Elegant, but
This magazine is truly lovely and generally-speaking a terrific departure from the standard ladies' fare offered out there today. The articles are informed, entertaining, well-written, and cover a myriad of topics concerning women; and the glossy-photographs are of excellent quality.

But, I was so disappointed to pick up this magazine in a waiting room recently and find a "fitness make-over" that amounted to the same body make-overs other ladies' magazines use, including the measuring of inches and weight lost. I am all for losing weight if it will improve one's health, but it just didn't feel to me like the women covered in that particular write-up really put as much emphasis on health as on how they looked.

I've always thought of Oprah as being a self-love guru, but that one article had me wondering if she really signs off on every piece used in her magazine.

If you like "O" magazine, you might also like GRACE magazine which focuses on women size 12 and up.

Out of touch
What has gotten Oprah to where she is now, is now not serving her well. Oprah's strength has been to listen to her own counsel and her own mind and heart. She's been a role model in this regard. Even relatively late in her career, when her ratings were dipping, and everyone said that negativity and scandal were the best ways to improve ratings, she promised to go "positive" in her show, and she's kept to it.

But that trait of listening only to herself is now not serving her well. For a couple of years now it's pretty obvious that she brings experts onto her show only to tell them what they should think about the topic. But worse, she has lost touch with how insanely materialistic she has become. In the July 2004 issue of "O," Oprah tells us that a woman can put together a nice outfit for $248. ("Can you believe it?") In the interests of telling us women can dress inexpensively, she tells us we can buy a T-shirt for $21 up to $119. Most of the content of the magazine revolves around buying and shopping, with an emphasis on a millionaire's condescending perspective. How to make a $15,000 wedding look like a $50,000 wedding. On some level, all of this would be acceptable if it weren't so out of touch. I can tell Oprah where to get designer t-shirts for $11 on sale. I can show her how to put together a power business suit outfit for $100. So having articles which tell me how I can do it for two or three times the price, I just wonder what the editors are thinking.

Other features include such things as "What Julianna Margolies is reading." Apparently a few self help books and Dante's Inferno, because that's a classic.

Then there's the large spread on an expensive lunch she hosted for some friends. We get mouthwatering pictures of "crab cakes with baby beets and two sauces" (Gail loved these) and chocolate cake with buttercream ganache. I suppose that, again, this is directed for those who either worship the woman and need to know everything she can afford to buy, or those who want to try to copy Oprah's expensive tastes at their planned $50,000 wedding.

If you simply admire (not worship) Oprah, as I do, then the magazine just leaves me cold and bewildered. Life is not just about shopping. I thought Oprah used to stand for that. Apparently that's all changed.

Waiting by my mailbox!
Not really. I have a child and a full-time job. But I love this magazine and look forward to receiving it this month. It has a well balance of the things we want to know and the things we need to know. Meaning, the magazine balances fun articles with serious issues we should be aware of. I don't watch her show - remember the full-time job thing. But at 10:00 at night, after the kids and the husband go to sleep, I just love to get into a hot bath and read this magazine from cover to cover. MY TIME! I think Oprah would be proud!