A notion has been creeping up on me for some time. After watching a few minutes of an Oprah episode recently, the notion became a full blown thesis. Oprah is Playboy for women. I generally wouldn't have even pulled my trigger finger from the remote button, but Jay Leno was one of the guests. It only took a few minutes after the obligatory introductions before "O" asked the question... "Why do men go to strip bars?" Come on, she knows the only possible answer is, "Because they can!" It was, in reality, a rhetorical question. She was just adding another item to her "MEN SHOULDN'T" list. This is the invisible list that floats sanctimoniously next to the "MEN SHOULD" list that populates the script of most of the Oprah shows that I have had the dubious fortune to observe. Men should be warm and nurturing (as long as they are not wimpy). Men shouldn't enjoy looking at nude women (unless the woman happens to be their wife, she is not retaining water and is in the mood to be looked at, and has give her written consent in triplicate). Men should share equally with their wives, cry at movies, and give good backrubs while their wives buy those cute new shoes. By the time that "O" finishes dissecting what men should and shouldn't be, she has removed all of the warts and airbrushed so many emotions upon the "Ideal" man, that she has created an unrealistic icon. No man could live up to the "Ideal" that Oprah sells along with the dishwashing soap and feminine products each day. If women expect to find the man that "O" has created, they will be as disappointed as men are after they have met the playmate of the month without her makeup. The most disturbing aspect of this situation is that Oprah has ten times the audience that Hugh Heffner has, and one-hundred times the influence. Before long, all men will need consult their therapist before they decide whether they should cry at that "Chick Flick" or not. Please Oprah, can't we all just get along?
