The Oprah Phenomenon

The “Oprahization” of America: The Man Show and the Redefinition of Black Femininity

65 The “Oprahization” of America The Man Show and the Redefinition of Black Femininity Valerie Palmer-Mehta The hit Comedy Central series The Man Show debuted on June 16, 1999, to ratings that broke all records for the channel.The introductory program was titled “The Oprahization of America,” and original hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla had this to say about talk-show host Oprah Winfrey and contemporary social relationships in the United States: Kimmel:We’re here because we have a serious problem in America and her name is Oprah. Millions and millions of women are under Oprah’s spell.This woman has half of America brainwashed. carolla: She tells them what to read, what to eat, what to think, what to do. . . . Kimmel:We’re the ones that are supposed to be telling them what to do, right? Enough is enough.The Oprahization of America must be stopped. carolla:This Oprah needs to do a little less brainwashing and a little more sock washing. Kimmel:We are here today to reclaim the airwaves, to take back the medium we invented. Hey, who invented the television, a man or a woman?  Valerie Palmer-Mehta audience:A man! carolla:That’s right.And he didn’t invent it for Oprah or Rosie. . . . He invented it for Charlie and his Angels and Hogan and his Heroes. . . .Those were shows men could enjoy. Kimmel:We want to return to that era and that is what this show will be—a joyous celebration of chauvinism. When Carolla states that OprahWinfrey should be doing “a little more sock washing,” the camera pans to the loudly cheering studio audience. The only black man in the audience is shown with both arms raised high above his head, cheering enthusiastically in solidarity with (and, in fact, more strenuously than) his white brothers (this act of solidarity is confounded later in the series when Kimmel engages in minstrelsy in a regular segment that disparages basketball player Karl Malone).The camera also focuses on two Asian men and one Asian woman who are applauding and smiling (an act of solidarity that is confounded on the August 27, 2000, episode,“Myths and Facts about College,” when Carolla places a bespectacled Chinese youth on the checkout counter and tells young college men that they don’t need to do homework because they can get their “very own Chinese kid” to do it for them).At various points during Kimmel and Carolla’s proclamation about Winfrey, the camera shows black and white“Juggy Girls,”sparsely clothed young women whose function is to dance provocatively for the studio and home-viewing audiences and to reinforce the misogynistic rhetoric of the hosts by smiling, nodding, and clapping (obviously, this relationship is confounded from the start).The rest of the audience is composed of white, presumably heterosexual men who are cheering the hosts’ proclamation . By focusing the camera on diverse audience members who seemingly approve of the hosts’ message (though one would be naïve to think that this is anything other than manufactured), Kimmel and Carolla attempt to make this an issue of gender, not of race—a case of men’s united attempt to consolidate their power over women. Although the misogyny in this excerpt warrants its own study, more perplexing and provoking is the hosts’ frequent declaration of their disdain for Oprah Winfrey and their desire to “stop her.” Of all the women disparaged on the program during the original hosts’four-season tenure,Winfrey’s name came up more frequently than any other.1 It is difficult to understand how anyone could have such contempt for The “Oprahization” of America  Winfrey, considering the many obstacles she has overcome in her pursuit of success and the extent to which she has shared her success with others. Despite extremely humble beginnings in Mississippi,being shuffled around among her grandparents and her estranged mother and father, and enduring sexual abuse,Winfrey secured a scholarship to Tennessee State University.During her sophomore year,she became the first black and the first woman anchor of Nashville’s WTVF-TV. Now, three decades later,“when Winfrey talks, her viewers—an estimated 14 million daily in the U.S. and millions more in 132 other countries—listen.”2 Deborah Tannen explains that viewers trust Winfrey’s perspective and actively participate in any endeavor she initiates: Any book she chooses for her on-air book club becomes...