As I sat in boredom this Friday I decided to watch Oprah. Her show somehow makes me feel empowered sometimes, definitely not this day though. The issue being discussed in the show was about a 15 year old girl who had hidden a pregnancy from her family and peers and gave birth alone in her room and ended up killing her own child. Let me state before I go further that I do not at all agree with women killing there own children, however I do take issue with the layout of the show and how the girl was scrutinized.
I want to try and relate Mimi White's article to this situation. The uneven development that is seen on TV, where the predominant culture in class interest is held in the dominant position was shown in the show. In this case, it was Oprah's point of view and feelings that were most dominantly heard (she did give the girl a chance to explain her story, but with her crude and forceful interjections every so often). The girl was placed in the Subject position, (different from the viewers though), constantly being examined and picked at. Oprah and the audience all made clear the disgust they had with the actions of the girl.
At the time of the pregnancy the girl in the show had a boyfriend who knew about it but they both agreed it was best to keep it quiet. The mind set of the girl was clearly not right during this time in her life, she stated she had eating disorders as well. To me it seemed she had some serious psychological issues that she needed help with. I do not think that putting her in a degrading role really helps other young mothers or women in general.
This show could have been used as a great platform for young scared mothers to feel okay about the situation they are in, instead it made a distance formation between the viewer and the guest in the show. It put the viewer in the position to other those in the show. My younger sister and her friends were watching the show as well and said numerous times "she's weird". I don't think she was weird, she was scared, confused, under tremendous pressure from her boyfriend and needed help, she did not need every ones disapproval.
That's just what I saw, I don't know the whole story I guess...
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- a half-hard working student who loves to laugh
3 comments:
I am not a fan of Oprah and the show you described, although I did not see it, affirms why. I would like to pose a question; what is the difference between Oprah’s show, and Jerry Springer? In both these shows the guests are constructed as Other to the viewer. While Oprah may include celebrity Others that are of a more positive nature, they both create the negative Others. These Others provide an outlet for people to define who they are not. Through these shows we see the socially stigmatized individual whom confirms our own proper practices and constructions. Even though we may slip up, we will never be that messed up, and this is why we eat these shows up daily.
I don’t agree with women killing their children either, though I understand the compulsion and how much effort it takes to not go through with it. Call me crazy.
It is my opinion that the dominant view of the Oprah show is not just Oprah’s view. You mentioned that the collective (audience and host) disgust with the girl’s actions resulted in alienating the girl, and the show did not even attempt to address the fact that this girl needed help. But it is also your opinion that “the mind set of the girl was clearly not right”, taking proof of this from a history of eating disorders. My questions to you are: who related/and interpreted the history of the girl to give such proof of “serious psychological issues she needs to deal with? If the girl was told she wasn’t “normal” before she got pregnant, how do you expect her to behave within a normalized discourse of motherhood? Do you really think it was Oprah that demonized this girl as a baby killer needing help?
To read the show using the concept you used, I suggest that the uneven development lies in the fact that this girl had a hard time in her youth (as most often do), but that she wasn’t given/or didn’t develop the coping mechanisms to deal. The lack of coping mechanisms affected her ability to trust herself in any decision she was faced with. Thus, trying to move forward but facing a history of being ‘crazy’ when she couldn’t deal, the girl simply acted within the ‘crazy’ discourse she felt stuck in.
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