During the 1992 presidential campaign, Vice President Dan Quayle criticized the show Murphy Brown for its portrayal of single motherhood. The attack ignited a national debate on family values and created the "culture war" playbook.

In 1988, Oprah walked on stage in slim size 10 jeans, wheeling 67 pounds of animal fat in a red wagon. The stunt highlighted her weight loss, but also shed light on America's obsession with fatness, showing that diet culture spares no one.