I am a born-again Gwyneth Paltrow fan.
Looking back on life before I listened to the Goop podcast for the first time, I remember thinking Gwyneth was not good enough for Chris Martin. I agreed with those who found her elitist and ignorant. I was annoyed by her in a way that I could never put my finger on.
Of course, there’s such irony in criticizing Gwyneth for her unattainable lifestyle while spending precious moments of your own life deciding where you fall on the spectrum of opinion about her. There is nothing ironic, however, about a Times feature on her that was published last year.
Specifically, the part of the interview where Gwyneth said that “start ups are full of feminine energy.”
Paraphrasing, with the intent to do so accurately, Gwyneth was stating that a start-up company is inherently more feminine than a well-established corporation, because start-ups embody feminine qualities: “it’s collaborative, it’s emotional, it’s passionate, it’s instinctual.”
I paused after reading that sentence to mull it over.
…which is good. Our culture hinges too often on immediacy — an effect of Wi-Fi connections and breaking news, I’d reckon. There’s a lost art to not having a knee-jerk reaction to something — “yes” “no” “good” “bad” — and instead sticking a pin in it, letting it sit, and seeing what you come up with. And honestly, good on Gwyneth for coming up with an idea disruptive enough that I felt I had to ruminate on.
That article was written a year ago and still, I find myself thinking about it every now and again. Since my initial reading, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m about 97% sure that Gwyneth’s statement about start-ups and feminine energy was quite controversial.
Gender identities have evolved. I didn’t think it was fair in 2019, to call collaboration, passion, and emotion “feminine qualities.” Aren’t we moving away from that? Actually, isn’t Gwyneth herself, the mogul of a million-dollar company, an incendiary to the very idea?
You could make the argument in most academic settings, that some of those traits have traditionally been branded as “feminine” — by media, literature, and art.
But also, start-up energy is such a modern concept. I guess I feel like it’s weird that Gwyneth used such archaic gender roles to illustrate what day-to-day life in such a contemporary business is like. But I understand what she was getting at. So I guess her communication was effective, at the end of the day.
So here’s to you, Gwyneth. Again, you’ve captivated my attention — this time, long enough that I actually sat down and wrote a think piece on something she said over a year ago.