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the goop lab on Netflix: Selling quackery under the guise of female “empowerment”

“the goop lab” will premiere on Netflix on January 24. It’s just the latest goop vehicle to sell quackery to women under the guise of “empowerment.”

It will come as no surprise that I’m not a fan of either Gwyneth Paltrow or her “wellness” empire known as Goop. True, I’m not nearly as well known for refuting the pseudoscientific and mystical New Age nonsense that Goop markets to women with more money than sense, thus acting like my favorite line from the Mitchell and Webb sketch “Homeopathic A&E” about being there when “someone comes in with a vague sense of unease, or a touch of the nerves, or even just more money than sense” with a “bottle of basically just water in one hand and a huge invoice in the other.” Of course, in Goop’s case, it’s jade eggs in the vagina, psychic vampire repellant, bee venom acupuncture, magic pieces of tape, and the now regular “In Goop Health” confabs where all manner of quacks peddle their wares using Paltrow’s star power, including antivaxxers, HIV/AIDS denialists, psychic mediums, and worse. So I wasn’t at all pleased to finally see the announcement by Netflix that the long dreaded Goop show is going to premere on January 24. The name of the show? the goop lab (yes, all lower case e.e. cummings-like):

Paltrow is also totally trolling skeptics with this poster:

the goop lab poster

Yes, that is a real promotional poster. It’s not a parody or a meme. It’s clearly a reference to the vaginal jade eggs that made Goop (in)famous. The only way it could have been more obvious would be if Paltrow had worn a green dress.

The purpose of the goop lab is to “explore ideas that might seem too out there or too scary”? No, none of the “ideas” that I saw in that video were anything of the sort: psychic mediums, orgasms, energy healing (of which, apparently, exorcism is a subset), psychedelic drugs, and cold therapy. Of course, applying cold to injuries is a longstanding method for symptom relief, but you know that the goop lab will look at the most woo-filled version, like this or perhaps liquid nitrogen treatments.

I rather like R. Eric Thomas’ characterization in ELLE of the goop lab based on the trailer:

The areas of “study” in the “lab” include “Psychedelics”, “Cold Therapy”, “Psychic Mediums”, “Orgasms”, and “Energy Healing”, all of which seem like categories on the most deranged episode of Jeopardy! yet. Cold Therapy, for instance, seems to involve bringing a bunch of Goop employees in bathrobes into a tundra and then… I don’t know, Lord of the Flies-ing it? Who can say? I am willing to entertain the idea that Gwyneth is performing a psychological experiment to see how far she can push people before they band together and overthrow her.

The thing I find so fascinating about Goop-era Gwyneth is that she consistently maintains the energy of that one friend you have who is always doing things that seem like cries for help but are kind of working out for her nonetheless. Once a month you meet her for bottomless brunch and she tells you about throwing up her soul while doing ayahuasca or spending two weeks at a silent retreat run by a Komodo dragon and you have to figure out how one asks follow-up questions. She’s like “Anyway, I’m sure you already guessed this but I found out that one of the things affecting my productivity was that my clitoris is haunted.” And you’re like “Oh, well that sounds like a real pickle. My washing machine has been making a strange noise so I… I get it.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time Paltrow and Goop have faced pushback from doctors and scientists over her promotion of pseudoscience, and the goop lab is no exception. For example, a couple of years ago, Paltrow published attacks by several of the quacks with whom she collaborates on her most prominent critic, Dr. Jen Gunter, a physician who was among the first to mock and debunk goop’s claims for the vaginal jade eggs it was selling. One of those quacks, possibly embarrassed, possibly not (who knows?) even tried to back off and distance herself from Goop. Despite occasionally promising to do better with respect to publishing pseudoscience, Paltrow and Goop remain stubbornly resistant to fact checking. Indeed, she wanted to do a Goop magazine with Conde Nast, but the deal fell through because Conde Nast insists that all articles be rigorously fact-checked.

Not surprisingly, Paltrow showed up on Power Lunch on CNBC Monday to promote her brand, her show, and also a new collaboration she has with Sephora. Here’s a snippet:

Here’s the whole interview, if you can stomach it:

It’s annoying how the host goes on about how the trailer for the goop lab has gone viral. In any event, not surprisingly, Paltrow defended goop yet again, defending seeking out “alternative ways of healing” that may help women. She also dismisses Goop’s promotion of pseudoscience as, in essence, minor mistakes that Goop made when it was a startup because she and those running Goop didn’t know about regulatory issues and “making claims.” She even claims that for over a year goop has had an “incredibly robust and brilliant science and regulatory team in house” led by an MIT scientist. (I chuckled. Maybe that scientist runs the goop lab too.) Of course being affiliated with MIT (or Harvard or Stanford or any other famous school) is no guarantee against pseudoscience, as those who’ve followed the infiltration (or should I say, “integration”?) of pseudoscience into medicine in academic medical centers under the label “integrative medicine.”

She’s also full of crap here:

But it is really important, you know, it’s like, people say sometimes, you know, we’ll talk about something that’s controversial, and then in six months it’s a more widely adopted thing. To generalize and say there’s been controversy around us, I don’t think, is quite fair when you look at other businesses and some of the hot water they’ve gotten into along the way.

Great defense of Goop and the goop lab! “We’re not as bad as some companies!” Also, what Goop has promoted (and the trailer for the goop lab tells me it will continue to promote) is not “controversial.” “Controversial” implies two sides to an argument that are not unreasonable. No, what Goop and the goop lab promote are pseudoscience and quackery.

I also laughed at the part where Paltro claims that Goop has learned from past mistakes promoting “controversial treatments” while wrapping herself in the mantra of female empowerment:

Like, we’re really just trying to move culture forward, especially as it comes to women, and I think the reason why Goop has become as popular as it has become is because women feel largely ignored when it comes to talking to their doctors about how they’re feeling, and so they want to check out alternative ways of healing and having autonomy over their own health, and their own selves, and their own sexuality, and their own relationships, whether it’s parenting or at work. And, so, I think we feel really proud about the fact that we’re blazing trails a little bit and that we changed the conversation and that people, you know, seem to follow suit.

It is true that women have been ignored too often by medicine, which until recently (and still to too great an extent) has been patriarchal and often dismissive of women’s concerns. It is not “empowerment,” though, to use that dissatisfaction and disgruntlement over the way medicine has treated women in the past as an “in” to sell them quackery, pseudoscience, and, outright bullshit. the goop lab is just the latest marketing tool in the Goop armamentarium to do just that.

By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

100 replies on “the goop lab on Netflix: Selling quackery under the guise of female “empowerment””

Anything about Goop is now just clickbait to the media, so don’t expect them to apply boring standards of actual journalism to any of her nonsense. It’s too profitable to cover the outrageously and provocatively dumb.

In the quotes, Paltrow talks like a 13-year old, “Like”, ‘You know”. Also, she uses “I think…” quite a bit. She sounds like the caricature of a dumb blonde which, in my opinion, does a disservice to all adult women.

That Goop lab poster needs a Rod Serling voiceover ….”Next stop, the introitus of idiocy.”

Hmm, GOOP uses pseudoscience to promote well-being and Orac entertains with science fiction (e.g.,Respectful Insolence theme) to disseminate the medical abuses of GOOP.

Q. What develops when GOOP and Orac interact.
A. Compromise

MJD says,

Orac and GOOP are equally entertaining.

“Q. What develops when GOOP and Orac interact.
A. Compromise”
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????!

Anyone notice she is standing in a vesica piscis? It looks like a huge vagina! Subliminal marketing at it’s finest. Woman is rolling in the cash! Her home gym must be phenomenal!

Yeah, it is mentioned in the second paragraph, right after the graphic. Perhaps you should tr

Yeah, it is mentioned in the second paragraph right after the graphic. Perhaps you should try reading the blog article before you comment.

@ Chris – Chris stalks, “Perhaps you should try reading the blog article before you comment.”

Why bother? I’ll summarize without reading it: Paltrow is an idiot. All CAM is a scam. Allopathic medicine is the only way to go.

And get your flu shot <<< ok that’s just snark

Side note – Jade eggs or ben wa balls are tools to help exercise the pelvic floor muscles. Although helpful, they are not needed. Kegels can help both men and women with incontinence. Kegels also increase circulation to the area which helps if you sit a lot.

Good grief, Natalie, you are just an ignorant tool. It is obvious you never read the blog entries you comment on, perhaps because you just cannot understand them.

@ Smut says, “You say “vesica piscis”, I say “Venn diagram” ”

Curious you are following up on this but I’m bored and in the middle of a few things.

I can see a Venn diagram too, however, it is about context. A Venn diagram deals with information. The link is a good example demonstrating the health and longevity of people who live in “Blue Zones”

Apologies if there are a couple of clicks to get to the image

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vendiagram.gif

My understanding is that the convention of a full-length body aureole found its way into Christian art ultimately from Buddhist artistic traditions (with halos coming from the same source). Then christian theologians and art-commissars ret-conned an explanation for this ‘mandorla’ image, in terms of the Pythagorean / Neo-Platonist “vesica piscis” symbolising an intersection between two realms. So I say “Venn diagram”.

The Buddhist artists might well have been thinking of Yoni symbolism when they started this tradition.

This may be off-topic but I feel no sense of shame.

She brings to mind that Mitchell and Webb video, and the words, “…people with more money than sense.” Paltrow knows how to reach those people, and does it very well. She’s a good little con artist, and has a pretty and pleasant face to go with the snappy patter. It’s not like she cares what may happen to people who follow her bad (or sometimes dangerous) advice. It’s all about the Benjamins for this seller of attractive snake oil.

“I don’t believe anything natural can be bad for you.”
Something like a forest fire perhaps? I doubt miss Paltrow would like that experience.

“I don’t believe anything natural can be bad for you.”

Good, here – have some of this delicious foxglove and spinach salad.

Belladonna, uranium, thallium, arsenic, smallpox, botulism toxin, tetanus toxin… so many natural things!

Try licking this nice frog, I found in the Amazone. You know, the one used to make poisoned arrows.

Socrates toasts you with a cup of all-natural hemlock. With a whole wheat bread sandwich of roasted fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) mushrooms to go along with it.

Cooking essentially renders out the muscimol and the other substance, though. (Ibotaine? Idk, I’d have to Google it.)

Cooking essentially renders out the muscimol

Certainly simmering your sliced fly agaric in slightly salted water dissolves out the muscimol. But the flavor was nothing sensational, and it seemed like a lot of work to go through just so that you can eat something with stuff-all nutritional content.

…grill a hot dog on an very natural oleander branch and discover “natural” digitalis in a bad way.

If I had Grognards among my ancestors, I would have some anecdote about the all-natural ergot-spoiled wheat they ate when they followed Napoleon in Russia. It was quite the souvenir.

I think there are numurous natural substances, including animals that can be very dangerous for your health.

“I don’t believe anything natural can be bad for you.”
Rattlesnake venom? Rabies? Vibrio cholerae? Botulinus toxin? Alligators? Sea urchin spines?
In the words of Jimmie Durante, “I got a million of ’em.”

Wait – she thinks orgasms are an idea that’s too ‘out there’ or ‘scary’?

The whole thing smacks of 50 Shades – safe titillation for boring white women.

I once spent an hour looking over GOOP! on the internet and couldn’t believe the BS advice and product recommendations:
IIRC $300 jeans and $500 skin care. Paltrow exudes such a smarmy, self-satisfied ooze of entitlement: she fits right in amongst more general woo-meisters although she is usually lifestylish than health oriented.

-btw- some Eastern European ( Polish or Ukrainian) folks nearby are offering cryotherapy ,halotherapy ( a salt room), massage etc, I’m not sure how much is woo and how much is legit.

-btw- also her dress at the Golden Globes was bonkers.

She ruined the MCU for me before Infinity War did.

At least Civil War and Black Panther and Ragnarok, three of my favorites, didn’t have her.

The MCU treatment of Norse mythology kind of annoys me because they manage to get the family relationships and personalities just about all back-@ss-wards; oh well. I guess it’s kind of funny in an ironic way.

To reconcile it would mean tossing decades of Marvel canon, TBF. I do like what Taika did, he took it down to character interaction and development and let the rest be rowdy ridiculous fun.

Ehhh, I care a lot more about the sagas and Eddas than about some comic books, but to each their own, I guess.

I mean, for one thing, Laufey is Loki’s mom, not his dad. And Odin is his blood brother, which makes Thor his nephew. It’s just goofy.

And Laufey never got killed, the Aesir aren’t quite all that much and a bag of chips in the real lore.

“Ehhh, I care a lot more about the sagas and Eddas than about some comic books, but to each their own, I guess.”

I enjoy both. My best friend is Norwegian and works as a translator, and she enjoys sending me ‘fixed’ translations of some of the sagas I loved as a child, when I was, for no reason, equally into Greek myths, Norse myths, comics, and both Asimov and Le Guin flavors of sci-fi. I also love the Teutonic versions of the myths, and Wagner’s ring cycle, which are yet another version. What’s wrong with liking all kinds of art? I see no need to be condescending.

Idk, it really f’in irks me that they make Loki out to be some evil ultimate authoritarian, which is just absolutely the opposite of the whole point. IMHO.

Jack: I haven’t read any of the Eddas straight up (only in translated simplified “Norse Mythology” versions) but isn’t Loki more of a chaotic neutral?

When I was a kid I had a dog named Loki. He was, in every possible way, the complete and total opposite of the mythological character. Dumb, affable, sweet, timid, lazy, that was my dog. (Weirdly, my friend’s cat named Loki had a very similar personality. He was terrified of ceiling fans.)

Chaotic good, IMO. Chaotic neutral in relation to the Aesir, but essentially just anti-authoritarian.

@ Jack

Chaotic good, IMO.

Well, with the occasional serious deviation from ‘Good’. For a start, there is the infamous “explosive mistletoe” incident…

They might be Polish, cryotherapy and halotherapy are quite popular over here. As for scientific basis, I’ve looked through Pubmed and what worries me is that most positive studies of cryotherapy come from the same group of Polish scientists. Salt room and massage might be simply relaxing, even without real medical benefits.

I can see how cryotherapy might be reminiscent in a way of the Russian thing of where you hang out in a sauna (ban’ya) and then you go jump out in the snow for a minute and then get back in the sauna… (wet saunas over there, steam.)

I think it was Anthony Bourdain I saw try that out on TV once, it was pretty funny to watch.

I think it was Anthony Bourdain I saw try that out on TV once, it was pretty funny to watch.

If that was the Finland episode, the karjalanpiirakka bit seems to make this spot on-topic.

This is such an old-school scam that the “Cryolab” in Vaoncouver is no longer extant, leaving only its traces in the Wayback Machine. I never understood why Canadians would want ‘cryotherapy’. I mean, they already have Edmonton.

Cryotherapy simply means “Cold Treatment”, therefore it can be used in many applications and medical procedures.
WHAT IS CRYOTHERAPY?
The Cryosauna is pumped with environmentally friendly gas nitrogen ( nitrogen composes 78.09% of the atmosphere), and is cooled to a temperature of approx.−110 °C. The patient is protected from acute frostbite with socks and spends up to 3 minutes in the Cryosauna.
The sauna works by cooling the entire skin surface of the body in order to develop defensive reflexes and reactions such as stimulation of blood circulation, endocrine system, the immune system and the central nervous system. Such stimulation makes the therapy beneficial to a range of conditions. During the cooling effect your brain will trigger a spontaneous release of endorphins and adrenaline into your blood stream.
Post treatment you will feel a tingling sensation over your skins surface together with a analgesic effect, your capillaries will expand to around four times there natural diameter. This enables your white blood cells to access and heal your injuries up to 50% faster then the natural process. Therapy triggers the release of endorphins which also induce analgesia (immediate pain relief).

That’s also what they told me at the Madame Whiplash House of Discipline.

I’m not sure; I think it was in America, at least North America. The episode, I mean. I was living at home with my mom at the time, we binge watched a lot of his stuff, it kind of runs together.

We both liked him; it was around about that period of time that she told me I would have gotten along with my grandpa, her dad. (He died shortly before I was born.) Idk, we both drank. (Well, drink.) Heck anyway.

I’ve done it. It’s exhilarating that’s for sure. My father did another version of a sauna then jump in a literal ice bath in Switzerland. He warned me you only do it once (we’re not of that stock that can endure that apparently) and only once. He was correct.

your capillaries will expand to around four times there [sic] natural diameter

“It only makes you feel warmer.”

Science Mom, there’s also a version where you pre-dip, going cold-hot-cold (for when you’re going rustic and don’t have a shower for washing before the sauna). I knew a guy who did it, and did not recommend it. To paraphrase, “I thought I was going to need surgical extraction of my testicles.”

“I thought I was going to need surgical extraction of my testicles.”

Bwahahaha, you just reminded me my dad relayed that about he and his brother after they did that. My dad being the good Irishman can tell a story with the proper embellishments and had me rolling on the floor, in tears laughing.

It’s clearly a reference to the vaginal jade eggs that made Goop (in)famous. The only way it could have been more obvious would be if Paltrow had worn a green dress.

And here I thought she was just going for the “I’m the all important clitoris” look. It would be consistent with her massive ego.

And here I thought she was just going for the “I’m the all important clitoris” look.

She seems to be positioned more like the cervix. Maybe she’s emerging from the Mandorla (thanks, Smut Clyde).

She seems to be positioned more like the cervix. Maybe she’s emerging from the Mandorla (thanks, Smut Clyde).

It works out in my head but I’m not the wordsmith you and Clyde are so I didn’t dare elaborate.

I think the most inadvertently honest thing she said in the trailer was ‘let’s milk this sh!t for all it’s worth’. or something like that. I also like Alan Levinovitz’s take on all this as a power and purity play.

” It’s clearly a reference to the vaginal jade eggs that made Goop (in)famous.”

I don’t know. It could be the Mandorla / Vesica Piscis from Christian iconography (often Marian iconography).
Paltrow is literally presenting herself as the Virgin Mary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandorla

Now whether the Mandorla is itself a vaginal emblem is another issue…

Cold Therapy, for instance, seems to involve bringing a bunch of Goop employees in bathrobes into a tundra and then… I don’t know, Lord of the Flies-ing it?

Thomas says this like it’s a bad thing. Of course I would not wish this on the gullible–I assume that frostbite on one’s private parts is painful (of course I do not know this firsthand)–but it’s harder for a Goop employee to successfully claim to be that naive.

Thanks for the heads up. I will be canceling my Netflix subscription pronto because of this.

I’m super irked that Netflix took down Tim Caufield’s “User’s Guide to Cheating Death” (a great series on a huge range of quackeries and near-quackeries like constant plastic surgery) in order to put this up. But I guess it would look weird to have a series promoting quackery and another series deconstructing it.

Could’nt help but to become a rescinder of Netflix. This is the drop the floods the beaker… Not even a hint of journalistic discrimination means no subscription!

She’s like “Anyway, I’m sure you already guessed this but I found out that one of the things affecting my productivity was that my clitoris is haunted.”

I have to admit, that’s a very vivid character painting by R. Eric Thomas from Elle.
But now I’m left wondering if I should be jealous. I don’t have any friend who would wish to confide to me that she has haunted ladyparts. I really should get out more.

spending two weeks at a silent retreat run by a Komodo dragon and you have to figure out how one asks follow-up questions

Actually, I can think of a question: where do I sign up?.
No, wait, first another question: is it “run by a Komodo dragon”, or “running from a Komodo dragon”?
Also, are civilized meals provided, or will I go hunting with the Komodo dragon? I’m not very good at tackling water buffaloes.

But seriously, if I can bring back samples of the dragon’s blood and saliva, that would be an awesome outing – contrary to popular belief, Komodo dragons are not poisonous animals and actually manage to keep their dentition quite clean. It’s the swamp mud a water buffalo is covering with which causes the buffalo to develop infections after bitten by a dragon.

Both. The Komodo dragon in charge helps get your blood flowing each morning by a vigorous chase around the yard of the retreat center.

Actually, in 2009 MRI scans revealed glands and tests showed that the glands produced proteins that inhibit blood clotting and have other useful predator functions. Shock and blood lose, their bite isn’t very powerful but does a lot of damage, are deemed to do most damage to the prey.
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009PNAS..106.8969F/abstract

I don’t have any friend who would wish to confide to me that she has haunted ladyparts.

There is an Oglaf for that, but Orac would not look kindly on a link.

In anti-vax news ( I don’t want to disrupt Orac’s newest post)…

The anti-vax siege of NJ continues: RFK jr spoke on Monday ( see AoA; @ChildrensHD; NJ News 12) he’s in Albany, NY today
Tenpenny is expected Thursday and Del on Monday. Daniel Munoz ( @DanielMunoz100) covers the statehouse area.

I just cancelled my Netflix membership and told them why. Not giving money to anyone promoting Goop. Also told Sephora I will no longer be buying products from them because they are selling Goop. I doubt my little protests will move either company to change, but they at least know there are consequences.

There’s more than one kind of Goop products.
Consider: “Amazing GOOP is one of the strongest, most flexible all purpose adhesives ever created! It’s designed to adhere to virtually any surface so you can FIX WHAT OTHER GLUES SIMPLY CAN’T®.”
One kind of Goop is a powerful adhesive. The other kind is just tacky.

@ F68.10

“No, none of the “ideas” that I saw in that video were anything of the sort: psychic mediums, orgasms, energy healing (of which, apparently, exorcism is a subset), psychedelic drugs, and cold therapy.”

Exorcists… No shit…

The day I learned, a decade ago or so, that exorcism was still practiced in my country, it sent my head spinning really hard.

SFGate had a story yesterday ( Amanda Bartlett) that viewers are cancelling their Netflix subscriptions and citing Goop as the reason.
Some objected to the use of the word “lab”, Unfortunately no figures about how prevalent this trend is.

Looping back to some previously disrespected woo, there’s this:
https://bzfd.it/2T7pfDU
If it’s a fake, then an awful lot of websites have been taken in, but then again, those celebrities…

@ORD writes, “Ever heard of toxic shock syndrome? Do a little research into exactly what’s wrong with jade eggs.”

Yes, David. As a woman, I am aware of TSS. I’ve seen the warning in every box of tampons for the past 40 years. Thank you for the PSA. If you read my post I was not advocating for the jade eggs or ben wa balls. I said they are unnecessary.

Strong pelvic floor muscles can help with incontinence…both women AND men benefit. Didn’t your urologist recommend pelvic floor exercises for you?

https://www.uclahealth.org/urology/workfiles/Prostate_Cancer/Kegel_Exercises_for_Men.pdf

“Side note – Jade eggs or ben wa balls are tools to help exercise the pelvic floor muscles. Although helpful, they are not needed”
“Helpful but not needed” is not quite the same as “potentially life-threatening and a major waste of time and money.

@ Smut says, “vesica piscis” symbolising an intersection between two realms. So I say “Venn diagram”. <<< Yes. It can be both…not mutually exclusive.

Smut says, “The Buddhist artists might well have been thinking of Yoni symbolism when they started this tradition.”<<<Yes, I agree.

Smut blushes, “This may be off-topic but I feel no sense of shame.” <<<Neither do I.

MSN Travel:

There will be a Goop cruise;
Celebrity cruises’ new ship, Apex, will host GP’s venture on the Mediterranean in late August: the ship is quite the wellness experience to begin with, they say. It will cost 750 USD to be gooped plus the price of your cabin ( about 2000-4000 USD). They don’t disclose how much time GP will participate with attendees.

So, is it going to be “better” or “worse” (because I don’t know how to define those terms here) than the Conspiracsea cruise?
Less tax evasion and aliens, more yoga and detox? Though you might need detox after a cruise like that where you know the bar will be open.

LOL. Vulva. Wait, what? Is that not part of the ‘vag’? Imma been doing it wrong. Today I learned.

“For all the promotional activity on “The Goop Lab”, the biggest endorsement may be for Ms. Paltrow herself. “I think she’s one of the most brilliant, intelligent people I have ever met at all the institutions I;ve known — Harvard and Oxford,” psychiatrist Will Siu said in a recent interview.
Dr. Siu, a practitioner of therapeutic psychedelics who appears in the debut episode of the show with a long braid and bear-claw necklace, says he just moved from New York to Los Angeles partly to seize the opportunity presented by Goop. Next up, he hopes to lead workshops and write a book.”

from today’s Wall St. Journal article “Goop’s Aura Comes To TV”, which also quotes Jen Gunter in regards to Paltrow (not favorably).

Gist of the article – Paltrow’s show is a potential bonanza for woo practitioners, who’ve already benefited from the “Oprah Effect”. New multimillion dollar businesses could emerge due to exposure on Paltrow’s Netflix show.

A commentator for the New York Times has come out in support of Goop claiming that:

“The tsunami of Goop hatred is best understood within a context that is much older and runs much deeper than Twitter, streaming platforms, consumerism or capitalism.

Throughout history, women in particular have been mocked, reviled, and murdered for maintaining knowledge and practices that frightened, confused and confounded “the authorities.” (Namely the church, and later, medicine.) Criticism of Goop is founded, at least in part, upon deeply ingrained reserves of fear, loathing, and ignorance about things we cannot see, touch, authenticate, prove, own or quantify. It is emblematic of a cultural insistence that we quash intuitive measures and “other” ways of knowing — the sort handed down via oral tradition, which, for most women throughout history, was the only way of knowing. In other words, it’s classic patriarchal devaluation.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/03/opinion/goop-gwyneth-paltrow-netflix.html

I hang my head and weep…

Oh, good grief. I hate faux feminism. No where did she mention Paltrow’s biggest critic: Dr. Jennifer Gunter. Plus no comments were allowed. Though the cherry picking was first rate.

Goop is not the 21st century equivalent of Our Bodies, Ourselves, which exists online: https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/

By the way I started to hate faux feminism when I was a female engineering student in the late 1970s. I had some of those women why I was submitting myself to the science “men.” Whatever that meant (even then I knew of women scientists, and more are known now, like Marie Tharp who helped map the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, which I learned from the Cosmos TV program a few years ago).

On the note of that idiotic article, one should read this autobiography: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/health/josephine-bakers-fighting-for-life-still-thought-provoking-decades-later.html

Yah, they’ve teamed up together in the NYT before; the result was a blend of aimless rambling and rambling aimlessly — mothering-dot-com as dirigible.

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