Do You Remember: Oprah’s Wagon of Fat

(Content warning: This piece delves into issues of weight loss, disordered eating, and body shaming. Approach with caution.)

Oprah Winfrey is on the cover of People this week, promoting a new book she has co-written on the subject of weight. Enough: Your Health, Your Weight and What It’s Like to Be Free, co-written by Dr. Ania M. Jastreboff, is inspired by her lifelong experiences with her body and recent developments in how she views the topic of obesity. For the past couple of years, after decades of experimenting with (and promoting) crash diets, quackery, and fads, Winfrey has been using GLP-1 medication to help her lose weight. It’s led to a total change in her life, mentally as well as physically, she says. “I thought I had proven that I had willpower,” she said, referring to the many instances where she would publicly lose weight, talk about it, then be stuck in a cycle of humiliation over it.

(Image via People.com - Credit: Jamie Green)

For as long as Oprah has been famous, her body has been a punching bag for the media, audiences, and corporations. I didn’t watch an episode of Winfrey’s show until I was in my late teens, but even I knew all the stories about her being fat-shamed because the British press talked about it as virulently as the Americans. She is a literal billionaire, one of the most influential women of the century, and in her 70s, she still has to talk about her weight. Is anyone else depressed?

When the world talks about Oprah’s body, there’s one image that endures: Winfrey in Calvin Klein jeans pulling a red wagon full of animal fat behind her. I had this image seared into my brain long before I fully knew the context. Lists and articles of Oprah’s “greatest moments” still include this, alongside her getting an Oscar nomination and endorsing the Obamas. It was a sign of her media savvy… and also the millstone she continues to wear around her neck.