Gwyneth Paltrow has created an empire out of selling a wacky, white-washed version of reality, and the stuff that comes out of her mouth and business often feels like some kind of farcical parody. But it is not.
While some things, like the (ridiculous) Goop Holiday Gift Guide, seem relatively harmless, Gwyneth’s recent comments about Yoga are something else entirely.
Pretty much, in a feature with Wall Street Journal, Gwyneth Paltrow took credit for the global popularisation of Yoga. People are not happy.
Dear Gwyneth Paltrow, You have a "job" because certain brown people invented yoga thousands of years ago. Very Truly Yours, Certain Brown People@GwynethPaltrow
— ak$cientist (@AartiKuverPhD) December 5, 2018
Her comments in WSJ are actually nauseating.
“Forgive me if this comes out wrong,” Paltrow continues, “but I went to do a yoga class in L.A. recently and the 22-year-old girl behind the counter was like, ‘Have you ever done yoga before?’ And literally I turned to my friend, and I was like, ‘You have this job because I’ve done yoga before.’ ”
My brown self did not know that Gwyneth Paltrow invented yoga. This is Peak White Nonsense. pic.twitter.com/WSeaVVTPwr
— Tarin Gill (@TarinGill) December 4, 2018
To recap, Yoga was invented thousands of years ago, in India, and was popularised a long time ago. All credit is due to the people of India who shared their sacred practice.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s comments erase that history and honestly, make her sound really silly and arrogant.
The world: "brown people made yoga…"
Gwyneth Paltrow: pic.twitter.com/KS5X1pSaKI
— Nobody want yall broke ass, stank dick… (@AForAnarchy) December 5, 2018
Elsewhere in the feature, she also appears to take credit for the invention of marketing? She calls it “contextual commerce” but it is described as targeting Goop customers with newsletters, blog posts, print magazines, conferences, events, podcasts and Instagram ads. So…marketing.
“We sort of made it up. It’s the why of why you’re buying something,” says Paltrow. “It’s really about finding things that we love, whether it’s a restaurant down the street here or a face product or whatever, and we write about why we love it, and then it converts really well.”
So there you go, Gwyneth Paltrow is a visionary. Apparently.