Why Oprah Rocks so Hard

I know that if there is a God, she is most probably Oprah Winfrey.  When I was a child, in the now dubious and discredited ‘60s, many a granola-eating, yoga-contorting lefty proudly proclaimed that if there was a God, SHE was indeed a black woman.  Well, that black woman has arrived and if we all weren’t too busy paying attention to those other macho gods, we’d see her staring back at us every day at 3 p.m.

To Oprah, success never meant the houses, the diamonds, the dogs, Steadman’s retirement fund, the cook, the pilates room, etc.  No other person on television, for instance, is really using their power to reach the masses to better humanity  – not just humanity here in America but everywhere.  She is ever-evolving from black journalist who talked white to icon in every sense, someone who tested the invisible boundaries of success and failure in our country.

Oprah has changed many superficial things for women of all colors – be it the bra revolution (did you know you could change everything about your life with the right bra?  And that most women were walking around in bras that haven’t fit properly for decades?), the Spanx phenomenon (a new fangled girdle that sucks it all in, baby) —even during the hurricane coverage Oprah showed up with that right-fitting bra and those reliable Spanx.   But she’s also changed things in deep and meaningful ways for women, children and even men, to say nothing of the careers, books, and films she’s help launch.