O O Oprah Redux

Great pick or not is not the point of this  post.  I've been keeping score on Oprah: since Jan 2005, she's picked 12 books.

All of them have been by men. Every one.

If you go back, since 2003 she's picked 18 titles. 16 of them are by men.

I'm not suggesting affirmative action here. I never am. I just continue to find it curious.

FYI: She has 2 million readers in her book club over 80% of them are women and  40 million plus viewers watch the show every week and the majority are overwhelmingly female. More than  80% say some searches.

All of them have been by men. Every one.

If you go back, since 2003 she's picked 18 titles. 16 of them are by men.

I'm not suggesting affirmative action here. I never am. I just continue to find it curious.

FYI: She has 2 million readers in her book club over 80% of them are women and  40 million plus viewers watch the show every week and the majority are overwhelmingly female. More than  80% say some searches.

Comments

[Kimber Chin]

What I want to know is
why
when men write about love,
it is called "literature"
and
when women write about love,
it is called "romance"?

[Thriller Lover]

Amazingly, Oprah chose to endorse a male candidate for President, passing over a fully qualified woman. Perhaps Oprah is actually not a true woman? Perhaps MJ rose will write an expose.

[Judith Fitzgerald]

"But
O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag — . . .

I can't help it, she said, pulling a long face . . ."

Interesting indeedly; thanks for the eye-Oprahener; but, talk SNAFUBAR REDUX :) . . . [*sigh*].

[Judith Fitzgerald]

p.s. While I'm commenting, might I confess I *love* the titles of your books; they're all magnif; but, none more magnifico than LIP SERVICE (with THE HALO EFFECT a close second)? In fact, they actually seduced me into buying them (and, I'm not sorry I did so, not at all).

BTW, did you know the name of the Large Hadron Collider was just changed to HALO by popular vote?

(Probably :).)
p.s. Kimber Chin? Perhaps it's because men tag 'em and women such as OW (don't) promo 'em?
--
http://booksinq.blogspot.com

[moonrat]

you're very diplomatic. i think it's appalling.

[Sarah]

From the google homepage today:

If you have any doubts that we live in a society controlled by men, try reading down the index of contributors to a volume of quotations, looking for women's names.
- Elaine Gill

And, I've noticed the same thing in the "A Life in Books" section of Newsweek: when authors (yes, most are men) are asked to name their favorite 5 books, most often they list five books by male authors.

[Mary]

Haven't been counting Oprah's books since 2005 but I remember lots of women authors--maybe they were before '05? Billie Letts:"Where The Heart Is", Jane Alexander (I think)
Toni Morrison, Mia Angelou, Edwidge Danicant, Janet Finch, Anita Shreve- Kaye Fowler, just to name a few. Now I know I've mispelled names and gotten some just plain wrong, but maybe I jarred some memories too? So correct me...

[M.J]

Yes, before 2005 Oprah was picking books written by both sexes... since then she seems to have made a conscious decision that only men are writing quality worth noting.

[AN]

Kimber Chen,

I think that's a little reductionist. There are lots of genre ghettos, of which romance is only one.

Basically, following some set of genre conventions (mystery, scifi, the happily-ever-after-ness of romance) means you're gaining marketability and a built-in audience (and usually moving more copies) but giving up literary "respectability." If you write a book that satisfies all of romance genre readers' expectations for a romance novel, you might not *want* to get labeled "literary fiction."