Monday, January 15, 2018

Oprah: Just...Don't






Oprah Winfrey delivers a speech at the Golden Globes…a perfectly passable speech, only a couple of flubs and stumbles over words.  It is mildly political, in that it addresses the over-wrought “#metoo” movement, which is all the rage among Hollywood women this year.  I have in previous entries explained why this movement is leaving a bad taste in my mouth…  One of my primary questions about it is, where were all these “metoo” celebrity women in 2016 when we were being treated daily to the systematic and brutally misogynistic piling on to Hillary Clinton, the first viable female presidential candidate in our history?  Yes…where were you then, Susan Sarandon??!?  Fuck you. 

So obviously I don’t exactly acknowledge the “metoo” movement as the political bandwagon upon which to hitch a ride to the 2020 presidential election.  Perhaps if she had spoken about DACA, or Islamaphobia, or income inequality, or the Kim/Trump nuclear pissing contest, or even the “Tweeter-in-chief” himself, I might entertain a political nod in Winfrey’s direction.  But the fact is, since she retired from her daily interview program, she has made an obvious effort to remain studiously apolitical.  One look at her Twitter feed will tell you all you need to know about THAT.

Just after 2016’s disastrous presidential election, I made a comment to someone on Facebook that we don’t allow  women to be “charismatic; ”  when our female public figures display passion or excitement or drive for a cause, they are called out as shrill, unfeminine, loud…bitchy.  Threatening, obviously, to the male status quo that is SO cemented in our society.  And that the only “charismatic” female I could think of in 21st-century America was Oprah Winfrey.  But that was in no way an endorsement of her as a candidate for President. 

Though she surely wouldn’t be as ill-suited for the position as the current occupant, she is nevertheless as unqualified and ignorant about the job and the world of politics surrounding it as the Cheeto.  Her only saving grace might be that she would immediately understand her lack of experience and ability, and would surround herself with quality people that could keep the country moving forward in spite of the ignorance of the chief executive.  We could HOPE for that, anyway.  We really have no way of knowing.  We DO know that her "charisma" is rooted in the human interest, sob story, gawkers-at-a-train-wreck media...Not a direction in which we would like the nation as a whole to (continue to) go.   So it’s probably best to leave politics to the politicians.  And legislation to the legislators.  And leave media personalities to jockey for position in their own cesspool.   

Winfrey could serve her country best by choosing a talented, experienced female LEGISLATOR to get behind, and investing her considerable fortune, media connections and charisma into propelling that woman to victory in 2020. 

Let’s hope that is what she chooses to do.                

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