Ars Technica's dunk on Gwyneth Paltrow's Netflix series is the best dunk of all

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/17/must-not-see-tv.html

6 Likes

People like Paltrow and Oprah Winfrey baffle me. It’s not enough to be insanely rich and famous and beloved by millions, you also have to be the cleverest person in the world who sees through all the boring old “science” and “medicine” that all the plebes rely on to provide the real stuff.

Whether it’s Dr. Oz or Jenny McCarthy or shoving a jade egg inside you, it all has to be so goddamn clever by half.

Just sell people $100 scented candles and $300 throw pillows and call it a win, you assholes.

45 Likes

Beth Mole’s articles in Ars are always must-read. Her word play, puns and double entendres are priceless and it is almost incidental that she is a brilliant writer and communicator who can instill knowledge without you even realizing you are learning. She is the science teacher we all wish we had!

22 Likes

Just sell people $100 scented candles and $300 throw pillows and call it a win, you assholes.

Hard to imagine a more apt summing up of this. Someone should tattoo it on Goop’s forehead.

6 Likes

GP: “I’m a celebrity, so science is whatever I say it is.”
Too many people: “Hold on, I need to get my credit card.”

Ugh!

14 Likes

I’ll give a pass for this. Even though it’s technically wrong, for many “vagina” has become synonymous with the entire area (see also: nipples and areola).

Everything else though - ugh.

17 Likes

It’s also worth reading Dr. Jen Gunter, a fierce critic of Goop and other quack science. She had a 10-episode docuseries in 2019, I am sure it can be found online. She is on twitter, and worth following.

5 Likes

Not my work - actually from the BB boards years ago

34 Likes

The real reason is also the scariest; because they actually fucking believe this horseshit.

12 Likes

The designer in me wants to remake that graphic with more text justification.

I’ve not watched the series, and have managed to remain on the periphery of knowledge regarding her woo that is “Goop.” That said, I look forward to reading the full attached article, and passing it on to friends and loved ones.

"Now, in the morning you’ll be good as new. Or dead! But the important thing is: we’ll know! "

–Dr. Nick Riviera

7 Likes

She’s a charlatan. Get rid of her. Get rid of her now.

3 Likes

The thing is, Dr. Oz is an actual MD (and apparently a really good one) which just makes his turn to the dark side of woo and pseudoscience all the more baffling.

8 Likes

This line made me laugh out loud.

“The sixth and final episode is about psychics—who are given a bad name by the charlatans of the industry, obviously.”

4 Likes

Perhaps these raspberry ketone tablets and goji berries will explain it for you?

He’s a heart surgeon.

I think it’s become apparent over the years that the more deeply specialized a doctor gets the less connected to reality and their basic practice they become.

Just look at Ben Carson. I wouldn’t trust him to care for a goldfish. But apparently he’s a very good brain surgeon. These guys are essentially focused technicians with no holistic view or applicable GP education profiting off their titles.

26 Likes

So I had a thought: sell vagina scenting dissolvable inserts (I am sure there is a term for vaginal suppository). Make them out of whatever vaginal safe gels and then you can have citrus, gin, or whatever flavour you want.

Obviously less safe and healthy than not sticking stuff up there but probably safer than most of the eggs or steaming or other Goop stuff.

Some slightly less moral run with it. Bacon flavoured /scented vagina now you have your candle match .

1 Like

Paltrow giggles before responding, “The vagina is only the birth canal? Oh! See, I’m getting an anatomy lesson that I didn’t—I thought that the vagina was the whole…”

Now I wonder if she’s ever been to an OB-GYN.

4 Likes

In our household, we like to use the term unchie.

Unchie.

It rhymes with “scrunchie” (and, come to think of it, “munchie” – but also “crunchy”). I am hoping that unchie will catch on in everyday speech. Please, do your part!

4 Likes

She’s up there with Maggie Koerth, who I first discovered when she was writing here, on BoingBoing!

7 Likes