What is happening
Oprah Winfrey hosted a new TV special earlier this month in which she shared her personal experiences with new weight loss medications and discussed how revolutionary new medications have changed the lives of people struggling with obesity.
Throughout her career, Winfrey’s honesty about your own challenges with her weight has made her something of an avatar for the country’s broader struggles with diet, health and beauty. For a while, monitoring her weight became, in your words, a “national sport”. After spending decades chronicling the latest fad diets, wellness plans, and weight-loss innovations on her wildly successful daytime show, it was almost inevitable that she would give her opinion on the rise of drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.
It’s hard to overstate how much these new drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists, have changed the conversation about weight in their short time on the market. Although there has been strong resistance Due to certain predictions that they could end obesity, medications have been shown to consistently provide significant – sometimes dramatic – weight loss in a way that diets and exercise plans cannot.
Winfrey acknowledged taking a weight-loss medication, without specifying which one, at the end of last year, despite having said that visa injectable medications as “the easy way out” for weight loss. She was also a member of the board of directors of Weight Watchers when the company chose to begin offering the drugs as a potential supplement to its long-standing weight loss programs. She recently stepped down from that role to avoid any “perceived conflict of interest” surrounding her decision to host the special.
During the show, Winfrey spoke of the “shame” she felt for years because of the false belief that her struggle with weight was caused by her own disabilities.
“All these years I thought that all the people who never dieted were just using their willpower and were, for some reason, stronger than me,” she said. She added that, thanks to these new medicines, “there is now a sense of hope”.
Why is there debate?
Winfrey has been such a prominent voice in the weight discussion for so long that her endorsement of drugs like Ozempic is sure to change the conversation.
Some commentators said the special’s central message, that struggling with weight is a matter of personal biology rather than a lack of commitment, could actually resonate with an entire generation of people who have been stuck in the same cycles of failed diets as Winfrey. over the years. They believe the deep connection between Winfrey and her audience could also inspire people to consider trying drugs for the first time after seeing her success.
But others said the special came off more like an infomercial for Big Pharma than a true discussion of the complex issues behind the emergence of GLP-1 agonists. They argue that Winfrey covered up important facts about the limitations and potential risks of medicines, completely ignoring the primary barriers that prevent people from accessing them: high costs and lack of insurance coverage.
Harsh critics believe that Winfrey’s adherence to weight-loss medications only serves to solidify our culture’s pervasive prejudice against overweight people. In their eyes, she should use her enormous power to help end weight-based stigma and combat misconceptions about the correlation between weight and health, rather than celebrating that she has finally found a way to satisfy people’s unhealthy beauty standards. society.
Perspectives
Your experiences resonate deeply with so many others
“Oprah is admitting an uncomfortable truth: Diets rarely work. No matter how much courage or willpower you have or how hard you are willing to work, the weight comes back; it almost always happens. If Oprah’s army of chefs and trainers couldn’t turn her into a drug-free size 6, then perhaps it’s time to question the tired American dream (diet) that hard work = success and completely redefine success. -Adrienne Bitar, CNN
Your honesty, as always, is commendable
“As Winfrey herself explained last year about her regime: ‘It’s not one thing. And it all.’ Let’s respect Winfrey for finally finding that ‘it’ and being open about her weight loss journey.” -Charles Passy, Market observation
She should be fighting to end weight stigma, not celebrating a new way to avoid it
“She doesn’t stop to ask if maybe the problem is fat phobia, not fat people.” -Mara Gordon, NPR
His special felt like a love letter to Big Pharma
“Winfrey could have acknowledged the inequalities around who can and cannot afford these medications and their cost to the healthcare system, and asked what this will mean for evolving attitudes around weight shame and stigma – the same issues she claims to want to dismantle. But instead, she moved on, without using her platform to vigorously challenge drugmakers on price, and then let her guests obesity experts (who had a myriad of conflicts in the industry) and even the drug manufacturers themselves had the last word.” -Lisa Jarvis, Bloomberg
It’s not her job to defeat anti-fat prejudice alone
“I have a weird need for Oprah to be happy, because it seems like our happiness is intertwined. People like us will never give up the desire to be thin. …I didn’t create this system, I’m just trying to live within it. Just like Oprah, I will not feel ashamed of my desire to be thin.” – Kristine Lloyd, Hall
She should be commended for not acting like these medications are a miracle cure
“There are no simple answers here. But Winfrey’s wise words – that the availability of this medicine feels ‘like a redemption, like a gift’ – offer a starting point for an honest conversation about how to deal with this wonderful new opportunity that science has brought us.” -Ruth Marcos, Washington Post
She has every right to find joy in finally achieving her own personal goals
“Watching Oprah take the stage, towering above the audience, wearing the kind of form-fitting monochromatic jumpsuits she now favors, I realize this might not be about us. This is about Oprah. You can find inspiration in her final chapter on weight loss. Even if you don’t like it, she’s clearly found a way to love her body. It’s hard to judge that.” – Tressie McMillan Cottom, New York Times
