at one time or currently. Obesity is a health issue- that includes women's health.
And Oprah is an addict. Addiction is a health issue and a feminist issue as well.
I think that you might be conflating three things: weight, health, and fitness. They're not unrelated but they're not synonymous, either. There are some very heavy people who are very healthy and there are some very heavy people who are very fit and there are some very fit people who aren't very healthy and healthy people who aren't very fit, and so on. I know some extremely heavy people who can't walk a block and who'll point to extremely heavy people who complete Ironman-distance triathlons as evidence that their weight is okay, but heavy or no the bottom line is that they can't walk a block. I think it's important to keep these things separate.
I'll also add that my mother is very heavy and feels a lot of shame about it that she really shouldn't (and she's not even obese, just pretty heavy). This is where the question of messages, explicit and otherwise, come in, and the national fixation on weight doesn't appear to be doing anything for obese women but making them feel like crap about themselves.
IIRC, Oprah was sexually molested when she was young. A frequent result of childhood sexual abuse is that the child gains weight as a means of gaining emotional distance from others. When such a person looses weight, they loose that distance and the feeling of safety it gives. Thus they get depressed and tend to eat more until they regain the weight and the feelings of safety and security it brings. Oprah is just an example of the sort of behavior that is common among survivors of abuse. She simply more visible than average.
That aside, yes the media's response to Oprah's weight is inherently sexist and a way of punishing/shaming women who vary from a false ideal vicariously by shaming a notable woman. But fuck them.
One of the benefits of a person like Oprah, in the media, is her honest exploration of her personal issues. Issues that many of us can relate to such as molestation/rape, sexism, racism, low self esteem, high self esteem, aging, health, addiction.
Why should she remain silent about something that everyone is wondering about, something that is visible to the eye, now?
If she was addicted to pain killers and started abusing them again, after having overcome the problem in the past, she would do a series of segments about that.
I think people decide to like or dislike powerful women in media and then allow that to skew that opinion.
Watch the segments and then comment, until then it's just being a hater, isn't it?
One of the benefits of a person like Oprah, in the media, is her honest exploration of her personal issues. Issues that many of us can relate to such as molestation/rape, sexism, racism, low self esteem, high self esteem, aging, health, addiction.
Why should she remain silent about something that everyone is wondering about, something that is visible to the eye, now?
If she was addicted to pain killers and started abusing them again, after having overcome the problem in the past, she would do a series of segments about that.
I think people decide to like or dislike powerful women in media and then allow that to skew that opinion.
Watch the segments and then comment, until then it's just being a hater, isn't it?
So what's your take on why Huckabee's weight gain hasn't attracted any attention while Winfrey's is all over the media? He's made his weight loss into a public issue as well.
because huckabee wasn't widely famous BEFORE.
ok, one...obesity is NOT a health issue. just because you're obese does not mean you are not healthy. please look at the facts and figures and not just the media hype and drug company funded "studies" on this. having gotten that out of the way...
oprah brough up her weight because yeah, people WERE starting to make comments, and because she tries to use her magazine and show to push a certain lifestyle (agree with her or not, she's damed effective at it). if you look at some of the quotes from the article, she talks about wanting to make herself disapear because she's reached 200 lbs and she calls herself a fat cow. and she talks about how those thoughts made her feel like she was a failure and wasn't being true to her viewers. but the things that got me, was that she said she got stressed because she was sick and her needs changed in terms of food and her energy level changed so her workout levels changed... and she's mad at herself for not being able to push through this. and the bit about she started eating what she wanted and how that's never good... because we all know it's not ok for women to want.
the thing is, i think this goes WAY! deeper than just the sexism that says her weight gain is public news. this goes right to the heart of women's bodies being the only thing we're worth anything for. she is a failure as a person because she's not still 160lbs? i know she says right now she's not concentrating on being thin anymore but i hope that this quest to be healthy includes some serrious time in therapy because the evident levels of self hate make me want to cry.
My response.
I think another important thing to note is that Oprah, as much as she's on the side of women, also banks on the fact that oppression exists. She puts her weight out there not only as a brand gimmick, but because she needs MY weight to matter, and YOUR weight to matter, and women's weights everywhere to matter. She needs us to want to buy things and get together and share feelings, to feel heard and respected regardless of gender and race, to have a safe open space (which means that non-woman friendly and racist big bad world must remain as a possibility). I'm not saying necessarily that she's interested in bringing others down, I'm just not sure how much she could bank on the Book Club if we actually managed to eliminate or make a major dent in race, gender and sex based discrimination.
They also talked about it on The View. I was glad to hear Joy point out that people should embrace their body and we now know people can be fit and heavy.
I hate whenever Oprah talks about her latest weight gains/losses because I find it to be very triggering and there's no way to avoid the news because it *is* Oprah. It's on my internet sign-on screen, it's on commercials when I'm watching Ugly Betty, it's in the newspaper, it's fricken' everywhere!
I'm probably going to be crucified for saying this but I have to say it: I have a really hard time dealing with the ways feminists in general deal with obesity. There are certain premises that can be accepted. 1. Although the BMI is unreliable, there is a certain weight for each person that can be considered to be unhealthy. 2. There are severe diseases correlated with obesity--heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, high blood pressure to name a few. 3. These diseases can yield a decreased life span and a declining quality of life.
So I basically find the denial of the science of obesity to be disturbing, especially in comments such as firefey's disturbing. Maybe it's a matter of semantics, but obesity is different than being overweight or big-boned, and, by definition, it's unhealthy. The issue of defining obesity is up the individual and their doctor, but if you're dealing with diabetes and poor circulation then it's pretty safe to say that you're unhealthy. It may make your heart feel warm to say everyone's healthy but it's not scientifically true.
I'm glad you made this comment because I typically avoid feminist discussions involving obesity because it turns a blind eye to a very serious problem. But I think I understand the reaction related to this topic. The idea of weight is so tied to appearance and appearance is so tied to women's value in our culture, that discussions about general health become a personal attack. Additionally, people often criticize those who are overweight under the guise of a concern for health, when they are really mirroring society's characterization of overweight women as unable to control themselves, sloppy, etc.
It's very difficult to separate judgment of individual's personalities from a general concern about a growing health problem. As a nation (I'm being US-centric here, but I believe the obesity rate is growing in most developed countries) we aren't increasingly obese simply because people just 'got lazy' or can't control themselves. The structure of society has changed the average person's lifestyle in ways that have unfortunate consequences for health. But it's extremely hard to address a lot of what these issues are and how to fix them when there is a such a complete denial of the problem itself or on the flip side, when people just want to make it a personal criticism. Obviously there are a variety of health issues our modern society has created that have nothing to do with obesity, but there are very real health consequences that are specifically tied/compounded by obesity. That's why we need to objectively view it from the health problem angle.
But I think I understand the reaction related to this topic. The idea of weight is so tied to appearance and appearance is so tied to women's value in our culture, that discussions about general health become a personal attack. Additionally, people often criticize those who are overweight under the guise of a concern for health, when they are really mirroring society's characterization of overweight women as unable to control themselves, sloppy, etc.
I want to make it clear that I'm not judging people who are overweight. I'm about 20 lbs overweight, so I know the irritation with not fitting in clothes and people glaring at me when I take up a little too much room on the subway.
But it makes our "side" lose credibility to deny the science behind obesity as much as we would if we denied climate change or evolution.
thanks to the two of you for saying this. i can accept that the current science we have is inconclusive and flawed. i can accept that many people who are considered overweight are actually probably relatively healthy.
the inconclusive and flawed science we have, though, probably isn't completely or mostly wrong. and as long as science continues to find correlative and causative links between excess weight and health risks, i will be concerned (but not obsessed) with my weight, and that of my daughter. it's certainly not hurting me to eat a salad instead of french fries.
body acceptance is great. love it. i aim for it. but i never want to use it to emotionally enable me to make poor health choices for myself. my physical health is important to me; that is a personal choice i've become more passionate about since having some health issues in recent years.
my point above, though, is that even if weighing .00001 ounces over an "ideal weight" is negative for someone's health, that doesn't give me any space to open my cakehole about it. i don't tell people not to smoke, or to drink soda, or eat big macs or to shoot heroin. ain't my business. body acceptance doesn't have to have a thing to do with health; if someone is happy with themselves being 500 pounds and bedridden, that's their decision. but to completely dismiss the science strikes me as really disingenuous and intellectually dishonest. question it, yes. improve it, yes. find anecdotal evidence that contradicts it and use that to dismiss it as bullshit? i call foul.
my point above, though, is that even if weighing .00001 ounces over an "ideal weight" is negative for someone's health, that doesn't give me any space to open my cakehole about it.
I totally support that.
Mostly, I'm concerned about intellectual integrity.
I guess my central question is; however one thinks about obesity and the scientific discourse of it, how is someone else's weight and/or health any of my business? Why do we care if someone else is healthy? I'm not saying that we shouldn't try to educate people and make healthy choices more affordable and available; but frankly I don't think it's anyone else's business how fat, thin, or healthy I am. I don't want someone else's concern for my health unless I ask for it. And I don't give a rat's ass about how much someone costs the healthcare industry, because I pretty much feel that having a for-profit healthcare industry is messed-up to begin with.
well, on a one-on-one basis, i agree with you. maybe i'm a cold-hearted bitch, but i don't generally personally give a crap about the health of those outside a very specific circle of family and close friends who confide in me about their health concerns.
on the basis of public health, though, i can understand concern. this isn't about individuals and their agency to make choices, but statistical trends. this is where i think studies on weight apply. yes, i know they aren't perfect. that means we should have *further* research, not less. but, say, if studies are suggesting a rise in type 2 diabetes in children, i think it's reasonable to, say, reexamine school lunches. or recess. and so forth.
but to answer your specific question, i personally don't think it's right to treat people differently based on their size at all. only time i say anything is, for example:
mom to me: i feel like i've gained weight. i need to exercise more.
me to mom: want to go running with me?
mom to me: yeah, i just need motivation.
me to mom: want me to chase you with a knife? you'll run real fast.
I really don't think that people's weight is anyone else's business, whether they're fat, thin, "normal," whatever. My main concern is for intellectual integrity. My main beef with the FA community, and the way that some feminists deal with weight, is the denial of the general science of obesity. The science is mixed at most and seems to be skewed that obesity is unhealthy and when I hear people saying "Obesity isn't bad!" it really pisses me off.
i'm not denying the science of obesity. in point of fact, i read a lot about it. because i am obese, and i do have a family history of diabetes and heart disease. so yeah, i want to stay really informed. and you know what i keep finding? that it's my grandfather's genes that are going to kill me. not the 70lbs i would need to lose in order to fit into a normal range bmi.
but hey, when study after study says that obese people are more likely to survive a heart attack, have stronger bones, suffer less infections, are no more likely to develop diabetis or cancer than their thinner counterparts i find myself more than a little frustrated. and before you get on some healthy eating kick, let me tell you something. the last several studies on nutrition and health (cancer, mental longevity, cancer, and diabetes) have all been NULL. yeah, no significant difference between the study group and the controll group.
so don't pretend that you're just concerned for the health of obese people. you've bought into the bullshit and the hate that's been put in pretty clothes. acknowledge it.
I hate repeating what I said in my original posts, though far be it for me to imply that you didn't read my post accurately. I said that BMI is flawed andthat obesity is really an individual notion to be decided upon by the individual and their doctor.
I'd like some citations for the many many articles you've read, preferably from a peer-reviewed journal please, not something that Ken Hamm would like.
Finally:
so don't pretend that you're just concerned for the health of obese people. you've bought into the bullshit and the hate that's been put in pretty clothes. acknowledge it.
I never said that I was concerned for the health of *anyone.* Shoot heroin into your eyeballs, I don't care. This was really unnecessary, if you can't debate civilly then don't engage with me at all because I don't play the "I'm anrgy acknowledge me" game. And seriously, you don't know me. In my original post (Again, no way implying that you totally didn't read it) I said that I'm overweight and have to deal with my fair share of fat shaming.
ok, i did read your posts. you called me out saying i was denying the science of obesity and that it was disturbing to you. that "obesity is different than being overweight or big-boned, and, by definition, it's unhealthy" which isn't true. i say you have indeed bought into, at least on some level, the steaming pile about weight that gets shoved on people pretty much every day.
whether you like it or not there is a medically accepted deffinition of what is obesity and what isn't. it's flawed in the extreme, and yes bmi is a total piece of crap as a way to decide if people are healthy. but sadly that doesn't mean each person gets to make up their own deffinition of obesity. and it certainly doesn't help that most people in the medical field are indoctrinated to believe that a certain bmi is a death sentence. is there a weight at which a person is nothing more than a walking time bomb of death? it's hard to say since so many studies keep coming back saying not really. but since you asked for it, here are several null studies and attendant write-ups and analysis, usually through junkfood science.
here is the abstract for the null finding on low-fat diets and chronic illness, especially diabetis. and here is and in depth review of the information with additional quotes from the study. here is an article about the numbers game in determining "the obesity crisis." here is the abstract reviewing the ceadrs-saini study on cardiac deaths in obese patients vs cardiac deaths in normal weight patience. and here is the JFS review.
yes, i pull stuff from JFS, no i am not affiliated. but i have found her work to be to be the most accessable to read. if you have another source i'd be happy to read them. also, asking you to admit if you've bought a line of b.s. is pretty much like asking someone to admit their privilege. and in your original post (not refferencing the post a few down which was not posted when i replied to your original), which i did read several times, you said nothing about your experiences with fat shaming. you did point to the science, saying obesity is between you and your dr but that denying it's bad for you is not a good thing. maybe you oversimplified and so made statements that are not true, or at least logical fallisies, and read as heavily tainted by personal frstrations at having to hear another fattie rant about how people see them based on the size of their waist first, last, and almost always.
"but obesity is different than being overweight or big-boned, and, by definition, it's unhealthy."
No it is not. Obesity is numerically defined, e.g., BMI over 30, or being X lbs. or X percent over one's "ideal weight." It is not what holds true for the individual, e.g., YOU WILL experience chronic heart failure, if YOU ever reach x lbs., and at or below x lbs., YOU WILL be healthy. Being obese represents being at increased risk for certain health conditions, as do eating animal products, getting less than eight hours sleep per night, being male and not married, or being female and breathing at the same time.
Simply sticking random heights and weights into a universal formula will tell you, for example, that each and every one of these men and many others like them, are obese.
http://www.mrolympia.com/
And since we're on the "can't judge someone's health status by weight or appearance" argument, you can't tell just by looking which one of these professional male or female bodybuilders or other athletes can lift 500 lbs. or run a 9.7 second 100 meters, yet are using performance enchancing substances like anabolic steroids which "can lead to early heart attacks, strokes, liver tumors, kidney failure, and serious psychiatric problems. In addition, because steroids are often injected, users who share needles or use nonsterile techniques when they inject steroids are at risk for contracting dangerous infections, such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B and C."
http://www.nida.nih.gov/ResearchReports/steroids/AnabolicSteroids.html
Can you tell by looking who has liver cancer, is HIV positive or who has become physically abusive ("roid rage") BECAUSE of their steroid use? Do you know if some celebrity is harming themselves using cocaine or crystal meth? Funny, because doctors or police would usually require invasive tests in the lab to be sure.
For sure, to be at the point, for whatever reason, where professional rescuers need to take out someone's house wall or door to remove them from their own bed for some critically needed medical care; is too heavy. For some people that may be 1,200 lbs. For others that may be somewhere in the 600s. But people like that are uncommon enough to NEED emergency care or rescue, or to be medical or media curiosities. If she herself or someone possibly violating federal law in releasing individual health information did not say so, how would anyone know that Oprah has health issues stemming directly from her weight?
And Oprah may be in the news "so much" because she does indeed discuss her own weight, but as one can see perusing the register rack at the supermarket, female celebrities' weight and other aspects of appearance or purely private lives are discussed or speculated about, completely beyond their control. I believe paparazzi and the kind of journalism which dwells simply in violating people's privacy, basically stalking them and waiting for "gotcha" moments when they don't look or act like they do at work, or having other human moments like arguments with their partners or having issues with substance abuse or addiction, or gasp, acne or wrinkles, (as opposed to providing a public service, like e.g., exposing government corruption that other media are too "afraid" to cover), have little place in today's world.
*HUG* you said that so amazingly much better than i could or have been. this is one of those issues that just pisses me off past a certain level of elloquent logic.
How come in every weight post someone *has* to say "Skinny people are unhealthy too, athletes die too!1!!11!1"? There should be some Godwin corollary, because it really has nothing to do with the matter.
Yes, this is yet another example of media/cultural sexism, where women's bodies are dissected in ways men's aren't.
But Oprah has been a leading contributor to this culture, and she's managed to co-opt intelligent responses to media sexism and to women's body issues. This has always bothered me about Oprah and other proponents of the crappy, maudlin "women's culture" that she helped pioneer: the whole point seems to be to sell women weight-loss and beauty products while at the same time selling them the idea that they should be happy with their bodies no matter what (but, of course, not too happy because then they wouldn't need the products). I share some of the commenters hesitancy to get involved in feminist discussion--or any discussions--or women's body issues because I think those conversation has been successfully appropriated by Oprah and her ilk as a marketing tool for products that cater to and exacerbate body image issues. Criticisms of the culture that relentlessly dissects women's bodies have become, in Oprah's world (which gets way more attention than other sources of critique), a pathetic way to make women feel "empowered" about buying all the junk she hawks.
So, blame Oprah for this. I don't feel sorry for her at all.
I HATE THIS WEIGHT COMMENTING THING!!
My family and other people close to me feel free to comment on my weight in front of me. It seems ok to discuss it and compare it to how I was before. I lose and gain weight very easily so I fluctuate more often that I'd like (I sort of have two wardrobes) and it's worse when I lose weight. Since it seems to be considered a positive thing, you are not going to be offended when everybody points it out to you or comments on your weight. My family also comments on my (female) cousin's weight. However, the only time they talked about my brother's weight was when he lost a LOT of weight after he was hospitalized for over a month. In the meantime, acquaintances I haven't seen in years feel free to tell me how skinny I am now when I run into them.
oprah is so worried with her weight. She looks great and should not worry about it. It probably kills her everyday.
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just to add she is definitely looking good. she should be proud of herself. She looks fantastic and should be happy.
Kabel in Deutschland
Everything about Oprah can be a news. But whatever weight she was would not make any difference, she is always attractive because she has something great in her head.
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