If not now, when?

Since I’m working hard at getting the negative monologue out of my head, it has to go somewhere. While I’m not fond of ranting posts, I’m going to wax rhapsodic about Oprah’s new money-deal with Weight Watchers.

This is not going to be pretty so bear with me.

The always zaftig Oscar-nominated actress/talk show host/ humanitarian has publicly ‘battled’ her weight [to use industry rhetoric] for decades. She’s done liquid diets and had personal trainers and she’s made sweeping stage entrances looking slim and also made sweeping stage entrances looking like a well-put together fat woman.  I will give her that she dresses beautifully [she can afford it of course] and she always looks professional.

 She’s accomplished an amazing litany of things in her life, and she’s done I’d say 90% of it as a fat woman. Being thin was never a prerequisite for her to become rich or famous or be an activist, a voice for women, a generous giver, an industry talent… but now she’s made a deal that will put yet more money that she obviously doesn’t need into her pocket in exchange for her saying things like how weight loss can be like a game [just count points instead of calories! Isn’t that fun?] and if not now, when? I don’t know – when you’ve made enough money? When you’ve had a long-running award winning TV show? When you’ve starred in a movie? When you’ve written a book?

If you don’t get thin now, when will you do it? Why not do it AFTER you’ve done every other important thing in your life? Because doing it before might mean you will NEVER accomplish anything worthwhile.

I think Oprah has lost count of the number of celebs who have been guests on her show because of their ‘accomplishments’ in losing weight through paid advertising. Most of those guests, judging by what I read on the Internet, are the same people who have lost and gained, gained and lost, dropped one company for another and been dropped by sponsors for not keeping the weight off. Many of those celebs, having ‘failed’ after the sponsorship money dried up, have either denounced their previous weight loss plans or gone on to create their own plans, or simply, having ‘failed’ too many times to uphold the standards of the diet industry are now touting ‘happiness and good health’ as their mantra rather than weight loss at any cost.

I wonder how long it will be before Oprah’s contract runs out, or her patience with yet another gimmick wears thin. It’s very clear, having watched Oprah over the years, that she is a fat woman and will likely always be a fat woman. It hasn’t stopped her from being healthy and successful, and it shouldn’t stop anyone else. I suspect the day will come when she will weary of her weight loss partners and their shady practices and she will either jump ship as so many of her cronies have and develop her own plan, or simply embrace the truth, that weight loss is a bill of goods sold to us for profit.

I hope her disenchantment with this sham occurs soon – and I’d like to ask her, Oprah, if not now, when will you truly see the light?