Actress and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow is interviewed live on stage during the 2019 SXSW Conference and Festival at the Austin Convention Center on March 11 2019 in Austin, Texas, the US. Picture: WIREIMAGE/JIM BENNETT
At the March 9 “In Goop Health” conference in New York’s Seaport district, women in expensive athleisurewear signed liability releases absolving the company of responsibility should the “services, products, or equipment involved in the event” require later medical treatment. It’s the second time the conference has been held in New York.
Paltrow herself took the stage in New York with Caroline Myss, a self-proclaimed “medical intuitive” gifted with “biospiritual consciousness.” This condition, she told the 600-person crowd, allows her to sense illness and disease in people before they have been diagnosed by a physician. “I have friends with chronic issues that western medicine isn’t healing,” nodded Paltrow.
But the company has faced criticism for promoting health products that lack evidence of medical benefit. Last year, Goop agreed to pay $145,000 to settle allegations it made unverified health claims about $66 jade egg and rose quartz “eggs” meant to be inserted into one’s genitals to enhance sexual energy and balance hormones, and the drinkable “Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend,” which was said to prevent depression.
“There’s an idea that women are, at our source out of our reproductive abilities, hysterical,” said Goop chief content officer Elise Loehnen. “Women’s experiences are real and we’re validating them.” Leigh Winters, who is launching her own aromatherapy skin-care line, trekked from San Francisco to New York for the networking opportunities. “I’ve been trading numbers with PR people,” she said. “It’s an expensive day, but it’s a potent crowd and you never know who you’re going to meet.”