Oprah Winfrey has become synonymous with both the American Dream and philanthropy. Her rise from poverty to unprecedented success and wealth was used as evidence on The Oprah Winfrey Show that anything is achievable in America. Globally she has transplanted the American Dream and myth of success through charitable ventures such as The Angel Network, O Ambassadors, and The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. This paper looks to examine the rhetoric associated with such philanthropic campaigns to empower women domestically and abroad. The act of charity is imagined as transformative for both the donor and the recipient. Domestically these charities act as a therapeutic release of the excess of commodities and wealth in the US and abroad these charities attempt to transport the inventions of post-racism and post-sexism that Winfrey embodies. Furthermore, Winfrey’s campaign genders citizenship through philanthropy and encourages the woman subject to be "made-over" into a good-citizen.
To research my above hypothesis I will examine the history of philanthropic practices in the US. I will also look at how citizenship is imagined through both gender and consumption. Finally I will examine the creation of myth, in particular the creation and maintenance of the American Dream.
Bibliography
Cohen, Lizabeth. A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America. New York: Vintage Books, 2004.
King, Samantha. Pink Ribbons, Inc. Minneapolis: Minnesota UP, 2006.
McCarthy, Kathleen D. Women, Philanthropy, and Civil Society. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP, 2001.
Ouellette, Laurie, and Julie Wilson. "Women's Work." Cultural Studies 25, no. 4-5 (2011): 548-565.
Webber, Brenda. Makeover TV: Selfhood, Citizenship, and Celebrity.
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