Oprah’s intimate confessions about her weight (which peaked at 238 lb) years ago paved the way for other plus sized women in media such as Roseanna Barr, Rosie O’Donnell and Star Jones.

She’s been an inspiration in a culture obsessed with being “skinny to the bone”… breaking all the rules.. and beating all the odds… but then again, that is what makes up the beauty of who Oprah Winfrey is and what she represents.

In a Nov. 1988 Ms. Magazine it was observed that “in a society where fat is taboo, she made it in a medium that worships thin and celebrates a bland, white-bread prettiness of body and personality…

But Winfrey made fat sexy, elegant — damned near gorgeous - with her drop-dead wardrobe, easy body language, and cheerful sensuality.”