There Are No Girls on the Internet - DISINFORMED： Gwyneth Paltrow is a scammer

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00:00:49.960 I survived nine months in captivity,

00:00:52.860 And I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

00:00:58.680 I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files.

00:01:02.260 Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced.

00:01:09.820 These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

00:01:13.640 Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:01:21.260 If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home.

00:01:27.400 Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse.

00:01:35.640 Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions.

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00:01:51.260 you're listening to disinformed a mini-series from there are no girls on the internet i'm bridget todd

00:02:00.400 so i usually try to avoid calling out specific bad actors who spread myths and disinformation

00:02:09.240 because i think of it as a systemic problem it isn't usually about one specific person

00:02:14.740 spreading bad information and i want to make sure we keep the focus on the people and institutions

00:02:19.160 with power who could actually do something about it, like tech leaders and policy makers.

00:02:24.320 But that said, I have someone who I kind of think of as my misinformation white whale

00:02:30.480 that I just had to talk about today.

00:02:33.060 And that person is Gwyneth Paltrow.

00:02:36.860 So here's what's going down.

00:02:38.620 Mecca is kind of like Australia's Sephora.

00:02:41.580 It's a huge retailer that sells beauty and wellness products.

00:02:44.680 But all was not well last week when they announced that Gwyneth Paltrow would be the

00:02:48.700 keynote speaker for their virtual summit, Mecca Life. Mecca customers were not pleased, and many

00:02:54.020 of them took to social media to let the brand know. Paltrow and Goop peddle enormous amounts

00:02:58.980 of misinformation and make money by preying on women's insecurities. Surgeon and author Nikki 1.00

00:03:04.400 Stamp wrote on the event's Facebook page, every time we endorse this behavior, we allow it to

00:03:09.660 continue. Mecca has always been a champion for women, so now when women are at risk, will you 0.87

00:03:15.200 step up to the plate and cancel this terrible event, or will you let Australian women be further

00:03:19.700 exposed to her nonsense? Mecca is not backing down. Beauty and wellness mean different things 0.88

00:03:25.940 to different people. Our schedule of events to launch Mecca Life has been carefully curated

00:03:30.180 to offer something new, interesting, and innovative for everyone, they said in a statement online.

00:03:35.920 Mecca turned off the comments on their social media posts, which is always how you know stuff

00:03:39.800 that's gotten really tense. Now, even though I loved her as Margot Tannenbaum from the Royal

00:03:44.760 Tannenbaums, what Gwyneth Paltrow is doing is really gross. And we hardly ever point out how 0.71

00:03:50.780 gross it actually is because she's rich and famous. With her wellness brand Goop, Paltrow 1.00

00:03:56.000 has preyed on women's insecurities to make money by peddling so-called cures that are dubious at 1.00

00:04:01.540 best and dangerous at worst. Here's a very short list of some of the nonsense she's peddled on her 0.98

00:04:07.080 site. She said that fasting and herbs could help alleviate the symptoms of COVID, and eventually

00:04:12.520 the National Health Service had to ask her to stop spreading COVID misinformation. A piece on Goop

00:04:18.200 says that Gwyneth swears by a practice called grounding or earthing, which is basically just

00:04:23.180 walking around barefoot outside, to cure depression, which I find so offensive, and I think anybody

00:04:29.600 who's ever suffered from any kind of mental health issue probably would too. She promotes the healing

00:04:34.460 powers of vaginal steaming, which gynecologist Dr. Jen Gunter, one of my favorite medical 1.00

00:04:39.220 misinformation slayers, points out in her book The Vagina Bible has no benefit, promotes a serious 0.75

00:04:45.080 misunderstanding of anatomy and physiology, and has the potential to harm. So in short, it's a scam. 1.00

00:04:52.500 Not only that, but it could actually hurt your vagina. A woman in Canada had to be treated for 1.00

00:04:57.760 second-degree burns to her cervix and vaginal membranes after trying to steam her own V. 1.00

00:05:03.000 Please do not do that to your vagina. 1.00

00:05:05.200 Ouch. 1.00

00:05:06.440 And never forget that when it first got into the wellness world, 0.99

00:05:09.360 by selling jade eggs for people to shove up their vaginas for a whopping $70 a pop,

00:05:14.780 under the completely untrue claim that doing so could help balance your hormones. 0.90

00:05:20.040 And this is really my thing. 1.00

00:05:22.220 As you can probably see from Gwen's obsession with our vaginas, 1.00

00:05:25.240 her brand is clearly about convincing women that something is wrong with our bodies. 0.97

00:05:30.160 And Goop is a for-profit company, 0.95

00:05:32.060 meaning she makes money off of trying to convince us 0.94

00:05:34.540 that we need to do whatever nonsense thing 1.00

00:05:36.180 or buy whatever nonsense product she's selling to fix it. 1.00

00:05:39.480 It's not just dangerous, it's also wildly anti-feminist.

00:05:43.160 Your body is fine. 1.00

00:05:44.920 Your vagina is fine. 1.00

00:05:46.920 Trust me, it does not need to be steamed. 1.00

00:05:49.680 And don't get me wrong,

00:05:50.740 this is not about me not liking woo-woo wellness stuff.

00:05:54.740 Honestly, I wish I could say I was too cool

00:05:56.800 to be taken by useless tinctures I see on Instagram

00:05:59.400 ads. Like, I put mushroom amphigens in my tea every morning to boost my focus. Does it work?

00:06:05.960 Probably not. But there's a big difference between being open to alternative wellness treatments

00:06:11.260 and straight up profiting off of misinformation. And that's what Gwyneth Paltrow is doing.

00:06:16.720 In addition to her editorial website Goop and selling merchandise, Gwen has a Netflix show

00:06:21.400 called The Goop Lab and an all-inclusive luxury cruise called Goop Etsy, which promises guests

00:06:28.260 the opportunity to engage with Gwyneth Paltrow and Q&As with their very best healers. And I don't

00:06:33.760 know how much it costs, but I can just tell by looking at the website, it's probably not cheap. 0.97

00:06:37.680 So Gwen has turned misinformation into a huge empire. But women deserve better than having 1.00

00:06:43.160 someone peddle lies about our bodies to make a quick buck. And honestly, I am so happy to see

00:06:48.460 so many women in Australia making their voices heard and saying they don't want to support a 0.98

00:06:52.680 brand like Mecca that would associate with someone who is basically just a very well-dressed scammer.

00:06:57.580 If a brand is okay with the kind of BS that Gwen is selling, that brand should not be considered reputable.

00:07:04.480 We deserve better than someone making money off of lying to us and calling it empowerment.

00:07:09.520 Just because Gwenith Paltrow is an A-list celebrity who exudes a kind of unattainable yet effortless glow doesn't mean that she's still not just a scammer.

00:07:18.380 And I hope what we're seeing in Australia means today is today, that people stop tolerating it and start calling it out for what it is. 0.96

00:07:28.060 Great news, Tangodi fam.

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00:08:29.900 Disinformed is brought to you by There Are No Girls on the Internet.

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00:08:35.480 Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer.

00:08:37.620 Tari Harrison is our supervising producer and engineer.

00:08:40.600 Michael Amato is our contributing producer.

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00:08:56.420 If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home.

00:09:03.460 Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks Pride

00:09:08.340 and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting

00:09:12.640 the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk

00:09:17.260 creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. Listen to Pro

00:09:22.460 Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:09:27.760 I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive

00:09:34.420 what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files.

00:09:40.120 Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled,

00:09:45.840 and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

00:09:51.040 Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:09:59.380 I'm Nick Turturro. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, The Longest Yard, or Spike Lee's Black Klansman.

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There Are No Girls on the Internet - May 14, 2021

DISINFORMED： Gwyneth Paltrow is a scammer

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