Hold on to your vagina eggs, people. Goop and its medical advisors tried to come for the siteâs critics, and it isnât going over well.
Before now, Gwyneth Paltrow and her lifestyle site simply pressed on in the face of massive criticism over its questionable health and science claims (ahem, âenergy balancingâ stickers). But this week, the site published a three-part post that attempted to rebut the blowback it receives for dubious recommendations and products, including a $66 jade egg women are told to insert in their vaginas, then ârechargeâ with the power of a full moon.
Goop staff and two of its medical contributors, Drs. Steven Gundry and Aviva Romm, wrote what they said is the first in a series of posts defending Goopâs health content. The introduction by âTeam Goopâ sure made it sound like all the siteâs health content is sourced from doctors, but anyone familiar with the jade egg controversy probably recalls the product was recommended by the actress Shiva Rose. The entire post is especially directed at dismissing and scolding Dr. Jennifer Gunter, an OB/GYN who famously slammed Goop on her blog for recommending the eggs and warned they may cause infection.
Paltrow, who recently admitted even she doesnât always totally understand what her site is talking about, shared the post using a â wait for it â Michelle Obama quote.
Like many other things that appear on Goopâs pages, responses to the piece mostly call out Goop for capitalizing on inaccurate and potentially dangerous medical advice for women. And these responses came flooding in like a river of $200 smoothies, from all over the Internet.
Hereâs an (organic) sampling of some of the best takedowns of their piece.
From Vox:
Thereâs a lot more thatâs passive-aggressive in the Goop post. For one, Goop complains that Gunterâs concern about bacterial infections from the jade eggs was âstrangely confident.â Was it more âstrangely confidentâ than saying jade eggs âcan help cultivate sexual energyâ?
The problem is not that the Goop team isnât asking questions. Itâs that theyâre not asking enough questions. Their curiosity should lead them to wonder, âHow can a piece of jade actually affect my energy levels? Whatâs the biological mechanism?â âAre there any studies on safety or efficacy at all? And if there arenât, shouldnât we let readers know?â Even if the jade eggs donât pose any infection hazards, the truth still remains: Thereâs no evidence in support of their benefits.
From Inverse:
Goop presents itself as a lifestyle brand, but it has a financial stake in discrediting medical experts like Gunter who would inform people of the pseudoscience and occasionally dangerous practices driving many of its products.
From Page Six:
Gwyneth Paltrowâs lifestyle brand Goop has clapped back at its haters â a group that includes scientists, doctors, ad execs and many people who simply canât afford to spend nearly $1,000 on toilet wipes.
From Medium:
Dr. Gundryâs response is frankly embarrassing. In science, itâs evidence that counts, and that evidence has to be able to weather challenge after challenge. Gundryâs particular obsession is âlectins,â a chemical naturally found in a lot of healthy foods. He believes that people should avoid lectins and, well, he sounds like kind of a douche (another thing that shouldnât go in the vagina) when talking about it.
There was also a hail storm that rained down like moon dust on social media. Other doctors, scientists and people on Team Gunter blasted Goop on Twitter.
Perhaps the most notable response came from Gunter herself, who wrote the site âmust have very weak ideasâ to let one doctor get under its skin.
She later issued a âlovely, scientific replyâ in which she calls Goopâs piece âdisjointed, inadequately researched, bloated, and mansplainy.â She also asserted her position and qualifications to call Goopâs pieces into question.
âI am not strangely confident about vaginal health, I am appropriately confident because I am the expert,â she wrote, listing her schooling and board certifications. âA woman with no medical training who tells women to walk around with a jade egg in their vaginas all day, a jade egg that they can recharge with the energy of the moon no less, is the strangely confident one.â
We have a feeling Paltrow might want to consciously uncouple with this whole situation, and fast.