Thursday, February 03, 2011

Oh, Oprah...

Really? I mean, really?

::sigh::

4 comments:

sheree boyd said...

does this mean you also watched the 'vegan' oprah show...i really didn't want to watch it (my mom had called me up to let me know Oprah was doing a show on veganism), but decided to give it a chance...i found myself watching with my hands over my eyes...seriously disappointing (I've no idea why I even expected otherwise?!).

Love how Oprah pointed out to Kathy at the end of the show that the animals don't suffer b/c the good lady at Cargill said so (I'd insert an eyeroll here if I knew how)...

I thought the least Oprah could have done was brought on someone like you or Francione....and also had a vegan chef on so we wouldn't have to hear all the trite remarks about 'yucky vegan food'...totally confirms why i don't watch Oprah...

at least I learned a new word: veganish (another eyeroll)

sorry for the ranting novel :)

Vanilla Rose said...

Is it okay if I don't click? Sheree has beautifully summed up why I would find the programme depressing, frustrating, disappointing, etc.

M said...

Sheree, I've only seen a few clips from it, but have read many accounts of it online in the past few days.

I agree that it's sort of ridiculous to have a show that purportedly talks about veganism and to have Michael "eat your happy meat" Pollan on as one of your main "experts". As for Kathy Freston, from what I've read of and from her (and I've yet to actually read any of her books), her focus seems to be on diet and on health, so no surprise that Oprah would have her on and that Freston (whose career and book sales are no doubt taking off beautifully since her appearances on Oprah's show) wouldn't do much else but sit and be the token "vegan".

It's a shame, really. Millions watch the show and one decent guest could have actually educated the public about what we really owe non-human animals. Instead, we're left with millions who think that veganism is all about food and that it's all about us. We're left with millions who think that veganism not much more than some sort of fad diet and that ultimately, it's OK to keep using non-human animals.

Vanilla Rose, there was nothing to click. A few people asked me why I hadn't written a blog post about Oprah's show, but there's been so much discussion of it online by this point that I'm not sure there's anything I could say that hasn't already been said (for instance, by sheree). I agree that the whole thing is just unfortunate. Some have been arguing that the show has "gotten the message out there" but the truth is that the show has pretty much just left us with more misinformation to correct. :-/

sheree boyd said...

Watching that show was really akin to seeing a train wreck...

Made me really sad b/c as you said people will walk away from it viewing it as a health issue (and since Pollan said having meat in your diet was ok and all and Lisa Ling watched a cow die and she is still totally fine with eating meat?!) and not an issue of animal rights...

I didn't feel that the message got out (not sure what the message was on that show?!) At one point, literally towards the end, Kathy made a half hearted attempt to connect veganism with animal rights but Pollan put the kabosh on it and made some joke about dead animals that got the audience to laugh...not really a win win there.

BTW, I'm looking forward to trying all those recipes you've posted. I'm just waiting for the snow and ice to go away so i can get my car out of the garage and to the store! :)