Do We Need to Talk About Gwyneth.
Processing our collective GOOP exhaustion, plus The Whale and soda permission slips for kid birthday parties.
The GOOP of it all
ICYMI, Gwyneth Paltrow gave an interview where she details the total lack of calories in her day along with several other wildly disordered eating and wellness habits. I’m not going to link to the original here, because it’s honestly dangerous and also exactly what you think it is. But TikTok is now swimming in stitches and critiques.
So I asked (on Instagram bc I’m still barely TikTok fluent) if this is the type of Diet Culture Event that I am obligated to write about and thankfully, 2/3 of folks there told me please no, stop, we don’t want more Gwyneth Hot Takes, we all know she’s terrible and more handwringing about it is probably exactly what she wants. (The entire interview does feel very deliberately dialed to the “what will make the Internet go wild” frequency.)
So phew! I have no think piece in the works for you on this (I do have a piece on capsule wardrobes in the works that I am MUCH MORE EXCITED ABOUT). But enough of you also said, please do talk about this, that I thought, well, that’s why Substack/I invented the Friday Thread. If you have Gwyneth baggage to process, here’s your safe space.
And I will offer one quick hot take, which is: As disturbing as I find Gwyneth’s living out loud of her orthorexic values, I am also aware that when men talk this way about food —and they do—people call them intense geniuses and bold visionaries. Do with that what you will.
Oh and I did appreciate this from Anna Sweeney, RD:
Friday Links and Recs
This week was also very stupid because of the Oscars (not the Michelle Yeoh glory, that was exquisite and important and you will cry watching that reel). But stupid because of The Whale winning two Oscars including best makeup artist and all I'm going to say about that is: Please read
and .
In more cheerful news, I was on the Eat The Rules podcast, talking about the influence of social media on how we feed our kids, and how to invite your child to think critically about the messages they’re receiving from a young age from movies like The Whale and people like Gwyneth Paltrow. Listen here.
A birthday party in which only children with parental permission slips or prior verbal consent could have soda happened and it’s not an isolated incident.