A new must-read profile of Jewish actress-turned-lifestyle entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow, “The Big Business of Being Gwyneth Paltrow,” is full of fascinating details about the rise of the “wellness” industry, in general — and that of Goop, Paltrow’s uber successful wellness brand, in particular.
Goop, which launched in 2008, has many, many issues: As Kveller writer Joanna Valente pointed out last year, Goop peddles fake science, and some of their advice is “dangerous to women — and ignores the greater problems our society faces right now. If motherhood’s stresses are dumbed down to what preschool your kid gets into, you’re ignoring systemic poverty — and not trying to help working moms who need more support.”
Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s profile of Paltrow in The New York Times Magazine touches on these issues, revealing how Goop magazine was initially planned to launch with Condé Nast. Paltrow & co. backed out, however, because they didn’t want the magazine — and the Goop doctors and healers represented within — to be fact-checked. Oof. (In September, Goop is finally hiring a fact-checker, which Paltrow calls a “necessary growing pain.”)
In September, Goop, sigh, is hiring a full-time fact-checker. Gwyneth Paltrow chooses to see it as “necessary growing pain.” https://t.co/ysPyBK0M8Z pic.twitter.com/MCAzIDQDD3
— NYT Magazine (@NYTmag) July 25, 2018
However, among oh-so-many juicy tidbits in the piece — at one point, she’s teaching a class at Harvard, yelling “VAGINA! VAGINA!” — what really caught our eyes was when Paltrow reveals the “secret” to her success: While addressing a group of students, Paltrow explains that she likes to hire “smart people with founder DNA” (uh, whatever that means) and — wait for it — working moms.
Yes, you heard that: working moms. Why? Because, Paltrow says, “That bitch will get things done.”
We’re going to willfully ignore her very weird use of “bitch” in reference to working moms (why, Gwyneth, why?!) and just say: Amen!
Header Image via Elena Tubaro on Flickr.
