Netflix’s ‘The Goop Lab’ could end up selling pseudoscience in a trendy package to gullible audiences
The fictional International Sophisticate magazine from ‘The Good Place’ may measure elegance on a scale of Gwyneth Paltrows, but in real life, the 47-year-old actress is into some really unfancy (although packaged as fancy) dangerous stuff. In a six-part series called 'The Goop Lab', Paltrow will explore in each episode, according to a press release, the “boundary-pushing theories that can transform our mental, physical, and emotional wellness”.
These include psychedelics, cold therapy, orgasms, energy healing, and psychic mediums. In the trailer for the show, an employee of Paltrow explains, “What we try to do at Goop is to explore ideas that may seem out there or too scary.”
And scary they can be. Speaking to Bustle, Dr. Jennifer Gunter, an obstetrician-gynecologist, and author of ‘The Vagina Bible’, who has been a known critic of both Paltrow and her wellness brand Goop, said: “This looks like classic Goop: some fine information presented alongside unscientific, unproven, potentially harmful therapies for attention, with the disclaimer of ‘We're only having conversations!’”
For example, cold therapy, something that is being advocated on the show, does not cure all the things people would tell you it cures like Alzheimer’s disease, fibromyalgia, migraines, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, stress, anxiety, chronic pain and more. In fact, according to the FDA, whole body cryotherapy (WBC) as it is usually known, can potentially cause more harm than it claims to cure.
So yes, Goop is full of pseudoscience. But in an increasingly Dadaist world, where absurd and often nihilistically-motivated trends have taken control, is pseudoscience not the natural progression?
Even if ironically so, we have seen the millennial frenzy over the consumption of Tide-pods. We have witnessed people trying to swallow copious amounts of cinnamon powder. We have seen teenagers try to snort condoms. And we have, for good measure, seen people expressing their desire to drink “bone juice” -- a dark red liquid that was discovered inside a 6-foot-tall, 2000-year-old granite sarcophagus, discovered in Alexandria, Egypt, in 2018.
One can claim that these desires and consumptions were sporadic at best, and even if dangerous, they weren’t taken up in any kind of seriousness. And, of course, they were influenced by the peer pressure of the wilfully-absurd spaces on the internet.
They may be the result of the disillusioned youth taking refuge under the patently meaningless in the face of modern societal, political and economic horrors. But they are symptomatic of a bigger problem.
We have observed the rise of astrology in the last couple of years. Even if through memes and jokes, and even if unironic in appearance, the resurgence of astrology is telling of one important thing: people are, in general, in the worst shape right now, in the context of mental health.
According to the American Psychological Association's survey data, since 2014, millennials have been the most stressed generation, and also the generation most likely to say their stress has increased in the past year since 2010.
Astrology can be viewed as both wellness and pseudoscience. It's a coping mechanism, and it may just act as a gateway for more dangerous forms of pseudoscience.
According to a 2016 trend report titled 'Unreality': “We are increasingly turning to unreality as a form of escape and a way to search for other kinds of freedom, truth, and meaning... What emerges is an appreciation for magic and spirituality, the knowingly unreal, and the intangible aspects of our lives that defy big data and the ultra-transparency of the web.”
And it seems that Paltrow, through Goop, has tried to tap into this very desire to embrace the spiritual and the pseudoscientific. Of course, one mustn't forget that they have already gotten into trouble over stuff like this.
In 2018, Goop settled a $145,000 lawsuit with California prosecutors over allegedly unfounded medical claims attached to some of its products, including stone eggs meant to be inserted into the vagina. Goop had advertised that the "Jade and Rose Quartz eggs" -- egg-shaped stones designed to be inserted vaginally and left in for various lengths of time -- could balance hormones, regulate menstrual cycles, prevent uterine prolapse, and increase bladder control.
Goop had also advertised that their "Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend", a blend of essential oils, could help prevent depression. One can always ask why consuming Tide-pods is any different from say consuming psychedelics, especially when the latter is done in the name of wellness, while the former is just part of an internet trend?
One can choose to take a stand and defend the dangers of Goop as being overstated. And one can also simply suggest that people would always research before they bought wellness products (especially those as expensive as from Goop).
Try as you might, however, it is undeniable that both Paltrow and Goop are selling dangerous ideas to an audience that may just be too vulnerable to know better at this point. It's obvious what Paltrow's motivations are from something she says in the trailer: "We’re here one time, one life. How can we really milk the s**t out of this?”
'The Goop Lab' will debut on Netflix January 24.