Speaker 1: You're listening to Disinformed, a mini series from There Are
Speaker 1: No Girls on the Internet. I'm Bridget Todd, So I
Speaker 1: usually try to avoid calling out specific bad actors who
Speaker 1: spread myths and disinformation because I think of it as
Speaker 1: a systemic problem. It isn't usually about one specific person
Speaker 1: spreading bad information, and I want to make sure we
Speaker 1: keep the focus on the people and institutions with power
Speaker 1: who could actually do something about it, like tech leaders
Speaker 1: and policymakers. But that said, I have someone who I
Speaker 1: kind of think of as my misinformation white whale that
Speaker 1: I just had to talk about today, and that person
Speaker 1: is Gwyneth Paltrow. So here's what's going down. Mecca is
Speaker 1: kind of like Australia's Sephora. It's a huge retailer that
Speaker 1: sells beauty and wellness products. But all was not well
Speaker 1: last week when they announced that Gwyneth Paltrow would be
Speaker 1: the keynote speaker for their virtual summit Mecca Life. Mecca
Speaker 1: customers were not pleased, and many of them took to
Speaker 1: social media to let the brand know. Paltrow and goog
Speaker 1: pedal enormous amounts of misinformation and make money by praying
Speaker 1: on women's insecurities. Surgeon and author Nicki Stamp wrote on
Speaker 1: the events Facebook page, every time we endorse his behavior,
Speaker 1: we allow it to continue. Mecca has always been a
Speaker 1: champion for women, So now, when women are at risk,
Speaker 1: will you step up to the plate and cancel this
Speaker 1: terrible event or will you let Australian women be further
Speaker 1: exposed to her nonsense. Mecca is not backing down. Beauty
Speaker 1: and wellness mean different things to different people. Our schedule
Speaker 1: of events to launch Mecca Life has been carefully curated
Speaker 1: to offer something new, interesting and innovative for everyone, they
Speaker 1: said in a statement online. Mecca turned off the comments
Speaker 1: on their social media posts, which is always how you
Speaker 1: know stuff that's gotten really tense. Now, even though I
Speaker 1: loved her as Margot Tannenbaum from The Royal Tannon Bombs,
Speaker 1: what what if Paltrow was doing is really gross and
Speaker 1: we hardly ever point out how gross it actually is.
Speaker 1: Because she's rich and famous with her wellness brand Goop,
Speaker 1: Paltrow has preyed on women's insecurities to make money by
Speaker 1: peddling so called cures that are dubious at best and
Speaker 1: dangerous at worse. Here's a very short list of some
Speaker 1: of the nonsense she's peddled on her site. She said
Speaker 1: that fasting and herbs could help alleviate the symptoms of COVID,
Speaker 1: and eventually the National Health Service had to ask her
Speaker 1: to stop spreading COVID misinformation. A piece on Goop says
Speaker 1: that Gwyneth swears by a practice called grounding or earthing,
Speaker 1: which is basically just walking around barefoot outside to cure depression,
Speaker 1: which I find so offensive and I think anybody who's
Speaker 1: ever suffered her many kind of mental health issue probably
Speaker 1: would too. She promotes the healing powers of national steaming,
Speaker 1: which gynecologist Dr Jen Gunter, one of my favorite medical
Speaker 1: misinformation slayers, points out in her book The Vagina Bible
Speaker 1: has No Benefit, promotes a serious misunderstanding of anatomy and physiology,
Speaker 1: and has the potential to harm. So in short, it's
Speaker 1: a scape him. Not only that, but it could actually
Speaker 1: hurt your vagina. A woman in Canada had to be
Speaker 1: treated for second degree burns to her cervix and national
Speaker 1: membranes after trying to steam her own v Please do
Speaker 1: not do that to your vagina out and never forget
Speaker 1: that when it first got into the wellness world, by
Speaker 1: selling jade eggs for people to shove up their vaginas
Speaker 1: for a whopping seventy dollars a pop under the completely
Speaker 1: untrue claim that doing so could help balance your hormones.
Speaker 1: And this is really my thing. As you can probably
Speaker 1: see from When's obsession with our vaginas, her brand is
Speaker 1: clearly about convincing women that something is wrong with our bodies.
Speaker 1: And Goop is a for profit company, meaning she makes
Speaker 1: money off of trying to convince us that we need
Speaker 1: to do whatever nonsense thing or buy whatever nonsense products
Speaker 1: she's selling to fix it. It's not just dangerous, it's
Speaker 1: also wildly anti feminist. Your body is fine, Your vagina
Speaker 1: is fine, trust me, it does not need to be steamed.
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, this is not about me
Speaker 1: not liking woo woo wellness stuff. Honestly, I wish I
Speaker 1: could say I was too cool to be taken by
Speaker 1: useless tincture as I see on Instagram ads like I
Speaker 1: put mushroom Anthogin's in my tea every morning to boost
Speaker 1: my focus. Does it work? Probably not. But there's a
Speaker 1: big difference between being open to alternative wellness treatments and
Speaker 1: straight up profiting off of misinformation, and that's what Gwyneth
Speaker 1: Paltrow is doing. In addition to her editorial website Goop
Speaker 1: and selling merchandise, Gwen has a Netflix show called The
Speaker 1: Goop Lab and an all inclusive luxury cruise called Goop
Speaker 1: at Sea, which promises guests the opportunity to engage with
Speaker 1: Gwyneth Paltrow and Q and A's with their very best healers.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how much it costs, but I
Speaker 1: can just tell by looking at the website it's probably
Speaker 1: not cheap. So Gwen has turned to misinformation into a
Speaker 1: huge empire. But women deserve better than having someone pedal
Speaker 1: lies about our bodies to make a quick buck. And honestly,
Speaker 1: I am so happy to see so many women in
Speaker 1: Australia making their voices heard and say they don't want
Speaker 1: to support a brand like Mecca that would associate with
Speaker 1: someone who is basically just a very well dressed scammer.
Speaker 1: If a brand is okay with the kind of bs
Speaker 1: that Gwenna SELLI that brand should not be considered reputable.
Speaker 1: We deserve better than someone making money off align to
Speaker 1: us and calling an empowerment just because Gwyneth Paltrow was
Speaker 1: an A list celebrity who exudes a kind of unattainable
Speaker 1: yet effortless glow. Doesn't mean that she's still not just
Speaker 1: a scammer. And I hope what we're seeing in Australia
Speaker 1: means today is today that people stop tolerating it and
Speaker 1: start calling it out for what it is. Great news, Tan, goodie, fam.
Speaker 1: We won a Shorty Award for Best Podcast Mini Series.
Speaker 1: Major shout outs to my amazing and producers. Sorry Jonathan
Speaker 1: and Mike, And not to get too sappy, but I
Speaker 1: want to genuinely thank you, Yes you person listening in
Speaker 1: the car, or listening in the gym, or listening on
Speaker 1: the trainer or whatever. Thank you to everyone who listens, subscribed,
Speaker 1: told a friend, left a review, sent me an email,
Speaker 1: tweeted at me, or just said this is an okay podcast,
Speaker 1: silently to themselves as they listened. All of it. All
Speaker 1: of it means so much to me. It is so
Speaker 1: important that we center women and marginalize people's experiences when
Speaker 1: we talk about the Internet. And it has been a
Speaker 1: blast doing it with all of you. I can't tell
Speaker 1: you how much I appreciate it, and I really thank you.
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this podcast, please help us grow by subscribing.
Speaker 1: Got a story about an interesting thing in tech, or
Speaker 1: just want to say hi. We'd love to hear from
Speaker 1: you at Hello at tangoi dot com. Disinformed is brought
Speaker 1: to you by There Are No Girls on the Internet.
Speaker 1: It's a production of iHeart Radio and Unbossed creative Jonathan
Speaker 1: Strickland as our executive producer. Tary Harrison is our supervising producer,
Speaker 1: and engineer. Michael Lamato is our contributing producer. I'm your
Speaker 1: host Bridget Toad. For more great podcasts, check out the
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