But it’s fun, and there’s real merit in that
Dr Jen Gunter is pissed, and she’s right to be. Why is she? Because now, after all this time, GOOP is going back into the archives and sorting posts into factual and hahaha just for laughs.
GOOP is retroactively labelling “wellness” posts so women can figure out what was pure bullshit, what was just the hypothesis of a naturopath, and what might actually be factual. I haven’t come up with one that is labelled as factual yet.
According to Racked, the categories are as follows (GOOP’s words, not mine):
For Your Enjoyment: There probably aren’t going to be peer-reviewed studies about this concept, but it’s fun, and there’s real merit in that.
Ancient Modality: This practice is nearly as old as time — many find value in it, even if modern-day research hasn’t caught up yet (it’s possible the practice will never attract its attention).
Ugh, what is that even supposed to mean? Many find value in it – many find value in robbing banks, too, but so what? It sounds like Trump – “many people say” some bullshit he wants you to believe.
Speculative but Promising: There’s momentum behind this concept, though it needs more research to elucidate exactly what’s at work.
Momentum? Again, what does that mean? The “momentum” could be all from deluded idiots.
Supported by Science: There’s sound science for the value of this concept and the promise of more evidence to come soon that may prove its impact.
The promise of more evidence to come soon – the check is in the mail.
Rigorously Tested: The validity of this concept is pretty much undisputed within the world of M.D.’s, D.O.’s, N.D.’s, and Ph.D.’s.
I gather there aren’t many of those. In any case, the point is, Gunter among others has been pointing out much of GOOP is bullshit, often harmful bullshit, and Gwyneth Paltrow has been denying it and saying harsh things…and now she says some of it was just for fun? Well gee I hope not too many women made themselves sick or spent more than they could afford on flapdoodle.
Gunter gives several examples of bullshit she called bullshit, that GOOP insisted was not bullshit, and now says oh ha ha it was just for fun.
How about the jade egg? GOOP said I was “strangely confident” for pointing out A) the jade eggthusiast didn’t know what the fuck she was talking about regarding the pelvic floor muscles and B) a porous rock could introduce oxygen into the vagina which has been proven to be a critical step in development of toxic shock syndrome.
What is science when you have an “ancient therapy?” I’d also like to point of that GOOP has never actually offered proof that is an ancient therapy, but facts are irrelevant. Maybe there will be a rating scale for ancient therapies next year?
Regardless, being “ancient” doesn’t mean it has value. In “ancient” times people believed in evil humors and that tuberculosis was caused by vampires. I like my therapies post-germ theory.
Lots of people just don’t know to be suspicious of empty compliments like “said to harness the power of energy work and crystal healing” and “Shiva Rose raves about the results.” Lots of people don’t pause to ask “yes but do jade eggs actually harness anything and if so what and what does it do?” and “yes but did Shiva Rose actually get results and if so what kind?” They just read the soothing meandering nothings and go out and buy that jade egg and then stick it up’em.
Read the whole post to get all the examples.
To Gwyneth Paltrow and GOOP I say you should be ashamed of yourselves. You so proudly touted your site JUST LAST YEAR as being so empowering and intuitive that women could clearly take away the right information for their health and yet here you are having to go back and point out for these same women that most of these posts have no science and many were just a joke.
Do you think women are lemmings? Because it is totally looking more and more like you have been herding them to a ledge for money, like Disney executives. You do know that lemmings didn’t end up jumping over the cliff on purpose, they were pushed.
You used your massive international platform to push fake therapies and make-believe on women under the guise of “conversations,” not to empower but to sell products and books. When I pointed out that these ideas and therapies were at best useless and fringe but potentially very harmful you leveraged that same international platform to accuse me of medical myopia and not trusting women. You accused me of ridiculing women.
Will Gwyneth Paltrow apologize to Dr Jen Gunter? Let’s not hold our breaths.
Autonomy requires knowledge – beliefs you can rely on, ones that are not merely true but non-accidentally so. If you’re making important decisions based on deceit, on fun (!), on bullshit, you’re not autonomous, and the people helping you do that certainly aren’t helping you seize control. They’re the ones sabotaging your steering wheel.
I would also pointed out that their “Rigorously Tested” category are those therapies “in the world of M.D.’s, D.O.’s, N.D.’s, and Ph.D.’s” — that distinguished list includes osteopaths and naturopaths proudly clutching their bullshit credentials.
If someone said that, it must be OK then.
You can’t be too careful these days, with all sorts of quackery about. And it possibly harnesses the power of the odd bank account as well. That has to be a point in its favour. I might flog my first edition folio of Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist and use the proceeds to invest in some.
Are the (white-moneyed-idle) women who ‘want[…] to empower women in their health choices.’ The same ones who voted for Trump and Roy Moore?
Actually, dear Gwyneth Paltrow can be forgiven for a helluvalot of her New Age goopiness, as her film portrayal of Viola De Lesseps in Shakespeare in Love produced by (choke! caaargh! splutter! hawk! spit!*) Harvey Weinstein was most agreeable. And I am sure Jane Austen would have found it so too, if she had only lived long enough to see it.
“Hey everyone, buy my medicine! It’s amazing!”
…
“Hey everyone, just letting you know I wasn’t serious about the medicine; but then again I can’t imagine how anyone would get the impression that I endorsed its effectiveness.”