Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop could be about to get a bit less Goop-y, with the introduction of a full-time fact-checker for the website and magazine's notoriously dubious health claims.
Speaking to the New York Times, the actor turned businesswoman said she viewed the new staff member, who will start in September, as a "necessary growing pain" for her lifestyle and wellness brand.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop could be about to get a bit less Goop-y.
Since its launch in 2008, Goop has become known for publishing some health and wellness advice that is not exactly peer reviewed, as well as including an assortment of pseudo-scientific products in its annual Christmas gift guide.
Last year the brand marketed a $US66 ($89) "jade egg", which is designed to be inserted into the vagina and held, as a form of pelvic floor strength training. Gynaecologists criticised the endorsement, saying that putting a rock in your vagina seemed unlikely to do anything other than put you at risk of toxic-shock syndrome and infection.
Prior to that, there was the great “vaginal steaming” controversy of 2015, where Paltrow, after having her vagina steam cleaned at a spa, claimed the process was an "energetic release – not just a steam douche – that balances female hormone levels". Gynaecologists were similarly unimpressed, stating that there is no way steaming your vagina can affect your hormones and the vagina is perfectly capable of keeping itself healthy without the aid of an expensive spa treatment.
At the brand’s inaugural health summit last year, information was given about leech facials and crystal therapy, while attendees were able to have aura photographs taken of themselves to capture their "radiant energy".
In October, the brand was awarded the “Rusty Razor” award by UK magazine The Skeptic for "the most audacious pseudo science".
Speaking to the New York Times, Paltrow said the need to prove the truth of the claims made by the brand was one of the reasons why she parted with publisher Condé Nast in 2017 after the second issue of Goop magazine, instead deciding to self-publish.
“We’re never making statements,” she said of the questionable factual basis of her content, after previously lamenting that Condé Nast had "a lot of rules".
The hire of a fact-checker does seem to be part of a tide of change at Goop.
Earlier this year, the website began labelling health articles as "supported by science" or – in an odd false dichotomy – "for your enjoyment". Articles about the jade egg on the website now describe it as an "ancient modality".
The identity of Goop's fact-checker has not been announced, although Twitter users were quick to suggest San Francisco ob-gyn Dr Jen Gunter, who has made a name for herself fact-checking Goop on her blog and in columns for the New York Times.
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