The Goop Lab is a frustrating show.
In each episode, you are graced with 30 minutes of generalised wishy-washy statements encouraging the ‘optimisation of self’, health and wellness treatments that can apparently cure everything from anxiety to nerve damage and a whole lot of crying.
They cry about emotional journeys, family issues or just because they stared at each other in the eyes for too long. I’m starting to wonder if Goop employees are paid by the tear.
I’m not a complete sourpuss, the episodes are not wholly terrible (maybe just 80% terrible). And being the founder of the newly opened Vagina Museum in London, I was particularly intrigued about the episode on female sexuality.
The episode featured the absolute legend of second wave feminism and sex positivity, Betty Dodson, the woman who single-handedly made the Hitachi Magic Wand possibly the most iconic vibrator on earth.
They discussed how sexual pleasure for women – admittedly in a very cisnormative way – is often shrouded in shame causing many to not seek the sexual pleasure they desire.
There were images of a hugely diverse array of vulvas, something sister Netflix show Sex Education would undoubtedly approve of. When we watched the episode down at the museum office, the staff cheered as we were treated to pictures of flappy labia and hairy genitals galore – a sight so rarely seen on our screens.
But that’s where my enjoyment began and ended. Betty Dodson can save a lot of things from being awful – but Goop is not one of them.
Let us not forget the time they had to settle a $145,000 lawsuit for a jade egg they falsely claimed could cure uterine prolapse. Or that they are selling vagina candles with the impression that women’s vulvas smell like bergamot.
It came as a huge shock to me when Dodson had to explain to Gwyneth Paltrow that the vulva is the external part of the genitalia, not the vagina – and the Goop founder gasped and revealed she thought the vagina was the word for the whole thing.
I personally don’t mind when people don’t know the right words for our bodies because society as a whole doesn’t want us to learn about our vulvas. But if anyone in the world should know the correct terminology, it’s Gwyneth.
The moment that really made Goop the ‘vagina wellness brand’ was a few years ago, when they published an article promoting yoni steaming at a Californian spa and the actress wrote:
‘You sit on what is essentially a mini-throne, and a combination of infrared and mugwort steam cleanses your uterus, et al’.
This rightly prompted outrage from the medical world. Your uterus categorically does not need cleaning. If it were ‘dirty’ in any kind of way, you would be seriously ill and likely in a hospital. The entire concept of yoni steaming relies on an old patriarchal myth that women are dirty and need to be controlled and cleaned for their own good.
Yoni steaming has gotten completely out of hand in recent years because of the platform that Goop gave it. A casual search on Instagram brings forth smaller practitioners who claim the practice can cure anything from infertility to fibroids to low libido. Which it absolutely doesn’t. Just in case you were wondering.
Yoni steaming is not required and can actually harm you with scolds, skin irritation and even infections.
I have no problem if people want to engage with energy healers, crystals or any manner of pseudoscientific methods – as long as they understand that it is not a replacement for evidence-based medicine and are informed of the limitations.
Nor am I surprised that people are turning towards alternative healing. It often feels like modern medicine isn’t serving us, especially women – Goop’s primary target audience.
Women are often ignored and belittled by doctors and studies show that our pain is taken less seriously, with women less likely to be prescribed opioid medicines for acute pain and have to endure longer waiting times at A&E to get help.
Five times more research is done into erectile dysfunction, which affects 19% of men, than into premenstrual syndrome, which affects 90% of women, according to studies.
It feels good to have someone listen and pay attention to us – even if that person is a medium claiming to be communicating with our dead grandfather on the other side.
Some of these methods may actually be helpful, too – sometimes all you need for a powerful emotional experience is the permission to be vulnerable. I would cry too, if I was lying on the floor doing breathing exercises, having a quiet moment for the first time in six weeks away from buzzing phones and laundry.
What Goop does so worryingly, even dangerously, is to blur the distinction between what is a relaxing activity and what is medicinal.
It presents its subjects almost completely without skepticism or challenge and very few questions are asked about the validity of claims made in its episodes.
And when such things are presented without question, it can be alluring to eschew medicine that can actually help you and stop taking prescribed medications and therapy in favour of forking out $175 for a yoni steam at a California spa that tells you it will protect your uterus from ulcers and tumours – while in the same sentence admit they have no FDA approval.
What we really need is a healthcare system that will actually listen to women when we tell them we’re in pain and doctors who won’t dismiss our concerns.
People like to argue that we should ignore the Goop empire and their associated quacks, to not fuel the controversy and pseudoscience.
But Paltrow has power, wealth and fame which means people are going to listen to her whether we write opinion pieces or not.
If we ignore her, she goes unchallenged and it legitimises potentially dangerous claims. Goop may not challenge the people in their glossy Santa Monica offices, but we should.
MORE: We’ll never achieve ‘true wellness’ if we’re all too hungry to get the job done
MORE: Vagina is not a dirty word – so say it
source https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/30/not-surprised-women-turn-goop-lab-advice-12136539/
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