Humanizing our Icons: Oprah

As much as our society worships celebrities, do we inherently want to see them fall from their pedestals when we can no longer be like them? Is there a point when a celebrity becomes too unattainable to be like that we bring them down? I think how Oprah has been treated in the media recently shows that sometimes we can’t bear when our celebrities become a lot larger than life, or at the very least, we want to recognize how they’re different from us, and how they’re a bit odd.

We crane our necks to see the night sky, and similarly, the stars are people we look up to. We do so because they have what we want: fame, money, and oftentimes, physical beauty. Celebrities in our culture are iconic because we want to be like them. Actually, the word icon comes from the Greek word eikon meaning “to be like.”

Many Americans think that Oprah’s mannerisms are iconic. Her book club, magazine, and show are things pretty unique to her. But are they really iconic? Do we want to do those things, or can we do them? I believe that Oprah is less iconic, or at least idolized, now because she has become so exclusive/elitist that we can’t really be like her anymore.

When Oprah first got her start, America saw a woman who worked her way up as an anchorwoman, overcame abusive relationships, and had a hard childhood. Oprah was one of the best rags-to-riches stories of the day; in the light of racism and sexism, Oprah’s life and success were “prime mythmaking material, uplighting and instructive” (Laderman 78).

After so many years as a super-power, Oprah has become detached from her beginnings for many people. For my generation, Oprah was never not famous. So it’s sometimes hard to cheer her on as she makes an exclusive tea or something like that, because she becomes more alien, with less attainable goals. Quite frankly, many (young) people try to emulate celebrities by trying to look like them. But as beautiful as Oprah is for someone for her age, many younger people won’t aspire for her looks. And as Oprah created an exclusive network not covered in regular cable television, she became more exclusive and harder to be like.

Oprah also just launched “The Life You Want Weekend” tour, and this became her most exclusive, unattainable thing yet. An article called “Has Oprah come to embody what’s wrong with modern American culture?” takes this celebrity idol and shows us her sins. You can be rich, but not greedy, our society says. And when Oprah said Thank you for your money, I know how hard you all work” to her fans paying anywhere from $199-$999 for a VIP seat, she had a small fall from grace. And people ate it up. She has become too foreign, too “other” for us to emulate.    

Buzzfeed.com, a pop-culture hub for many twenty-somethings, recently made a video “Things Oprah Does That’d Be Weird If You Did Them.” A woman named Ashley goes around and gives/throws pens for all her co-workers, only drinks Ashley” tea, and puts stickers on her favorite things. This took a more humorous for humanizing Oprah’s fame. It’s a parody, but it’s not out of spite. It’s our pop-cultural way to point out that Oprah does some pretty weird things. So when we try to be like her, it’s often with some humor because we know the bizarreness of it all.

We point out Oprah’s flaws because we want to see her as one of us. In celebrities, there’s a fine line between unique and being unattainable. Sure, I can never be Jennifer Laurence, but for many of us, she seems more “real,” easier to emulate and look like, than Oprah. Oprah has united thousands from around the world, used different aspects of faith to teach millions about spirituality, and her followers have undergone religious rituals like writing in journals at her advice. But when has it gone too much? In our society, there’s an interplay between the superpower and the powerful, and Oprah’s reputation in today’s culture demonstrates that.