Skip to main content

ReThinking Oprah Magazine

I've passed Oprah's magazine many times on the newsstand. I've admired how sometimes O looks like my mom but then I quickly turn to Jet, Ebony, Village Voice and other mags that still grace us with their celebrity news, world events, and UFO reports.  I was at the airport looking for a couple of magazines to read on the plane and I decided to take a chance on Oprah.

I bought the mag plus Essence.  I thumbed through Essence first.  Essence is Essence. [shrug] I move to Oprah's mag with hopes that it wouldn't be filled with ads of blond white women, articles about Martha's Vineyard and more of Oprah's favorite things.  The first ad I see - Blond White Woman.  [deep sigh]  I didn't give up.  I flipped and flipped the pages before reading anything.  I wanted to see what O had to offer a 43 year old Black, single mother, living in the Midwest.

 Give me something O. 

I continue to flip and I see an article about the founders of the Rebecca Project, two awesome sistas serving women in the DC area.

Perk

I'm into it now.  Let me flip some more. There's a brief article on Carla Boutin-Foster, Director of the Comprehensive Center of Excellence in Disparities Research and Community Engagement, a fabulous organization serving people in NYC by providing healthcare services like medical van tours to barbershops offering free on-site diabetes and blood pressure screenings.  I'm beginning to love Oprah's mag. 

I read an article about Asian mothers and about Mary Williams, the "daughter" of Jane Fonda and her life living with Jane as a young black woman.  I had no idea.

The diversity of the magazine is to be appreciated.  Oprah does try to give you a slice of life from the perspective of women...period. Some may still pass on it but I'd say, try it on for size just once.

Just once.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Confessions of a Recovering Misogynist" by Kevin Powell

In the past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to have very brief conversations with Kevin Powell. Its very interesting to speak with someone with similar passions for community service. As someone who has been very transparent on her blog, I find this essay by Kevin refreshing. I just happen to see this on Facebook as someone posted it many months ago. Thanks KP. I AM A SEXIST MALE. I take no great pride in saying this, I am merely stating a fact. It is not that I was born this way-rather, I was born into this male-dominated society, and consequently, from the very moment I began forming thoughts, they formed in a decidedly male-centered way. My "education" at home with my mother, at school, on my neighborhood playgrounds, and at church, all placed males in the middle of the universe. My digestion of the 1970s American popular culture in the form of television, film, ads, and music only added to my training, so that by as early as age nine or ten I saw females, includ...
Post a Comment
Read more

For Colored Girls: Seeing Red

After being very vocal about being Tyler Perry a less than favorite choice to direct an adaption of Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf" or better known now as "For Colored Girls", I watched the movie feeling empty. I've seen myself in the colors of orange and green . I've empathized with the browns in my life. I know yellow and I know blue. Then there is RED . I could spend time examining the issues I had with the movie. I could also celebrate the power of dynamic words used to express OUR stories of various hues, depths, and struggles. The color red, Janet Jackson's character, disturbed me. This development of this character reeks of Perry's own personal agenda. He wanted to talk about the down low situation. He wanted to bring in HIV and so he did.  In spite of Janet's less than wonderful acting abilities, I was interested in how her story would play itself out. I heard about her. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more