What’s up with Oprah? Every week, it seems like, she has a show about something to do with sexuality. Everyone knows Oprah’s history. As a child she was molested by her uncle. She speaks out on it unashamed in order to help people. She promotes people to “go with your gut feeling” when a situation seems like it might turn dangerous.
To name a few, Oprah began earlier this semester hosting episodes about victims of incest. It went from celebrity down to everyday women, encouraging women to speak out about being victims of incest. I wonder what Foucault would say about how incest is producing women who talk about incest, and what these women would produce in the future? Would they produce an medico-juridical regime against incest, or would it reproduce and become complicit with what it denounces?
Recently she hosted a show on the topic of prostitution. The show had a segment about sex trafficking and child prostitution in Malaysia with two “experts” to explain the situation and give suggestions on how people could help (give money! Surprise, surprise.). One of the experts says he actually bought two young women in Malaysia and returned them to their families. It only cost him about $300.00. He seemed well off, so I wondered why he only bought two and not more. But then I thought, how is he reinforcing and reproducing this system by buying these girls? One of the girls went back to her pimp for drugs to which her pimp got her addicted (Crystal Meth). The other girl got married and is pregnant with her first child. It’s interesting how the story went from “bad” sex to “good” sex by ending it with a note that now she’s having “good” sex so life is wonderful. This may be somewhat true, but probably is not the whole truth. The segment ended with a discussion of how one sex labor business shut down and turned into a grocery store when it wasn’t profitable any more. So the story went from “buy their freedom” to “laissez faire” destruction of businesses. But still, give your money any way, and we’ll give micro-loans to the women who are free and they will be superwomen taking over households and villages one at a time.
It’s interesting to ponder about why Oprah is choosing these stories, given her audience. Her audience is mostly white women, stay-at-home-moms, retired women, grandmas, etc. As a black woman telling these stories, how does this complicate what’s going on? Does her audience feel like Oprah is their “black friend?” And if so, maybe because she’s their “black friend” (read: different) and she’s uber-rich they must deal with her differently. They have to listen to her. They sit attentively in the audience waiting for their swag, or to watch other people get their swag, and listen while they wait. But are they really listening? Is Oprah taking advantage of her status to break down barriers in discussing sexuality? Is Oprah taking advantage of her status and position by encouraging society’s powerful, wealthy white families donate to causes otherwise unknown? Why is Oprah doing this, and what exactly are the consequences?
THINKING SEX 