It’s totally one of my fav things EVER when Gwyneth Paltrow tries to play the oppressed martyr. Poor rich me, with my $400 hand towels and my $300 a week eating plan! No one knows my pain! It’s really brilliant to witness. Her latest foray into bitching about just how done wrong she is came during an interview with TIME Magazine, in which she was asked her thoughts on the sites launched by fellow lifestyle gurus like Reese Witherspoon, Jessica Alba and Blake Lively. Now, this is a pretty natural question to ask, given that Goopy here was the first one to start the whole ‘rich white actress telling people how to live their lives’ trend years back. But what does Gwyneth think? MISOGYNY!
There are several sites started by successful actresses. Do you look at these sites?
This is a very interesting question, because I wonder if George Clooney would be asked about Puff Daddy’s ancillary liquor line. I’m fascinated how the media in particular are so confounded by entrepreneurial women doing something outside of their box. Jessica [Alba], especially, who’s a friend of mine—our businesses could not be more different. There’s not a lifestyle piece to her business. The fundamentals of our sites are very different. Reese launched—our businesses have similarities, but hers has retail. People are grasping at straws to tie us together and I get it, because it makes a good story, but I’m slightly offended by this sort of generalization that happens with myself and Jessica and Reese and Blake. Yes, there are similarities. But there aren’t stories in TIME written saying, “Wow, look at Arnold Schwarzenegger, who did x, y, and z!”
This isn’t an original observation, though, that there are various actresses whose sites launched within a short span of time.
I wrestle with it. I feel there’s something slightly misogynistic about it. This is a common theme. I think Reese and Jessica and I—I don’t know Blake Lively, and I don’t know if Jessica and Reese know each other—I’m friends with both of them and I speak to both of them and I want to do everything I can to support their businesses. I’m not articulating it well, because I haven’t completely worked out what it is, but I feel very proud when Jessica was on the cover of Forbes. I think that’s amazing. You can quantitatively say, “Look what she’s done, she’s been able to conceive of a business and scale it to that size, in that amount of time.” But we have such different businesses.
I mean, the bullshit here is off the charts. While I agree that Jessica’s business isn’t really anything like Goop, both Preserve and Draper James are basically carbon copies with their own regional schtick added on. It’s natural to make the comparison, given that they’re all from very privileged backgrounds, peddling “artisan” shite that no one needs. That’s not sexism, that’s just having two eyes and a working brain.
Get over yourself, Gwyneth.