Author Topic: Oprah Winfrey Hits the Road with her 'Life You Want Weekend' Tour  (Read 3787 times)

loveoflife

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/fashion/oprah-winfrey-hits-the-road-with-her-life-you-want-weekend-tour.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3As%2C%7B%221%22%3A%22RI%3A9%22%7D&_r=0

Oprah is a source of inspiration to millions.  But although she shares many precepts with MMM (optimism, setting big goals, seizing opportunity, confronting challenge), the critical difference is that everything she touches is saturated with the profit motive.  Read this article and weep, as women desperate to gain control over their lives spring for $60 Oprah hoodies.

EricL

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Re: Oprah Winfrey Hits the Road with her 'Life You Want Weekend' Tour
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2014, 12:20:51 PM »
It's well worth buying a $60 hoodie-you can use it to hide your shame.  Although I'd rather gargle broken glass than watch her TV shows, I actually kind of like Oprah.

My favorite Oprah antidote is when she was having dinner with Pres. Nelson Mandela.  She was gassing at him on about how Africa needed girls schools.  Pres. Mandela stopped eating, picked up the phone and boomed (Cue Morgan Freeman voice). "Summon the Minister of Education! Oprah's going to start a school!"  She still gets random text messages from the students attending it asking advice.


gimp

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Re: Oprah Winfrey Hits the Road with her 'Life You Want Weekend' Tour
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2014, 12:23:42 PM »
Anecdote*

EricL

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ShortInSeattle

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Re: Oprah Winfrey Hits the Road with her 'Life You Want Weekend' Tour
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2014, 01:47:56 PM »
Sounds like a church rally, with pop psychology and consumerism at the center.

boy_bye

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Re: Oprah Winfrey Hits the Road with her 'Life You Want Weekend' Tour
« Reply #5 on: October 21, 2014, 02:17:54 PM »
the consumerism of oprah bums me out ... and has done for a long time. i mean, at a certain point, you gotta have enough fucking money, right? pretty sure she passed that point decades ago. so why does she need to market hoodies? it just doesn't make sense.

at the same time, i find this really fascinating because i'm pretty sure it's the first time that a major message of evolution and spiritual development and taking responsibility for one's own trip on this planet has been packaged and presented specifically to women en masse. kind of cool in that way.

kite

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Re: Oprah Winfrey Hits the Road with her 'Life You Want Weekend' Tour
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2014, 08:42:55 AM »
Sounds like a church rally, with pop psychology and consumerism at the center.
+1
It is a modern day religion.   

jinga nation

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Re: Oprah Winfrey Hits the Road with her 'Life You Want Weekend' Tour
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2014, 08:59:08 AM »
I see the positive aspects of Oprah's show, but 99% of the audience is suckers waiting to be exploited.

One of my college profs, Dale deChant, wrote this 2003 book The Sacred Santa: Religious Dimensions of Consumer Culture about how the consumer aspect of a religious holiday has bigger larger than the religious significance. E.g. kids think Christmas has to do with getting gifts under a lit tree, while understanding the birth of Jesus has been relegated to a minor event.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/789316.The_Sacred_Santa

At one of my past workplaces, the admin staff would daily incessantly talk about Oprah show this, Oprah gonna give that for free, etc.

SpicyMcHaggus

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Re: Oprah Winfrey Hits the Road with her 'Life You Want Weekend' Tour
« Reply #8 on: October 23, 2014, 02:20:17 PM »
I want Oprah to disappear. Off to the island country she bought or whatever.