Oprah is pissing me off.
Lately I've decided that I kind of dislike Oprah.
It started when she, Gayle, and some other women went on some kind of Life Challenge weekend in the desert or some place. And part of it was about conquering fears and phobias. And Gayle was afraid of heights. So she had to climb up a pole and jump from it while swinging around through the air from some kind of rope. And she was scared out of her mind; that was clear. And Oprah laughed and laughed at her, both there and in the studio while watching the tape in front of the audience. She laughed harder than I've ever seen her laugh. She laughed at Gayle while Gayle was frozen in fear, laughed until tears came out of her eyes. And I thought, "You know, that is really very shitty of Oprah to laugh while her best friend faces a fear that is obviously very real to her." I would not appreciate it very much if, while I was doing something that scared me to death, such as being around cockroaches (not that I would ever try to conquer that fear at a Life Challenge, oh hell no), someone I love stood by and laughed at me. I've no doubt that Gayle and Oprah's love for each other is real and true, and I'm sure Gayle could look back on it later as a positive thing and even laugh at herself, but at the time, it wasn't funny to her at all. But hoo boy, it sure was to Oprah. Nice, Oprah. Really nice.
So it was with that sort of displeasure with Oprah that I saw part of last night's episode, which described a straight man who lived with a gay man for thirty days in San Francisco. (You can read more about this "experiement" here.) This was an All-American whitebread sort of man who was very anti-gay. And he said that he agrees with Bush that marriage between gay people is wrong. And he said that murdering someone and being gay are both sins, and sin is all the same in the eyes of God. And in the end, he realized that if his children end up gay, he will still love them and want them to have the same rights as straight people. Well, great. How nice of him to have this epiphany. But Oprah just found it all a bit too funny, this guy's experience with the gay community in San Francisco. And HERE he goes to his FIRST GAY BAR! Oh, the HILARITY. It was treated like he was just some dumb jolly doofus from the midwest, and isn't it sooooo funny to watch him be uncomfortable around GAYS. Like bigotry is so hysterically funny. I can't really describe it, but the tone of the whole thing really put me off and soured me so harshly against Oprah that I had trouble falling asleep after watching it. It just burned me up. I could not imagine her in a million years treating bigotry against African Americans or women or some other socially disenfranchised group so lightly and playing it all up for humor. It made me feel actually sick. It does not even matter to me that Oprah clutched hands with the guy in a big double-handed high five at the end for coming to his senses (allegedly) that hey! Gay people are people, too! Because I think that for as long as people regard anti-gay fuckheads as these harmless ignorant people who don't really hurt anyone with their backward, hateful ideas about how gays are sinners and shouldn't be able to get married and oh yeah, that he was worried his new gay roommate would rape him the first night he stayed there -- hello?! -- then we will never really make real progress against organizing against their discrimination and prejudiced laws and stopping them from being elected. It's not funny. It's not cute. It's not harmless. And Oprah should be ashamed of herself.
Meanwhile, I've added several links in the Tony Awards entry to videos of my favorite Tony moments, if you're into that sort of thing.
It started when she, Gayle, and some other women went on some kind of Life Challenge weekend in the desert or some place. And part of it was about conquering fears and phobias. And Gayle was afraid of heights. So she had to climb up a pole and jump from it while swinging around through the air from some kind of rope. And she was scared out of her mind; that was clear. And Oprah laughed and laughed at her, both there and in the studio while watching the tape in front of the audience. She laughed harder than I've ever seen her laugh. She laughed at Gayle while Gayle was frozen in fear, laughed until tears came out of her eyes. And I thought, "You know, that is really very shitty of Oprah to laugh while her best friend faces a fear that is obviously very real to her." I would not appreciate it very much if, while I was doing something that scared me to death, such as being around cockroaches (not that I would ever try to conquer that fear at a Life Challenge, oh hell no), someone I love stood by and laughed at me. I've no doubt that Gayle and Oprah's love for each other is real and true, and I'm sure Gayle could look back on it later as a positive thing and even laugh at herself, but at the time, it wasn't funny to her at all. But hoo boy, it sure was to Oprah. Nice, Oprah. Really nice.
So it was with that sort of displeasure with Oprah that I saw part of last night's episode, which described a straight man who lived with a gay man for thirty days in San Francisco. (You can read more about this "experiement" here.) This was an All-American whitebread sort of man who was very anti-gay. And he said that he agrees with Bush that marriage between gay people is wrong. And he said that murdering someone and being gay are both sins, and sin is all the same in the eyes of God. And in the end, he realized that if his children end up gay, he will still love them and want them to have the same rights as straight people. Well, great. How nice of him to have this epiphany. But Oprah just found it all a bit too funny, this guy's experience with the gay community in San Francisco. And HERE he goes to his FIRST GAY BAR! Oh, the HILARITY. It was treated like he was just some dumb jolly doofus from the midwest, and isn't it sooooo funny to watch him be uncomfortable around GAYS. Like bigotry is so hysterically funny. I can't really describe it, but the tone of the whole thing really put me off and soured me so harshly against Oprah that I had trouble falling asleep after watching it. It just burned me up. I could not imagine her in a million years treating bigotry against African Americans or women or some other socially disenfranchised group so lightly and playing it all up for humor. It made me feel actually sick. It does not even matter to me that Oprah clutched hands with the guy in a big double-handed high five at the end for coming to his senses (allegedly) that hey! Gay people are people, too! Because I think that for as long as people regard anti-gay fuckheads as these harmless ignorant people who don't really hurt anyone with their backward, hateful ideas about how gays are sinners and shouldn't be able to get married and oh yeah, that he was worried his new gay roommate would rape him the first night he stayed there -- hello?! -- then we will never really make real progress against organizing against their discrimination and prejudiced laws and stopping them from being elected. It's not funny. It's not cute. It's not harmless. And Oprah should be ashamed of herself.
Meanwhile, I've added several links in the Tony Awards entry to videos of my favorite Tony moments, if you're into that sort of thing.
posted by eliza @ 12:33 PM
5 Comments:
I think Oprah is phoning it in these days. It seems like no matter the topic, you can look at her eyes and see she's only half paying attention. The only time she comes to life is when she's talking about poop with Dr. Oz (which, admittedly, is more fascinating than it oughta be).
robyn, you are so right. And I have also noticed that Oprah is really excited about talking about poop!
I didn't get to see all of this episode, but it's a repeat and I did see it the first time around. I remember being pissed at her great epiphany that *gasp* straight people DO go to gay bars. Also, I was seething with anger when she made some flip comment like, "But, how can you immerse yourself in the gay culture completely unless you've been in a gay relationship?" Um, hello. I have several friends (gay and straight) who haven't had serious relationships yet, but don't need those relationshps to 'prove' their orientation. What a dingbat.
OH my GOD, I had totally the same experience. S. (my roommate! the author!) and I watch Oprah at its 1 AM airing here and when I watched her foam out her 'beliefs' about how some people are born gay and some people choose it -- I loved her comment "I'm a person, too, I get to have beliefs" as thought we might for real confuse her with our Higher Power -- and then when she high-fived that ass at the end of the show for admitting that gay people should have BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS, S. and I both screamed. And I was up fuming for hours.
annegrrl ... as usual, you and I are the same person. We might as well have been sitting side by side, fuming in unison.
and steph ... you are right. Oprah came off like the biggest dingbat in creation. It was pretty appalling.
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