I stated in the introduction that this little corner of mine was a political one. I'd like to qualify that a bit: bohemian tea partier is a primarily a political blog. But there's room for lots more; namely, the endlessly fascinating milieu of pop culture.
The subject of this particular pop culture rap session is Queen Oprah of Harpo, Inc. My past attitude towards the woman can be summed up as a sort of pious agnosticism. I couldn't have possibly cared any less about her one way or the other. What Oprah represented--in addition to the incredible potential of individual blacks, which is undeniable progress--was the sublime therapeutic approach to, well, almost everything. Including politics.
Pious agnosticism morphed into outright hostility around late-2007 when Oprah deigned to enter the acrid arena of electoral politics for the purpose of throwing her weight behind then-Sen. Barack Obama. An undecided Democratic primary voter at the time, I recall being fairly disenchanted with the three most popular choices presented to us: Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and sociopath John Edwards.
The choice should have been clear, right? Here I am, politically engaged young black watching a charismatic--and black!--cosmopolite making a serious but uncertain run for the presidency. Furthermore, this elegant black insurgent would soon be joined by arguably the most famous and successful black woman ever to grace Creation. "What's not to like?" is a natural inquiry to be answered with another; as in, "Where to begin?" Succinctly put, Barack Obama stood as the most prominent encroachment of the Oprah phenomenon upon my unlikely little hobbyhorse of American politics. And I didn't like it. Ms. Winfrey had remained largely inoffensive training her media influence, as it were, into high-profile cross-examinations of Hollywood degenerates. But the eventual transfer of her obnoxious brand of sublime therapy to the serious business of Politics with a capital P was actually what precipitated my stedfast opposition to the Obama candidacy. It forever led me to conclude that the movement around this compelling personality amounted to nothing more than mass irrationalism.
One assumes those who felt as I did are tempted with a giddy dose of schadenfreude upon the ridikulously delicious revelations put forth by Kitty Kelley. Kelley, commonly repudiated as a "poison-pen" sensationalist, has penned a new work: Oprah Winfrey: A Biography.
As is normally the case in all things Oprah, I initially didn't give much thought to the ruckus left in the trail of Ms. Kelley's latest treatise. But leave it to the muckraking headline writers of Rupert Murdoch's New York Post to pull me in:
Lesbian flings, prostitution & abuse lies: Oprah's 'hidden' life.
These people are so good, it's almost criminal. They even bulleted crucial little nuggets Ms. Kelley supposedly unearthed:
* Winfrey concocted stories about sexual abuse she suffered as a child -- and grossly exaggerated the poverty she was brought up in.
* She went to great lengths to conceal her "lesbian affairs" -- including hefty payoffs -- and publicly attached herself to Graham to appear more normal to her audience of housewives.
* She lavished romantic gifts -- including a diamond toe ring -- on ABC talking head Diane Sawyer.
* Winfrey sold her body to earn extra money and has even described herself as a teen "prostitute."
* She doesn't know the true identity of her biological father.
* Her relationship with her own mother is so cold that Winfrey won't even let the older woman have her phone number.
If true, the hypocrisy is so staggeringly obvious that it needn't be fully delineated here. I certainly haven't talked to anyone about this but I think it's fair to assume many will look on this as Oprah's comeuppance. And while the backlash may not enough to entirely dethrone the billionaire heroine, it certainly should temper the tendency to handle Oprah with a hagiographic care, as has been the case. Since forever.
As an irreverent sort of fellow, I tend to believe these sorts of things about public figures. When you're operating on the level of an Oprah Winfrey, it almost demands a kind of awful neurosis. And in terms of politics, it operates without regard to any discernible ideological boundaries.
And still I want to sympathize with the lady. Apparently she was a crafty, ambitious, poor black girl who parlayed a gift for gab into incredible fortune and fame. While she may have perpetrated a complete and utter fraud, it is, in the main, a victimless one with one glaring exception. If these allegations are to be believed, then, for me, it magnifies the disgraceful display of her substance-free and faux-transcendent endorsement of Barack Obama back in 2007. I can countenance fraudulent personal narrative-weaving in the realm of entertainment, but once it intrudes the most important, all-encompassing element of society--politics--it becomes another thing altogether because of the dangerous potential.
I am wont to leave entertainment figures to their devices, so as long as they remember their place. Shut up and sing, is a popular and apposite refrain these days. In the case of Oprah: Shut up and go back to exploring the neurotic depths of all those masochistic enough to avail themselves.
