by Toni (Fri Feb 05, 2010)
You have to live in Chicago to really appreciate the
magnitude of Oprah. Most of us know at least one person who works at the Harpo
studio, and we all have our little ‘Oprah story' whether it's first hand,
hearsay, or heresy.
When Oprah recently announced her 2011 ‘retirement,' audience
members wept openly as they tried to imagine life without the O. In the US, she
has a cult-like following that watches her shows, buys her magazines and even lives
by her recommendations. Lay people like me often wonder what motivates them to
worship at the altar of Oprah? Most of us stop right there, but in 2008, writer,
performer and yoga teacher Robyn Okrant felt compelled to see if it was at all possible
to live by Oprah's edicts and recommendations, or to discover one's authentic
self by following someone else's ideal.
Okrant spent a year ‘Living Oprah,' buying what the megastar
declared a ‘must have' and committing to lifestyle changes Winfrey deemed
necessary to achieve happiness, health, peace and truth, (delete where
appropriate). Her aim was not to pay homage to Oprah but to conduct a social
experiment, testing the many maxims she preaches and exploring just how much
influence any one person, even Oprah, should have on others. Her guiding
question was ‘Is Oprah's advice still relevant and can it actually lead women
to ‘their best life'?'
Initially Okrant set up a
blog to record her experience, and thought perhaps of a one woman show at
the end of it all. Blog hits quickly sky-rocketed and she was soon approached
for TV and radio interviews. Like a bloggy fairytale, the big publishers then
came-a-calling. Ironically, Okrant feels that when she explained her project in
depth, a handful dropped out, concerned about Oprah's reaction. The result
however, is ‘Living Oprah; My One Year Experiment to Walk the Walk of the Queen
of Talk,' just released in the UK.
I sat down with Okrant last week to chat about the book, her
thoughts and future projects. Coincidentally it was Oprah's birthday.
Since Okrant hasn't been on the Oprah show, nor has Oprah personally
acknowledged the book, I couldn't resist asking whether Okrant would go on the
show if invited. While the thought horrifies her, she admits that not only would
her publisher insist, it would be insane not to. One of the misconceptions
about Robyn Okrant is that she is an Oprah-hater, which (Okrant says) makes her
‘scared stiff' of both Oprah and her audience members. Seared into any author's
memory is the public flailing James Frey received when his autobiographical, ‘A
Million Little Pieces,' (an Oprah Book Club pick) was discovered to have been
somewhat embellished. A humiliated Oprah was out for blood, or at least a very
groveling apology. This
woman can make or break you in this city - Lord only knows what she
might do to Okrant.
The other misconception about Okrant is that she is the
ultimate fan. Indeed the one and only comment from Oprah's world was a non-committal
statement that ‘Her blog
takes a novel approach to being a fan.' Winfrey did however send her a Kindle
which Okrant felt compelled to return with an apology. Since her aim was to see
if it was possible to live by Oprah's recommendations, she was determined to do
it on the budget of a ‘regular' person.
‘Living Oprah' is a quick and generally entertaining read,
with each chapter chronicling a month of the year's experiment. Okrant not only
records her Winfrey-related purchases and projects, but shares her thoughts,
concerns and triumphs. The book is often laugh-out-loud funny as when Okrant
declares love for her vulva, because ‘Oprah told me I should' or when she is
celebrating an ‘S-shaped' poop, which apparently is the ideal to which we
should all aspire. She is also insightful, pointing out that self-help gurus
like Oprah actually rely on followers continually failing and thus being in
need of more guidance. While Okrant believes ‘Oprah's ultimate intention is to
empower women and girls,' she also states that ‘Oprah devalues women by focusing
so much on our bodies,' which she concedes, most women do. Although this observation
is repeated several times in the book, it is a sentiment that, more than a year
later, Okrant feels with more passion. Indeed, she likens herself to an
ex-smoker who becomes the biggest critic of smoking. She can barely walk past a
magazine rack without picking out the destructive headlines imploring us to
improve our looks, sex lives or living rooms.
To that end, she has embarked on a new ‘detox' project in
her own life, about which she also blogs. Part of the detox is her ‘tag'
project whereby she is symbolically removing all the sizing tags from her clothes.
She is self-deprecating enough to laugh at her disappointment during this
exercise when she often found items that were bigger than she remembered.
Okrant does not intend to become the ‘Oprah Lady' or indeed to blog for much
longer on Oprah-related topics, even though a reality production team has
approached her to do a fly-on-the-wall look at her life living Oprah. Having
seen her recent blog video where she appears without make-up and hair wrapped
in a scarf, they apparently pulled the offer, deciding she was a little too
‘real.' Okrant was highly amused at the double standard in that decision.
The end of the book will disappoint some because Okrant
doesn't come out swinging either for or against Winfrey, even though she knows
that would sell more copies. Sometimes she is unequivocal as in ‘Here's What I
Know for Now: From the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, I know I'll
never discover my Best Life when I am trying to live up to someone else's
vision for me' but it's clear she had very mixed feelings.
Perhaps reactions to
the book reveal the biggest irony - they mirror our current dissatisfaction
with anything other than dramatic extremes. Even though Okrant clearly states
her middle-of-the-road position throughout, it would seem TV has brain-washed
us into expecting extreme or provocative conclusions.
