I am SO MAD at Oprah.
As an American ex-pat living in Israel I have my O magazine brought over as often as possible from family and friends. Everyone knows hope much I love Oprah, I haven’t missed an episode since TiVo came to town and I cherish my O magazine. I read it cover-to-cover, sometimes twice. Then I pass it around to all of my friends, to share the love.
But I read a disturbing “article” in O magazine’s July 2010 issue that shocked me to my Oprah-loving core. On pg 111, the 8th “declaration” of ‘rules’ we should feel free to break this summer while reading our summer reading books, they declared that readers should feel free to “Ignore memoirs by people who have barely cracked their 30′s.”
EXCUSE ME?!
Oprah, you are either trippin’ or your staff is slippin’ because what the hell, girl? I support you in all you do. I listen to all of your 
advice. I memorize all of the rules. I know that a girl with a big butt needs to carry a big purse. My book shelves are arranged by color and that my house has to rise up to meet me. I know all the inside thoughts of murderers and people with disfigured faces. I’m not saying that I’m writing a memoir style book about the true struggles of life in your twenties for a woman, but what I know for SURE is that I never expected such an outright demeaning statement declaring young women’s writing irrelevant to come from O magazine of all places!
But I did not know that my adopted mother, Oprah, supports ageism that crushes the creativity of young women. And let me be clear: I was crushed by this statement. Oprah, who tries to find the human being in every murderer, abuser, convict, celebrity, soccer mom and saint that she ever interviews would approve of a comment that as a rule declares all women writers who speak their truth before 30?! Angela Davis was 30 when her autobiography came out. Should we have ignored that one, too?
So I am officially mad at Oprah. I’m mad at O magazine. And don’t give me some psycho babble about me expressing displaced anger about her canceling her show. Because I was sad about that one. When Oprah made that announcement I cried with her. Not the ugly cry, of course, just the one where your voice cracks a little and a tear run down your face. But this comment is so hurtful and such a slap in the face to your young readers, momma Oprah. Wouldn’t it be awful if one of your South African girl-students thought that their writing could be ignored, that their lives were not as meaningful in their twenties, that their creativity was worth nothing to older, wiser women?
For young women of diverse backgrounds struggling with adversity, our twenties are challenging, confusing, uphill battles against sexism, racism, societal norms and ourselves. A little support and encouragement from our more experienced sisters could only help- and a dig from a major magazine that is supposed to foster best life-living, can knock us down a peg or two, and I assure you we don’t need any help in that particular department.
Signed, sad, disappointed and most likely to be wearing shlumpadinka sweatpants while writing this,
Your (ex) Biggest Fan in Israel
I smiled…laughed actually after reading this. I’m happy to stumble upon a forthright lady. Love it!
I am actually vehemently against Oprah, and found this post very entertaining. I think she began spectacularly with only the most admirable of intentions… however now she’s just plain self-righteous.
so this may be premature, but welcome to the anti-Oprah club.
I’ve gotta take Oprah’s side on this one. The quote is: “Ignore memoirs by people who have barely cracked their 30′s” which, to me, narrowly focuses on people discussing their life experiences too early in life to either have had many great experiences or before they fully understand them. Case in point: Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, delivered the commencement speech at my Tufts graduation. He’s a nice guy who basically stepped in poop and came out a billionaire. Good for him. He had nothing of value to relate to us — a total waste of time.
So I don’t see the quote as a blanket “statement declaring young women’s writing irrelevant.” Rather I think it is much more narrowly focused on memoirs by young women and men — in general, a good idea.
I so disagree with you, Vlad. First, 97% of all commencement speeches suck. So with all due respect to Pierre and Tufts, this isn’t so relevant. If it was any other magazine, I’d let them get away with it, and if it’s your personal opinion then what the hell are you doing reading my blog?! But Oprah should take responsibility for this comment, since she takes issue with the ageism against older women, and she takes pride in her school for girls in South Africa, so it does not stand that a comment which cut me deep as demeaning to young people should be stand in contradiction to her other standards. Come on Vlad, if I wrote a book would you ignore it based on age? No! You’d love it and Oprah would invite me on her show! So I’m just saying that there’s no connection between bad lit and the age of the writer.