Jezebel: The Secret

Oprah's Long History Of Sketchy "Experts" And Endorsements

Tracie Egan Morrissey — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 18:00:00 EST

With the news that Dr. Melvin Levine—who appeared on Oprah repeatedly over the course of several years as a childhood education expert—committed suicide on Friday, the same day that 40 of his former patients filed a medical malpractice and sexual abuse suit against him, it raises the question of whether O is doing enough vetting of the authors and experts to whom she chooses to lend her credibility. More »

Harper's Bazaar And Katy Perry Riff On Iconic 50s Vogue

Jenna Sauers — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:44:00 EST

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Katy Perry, shot by Alexi Lubomirski for the subscriber cover of the new Harper's Bazaar, looks gorgeous, if a bit crusty-lipped. She also looks a lot like Jean Patchett on the iconic Erwin Blumenfeld Vogue cover from January, 1950. [JustJared]

Self-Help Book For Kids Is Least Helpful Book Ever

Anna North — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:12:00 EDT

Does your five-year-old lack ambition and drive? Maybe she needs her very own self-help book, based on the Law of Attraction! More »

The Secret Is Now The Power

Sadie Stein — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:28:00 EDT

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Bestselling author Rhonda Byrne is at it again! Says USA Today, "The Power, like The Secret, is a guide to positive thinking, how 'everyone is meant to have an amazing life.'" And, like The Secret, it's presumably pseudoscientific malarkey! More »

Bright-Sided: The Negative Consequences Of Positive Thinking

Anna North — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EDT

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According to Barbara Ehrenreich's Bright-Sided, the much-vaunted "power of positive thinking" won't cure cancer, make us rich, or necessarily even keep us happy. In fact, it may be harming us. More »

Teen Version Of The Secret To Fulfill Ill-Advised Adolescent Fantasies

Anna North — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:40:00 EDT

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A teen version of The Secret is coming out in the fall, which will help teens to "live their dreams." If this had been out ten years ago, John Cusack and I would have several kids by now. [AP] More »

Is Oprah Selling Snake Oil?

Anna North — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:20:00 EDT

Oprah responded yesterday to Newsweek's recent claim that her health advice is irresponsible, but the criticisms of her embrace of homeopathy and other non-scientifically proven cures keep coming. More »

Fired? Dumped? Oprah Says "Self-Distance" Instead Of Sobbing!

Jessica G. — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

I like O: the Oprah Magazine. It's consistently the least condescending, most reasonable women's magazine around ("most reasonable women's magazine" is sort of like "nicest Nazi," but I digress). O editors feature meaty articles and contributions from an incredibly diverse and impressive group of writers — Mary Gaitskill, Susan Choi, and Sharon Olds among them. All of which is to say, I realized what continues to bother me deeply about the magazine yesterday, and it has nothing to do with the quality of the prose. It has to do with Oprah's obsession with self-actualization and the idea that emotional messiness is akin to failure. In the October issue, Tim Jarvis writes about a new "technique" called self-distancing. Apparently when you get horrible news (examples given include being fired, being dumped, and hearing a loved one has been in an accident) you're supposed to take a "mental step back" and process the information "from a distance" instead of reacting to it. And to that I say: fuck off. More »

Today We Learned More Than We Wanted To About Elisabeth Hasselbeck's Vagina

Jennifer — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:20:00 EST

World's Worst-Kept 'Secret' Coming To Your Living Room

Dodai Stewart — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Psst! We've got a secret: "Inspirational word-of-mouth phenomenon" The Secret will be coming to Video On Demand and Pay Per View. After a long day at work, you can come home, sit on your couch and start to "attract" some wealth. Awesome! It's also going to be available at hotel chains (unlike Jezebel!) Rhonda Byrne, creator and executive producer, says, "This is just the beginning, and there is so much more to share with people. The Secret was created to empower people, and everything I do is focused on just that — to bring as much joy as I can to every single human being." She doesn't mention Wallace D. Wattles. Anyways, we're about to go attract a snack. More »

The Secret Behind 'The Secret': It Was Stupid Crap Even In 1910

Dodai Stewart — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:00:00 EDT

The Secret is not just a book. It's a phenomenon. It's been discussed on Larry King, Ellen, Oprah, Today and Nightline. It's been on the New York Times bestseller list for 31 weeks. Today, BoingBoing posted a excerpt of a post from a blogger named Connie L. Schmidt:

If you're at all familiar with The Secret, you know that the big secret revealed therein is a centuries-old principle called the law of attraction, or LOA. In The Secret LOA is presented as a scientific law akin to the law of gravity. LOA believers maintain that whether we realize it or not, we "attract" everything that happens to us - the good and the bad, the sublime and the silly, the comical and the tragic. Financial success or failure, health or illness, a life of peace or one beset by violent crime or natural disasters, all occur because we somehow attracted them.

Uh, yeah. We totally attracted a zit on our forehead and a crazy phone bill today. Sure! More »

More On "The Secret": Larry King Drinks The Kool-Aid

Anna Holmes — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 09:10:05 EST

Guess CNN producers haven't learn a thing from the growing chorus of critics regarding the continuing and unquestioning coverage of self-help book The Secret. Last night, it was Larry King's turn to step into the ring of wide-eyed, friendly talk show hosts: King devoted an entire hour to The Secret juggernaut with nary a real critic in sight. More »

Oprah Winfrey's "Secret": Peter Birkenhead Explains It All For You

Anna Holmes — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:02:20 EST

Apparently we aren't the only ones troubled by Oprah Winfrey's wholesale endorsement of the recently-released new-age sensation The Secret. Yesterday in Salon, writer Peter Birkenhead launched a surprising but thoughtful warning shot over the bow of Winfrey's self-help ship, and our jaws went slack. More »

Diane Von Furstenberg Loves A Secret

Anna Holmes — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 22:16:46 EST

It's about two weeks late, but today The New York Post published a two-page story on the The Secret, the Oprah-endorsed self-help tome that claims that happiness, riches and success are all but a few positive-thoughts away. According to the Post, Oprah isn't the only flaky high-profile businesswoman to assert that the guiding principle behind The Secret — namely, that if you build it in your head, it will come— is one she's been using for years. More »

Critic To Oprah: You're Full of Shit

Anna Holmes — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 17:46:00 EST

Variety columnist Brian Lowry posted an interesting piece today on Oprah Winfrey and her inability to thoughtfully critique some the well-meaning but flaky blowhards who come on her show to save us from ourselves. More »