I grew up watching the Oprah Winfrey show every afternoon with my mother. Each day she left us with a very inspirational message. This article was particularly interesting to me because it questioned whether the American Dream was actually possible for all Americans. Oprah's rags to riches story is obviously very inspiring to most of the population, but is it really a lifestyle that we could all lead? I found it interesting that they referred to Oprah just by her first name. Is it really easier for black Americans to relate to her without her full name?
I was extremely surprised to read that Oprah's sister denied Oprah's comments about the hardships they had to deal with as children. Patricia stated that they had a "difficult but not a desperately poor life." It is sad to think that stars would exaggerate circumstances in their life in order to make their successes, today, seem even greater. It makes me wonder how many other stars do this, too? Whoopi Goldberg's stated that, "if we didn't have Oprah Winfrey, we'd have to invent one." Do you think this is true?
I am glad to hear that you grew up watching Oprah because we hadn't had the chance to talk about this much in class. The class brought up the topic of how Oprah gets all of her viewers and I completely agree with her ability to obtain the elusive guest is a huge part. However another large part of her success which makes it hard for us to see how it came to be is that we're not the target audience. Oprah's target audience is an older woman, the age of a mother, someone who can relate to her. The audience is not targetted towards young students or men so that would make it harder for all of us to see what makes her so special.