At the outset of her Monday night special, "Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution," Oprah Winfrey, resplendent in a Columbia blue suit, turned this country's conversation around weight and weight-loss drugs personal. Weight-loss drugs had helped her transform her body and dispense with the "shame that the world gave to me," she said, from "25 years of making fun of my weight as national sport." While few people in this country have had their bodies made the subject of national conversation, every woman has felt some sort of shame about her body, which is what makes Oprah's universal messaging powerful. So powerful, in fact, that it's easy to forget that the special often functions like little more than a glorified Weight Watchers ad — even if it is not meant to be one — and glosses over pressing questions about insurance and affordability. Tressie McMillan Cottom, an opinion columnist who wrote sharply last year about the promise and pitfalls of Ozempic and other similar drugs, was perfectly positioned to examine what the "weight loss revolution" means not just for women around the country but also for Oprah and her legacy. She also, incidentally, has been watching Oprah since she was 10 years old. As Tressie notes in her latest column, "Over and over again, deft production turns the thorny issue of weight-loss medicalization into (admittedly compelling) personal stories." But "there is a war brewing between insurers and providers over who can get these drugs, and not even Oprah Winfrey will be able to broker a resolution." Despite its gaps, the special makes clear that Oprah will no longer allow her body to be a repository for the public's anxieties and aspirations about weight. These weight-loss drugs, Tressie writes, offer "the nation's dieter in chief a chance to fulfill her show's destiny — to finally create a body she can love." Who, she asks, can truly judge Oprah for that?
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Thursday, March 21, 2024
Opinion Today: Oprah and the meaning of Ozempic
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