Feminist "Woo" and What It Is

The New York Times recently published an opinion piece by Elisa Albert and Jennifer Block titled "Who’s Afraid of Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop?" This not only defends Paltrow and her quackery but repeats the standard rhetoric of feminist anti-science. The piece is full of feminist rhetoric about "intuitive measures" and "classic patriarchal devaluation." Absent from the discussion are certain facts like that Paltrow herself is a privileged white female. Albert and Block also ignore that Paltrow and Goop embody the same kind of obscurantism, worship of wealth and celebrity that led to the rise of Trumpism.

It is true that the piece was labeled as opinion. We have to ask ourselves about the decision by the New York Times to publish something like that. The New York Times claims to be the "newspaper of record." Are they going to start publishing articles in support of flat earthism and the anti-vaxxers? Pieces like those make us wonder whether the NY Times is really as credible as it claims to be.