Oprah, American Girls and Binge Dreamers: Virginia Postrel

By EmmaZahn on Fri, 05/27/2011 - 9:02am |

In her 25 years hosting her eponymous show, Oprah Winfrey changed lives, most notably her own, but she did not change American culture. Rather, she revived and extended an old American phenomenon: the tradition of middlebrow self-improvement that many observers assumed had died in the anti-authority turmoil of the 1960s. While anything but radical, this achievement was nonetheless remarkable.

To understand its significance, positive and negative, consider two other media institutions that also debuted in 1986. The first is Spy magazine, defunct since 1998. Enormously influential, particularly in New York media circles, Spy pioneered the snobby, snarky cynicism that many writers under 50 still equate with sophistication. Spy did change the culture.

URL:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-26/oprah-american-girls-and-other-binge-dreamers-virginia-postrel.html