Gwyneth Paltrow is Aloof, So What Are You?

There are days when I feel utterly disconnected from the world. It took an IG feed from Diet Prada for me to learn that Gwyneth Paltrow had starred in an ad for 51 Park, a luxury residential development in Herzliya, Israel. Herzliya is an affluent coastal city north of Tel Aviv, and the project is being marketed as a luxury residential development there. To be clear, 51 Park is not in Gaza. It is in Israel. But precision does not make the geography innocent: parts of present-day Herzliya overlap with or sit near the land of al-Haram, also known as Sidna Ali, a Palestinian Arab village depopulated in 1948.

Lisbon, Portugal

There is misinformation about where the 51 Park residential development is located, and the distinction matters. If our beating of Gwyneth Paltrow is going to be effective, it should at least be accurate.

I have never liked her. I have never hated her. Even before the 51 Park ad controversy broke, I felt she was irrelevant. Her acting skills are not impressive. Would she have even starred in a movie if it had not been for her parents? She is pretty. She is intelligent. I do not think we can deny her intelligence. She has successfully built a brand and a cult-like following around consumption. I am still mystified by how she has not only stayed relevant but also become successful at selling things simply because her name is attached to them.

Gwyneth Paltrow has about the same level of irrelevance as Nicola Peltz in my space. If you are wondering who Nicola Peltz is, I did not know who she was until earlier this year. I rolled my eyes as I swiped through Diet Prada’s IG post. She is entitled to show her support for Israel. While Israel was provoked by Hamas’ brutal attack on October 7, 2023, the continued brutality by Israel for the past thirty-two months can only be described as an inhumane campaign of genocidal violence against Palestinians. Just as she is entitled to her opinion about this historically complex entanglement, I am entitled to mine and to express it.

While I do not care for her, I was perplexed by the rising criticism of her starring in the ad. I get it. Many of us believe we should boycott Israel financially. We should not invest; we should divest and boycott products and services from companies with current Israel-based manufacturing, headquarters, operations, or revenue ties. If our government will not sanction, we should sanction as consumers. After all, do we not have collective power as consumers?

I hope some of you are ready to toss your SodaStream into the trash can. The company is now owned by PepsiCo, but its headquarters, operations, and manufacturing remain connected to Israel. Should we also boycott PepsiCo? Do you like Bamba, Osem, and Bissli snacks, soup mixes, and pantry goods? While owned by Nestlé, Osem remains an Israeli food company with Israeli brands and Israeli production roots. Are you a small business owner, blogger, restaurant owner, freelancer, or creator using Wix for your website? Wix is an Israeli software company headquartered in Tel Aviv and publicly traded in the U.S.; revenue supports an Israel-based company with significant Israel-based operations. So does Fiverr.

I hope some of you are prepared to abandon your jobs after reading this essay so you can stand by your morals, because monday.com is headquartered in Tel Aviv, and revenue supports an Israel-based company even though it is publicly traded in the U.S. I am sure money was one of the motivators for Gwyneth Paltrow to star in the ad, just as money may be a motivator for you to continue working at a company that pays an Israel-based company rather than requesting that your employer use another comparable SaaS platform, such as Asana or Trello, and informing them you will leave otherwise.

Even if you do not directly own stocks from Wix, Fiverr, or monday.com, your mutual funds and retirement portfolios may include them. Are you ready to research and divest? Have you carefully checked your prescriptions to make sure they are not manufactured by Teva, an Israel-based generic pharmaceutical company?

Just to quiet the pushback. Financial inequality cannot be an excuse for lower moral standards; and what are moral standards when they are demanded of others but never exercised by you?

I am not advocating that you divest, boycott, and walk out of your employment to put your moral standards into action; however, we are quick to criticize while our moral standards are only exercised with words rather than in practice.

I've always found Gwyneth Paltrow to be out of touch with the realities of the world, aloof. It is a word that ChatGPT thought softened the description. I do not think she is capable of having empathy for people who are not from her world. I do not know if she is simply evil or insulated in so many layers that she cannot see the world beyond hers. So, I feel like she is aloof.

If we are to criticize her without practicing the moral standards we are imposing on her, what does that make us?

_____

More essays:

Are We Really Living Our Best Life?

Confessions of a Former Poll Worker

All Is Not Fair in Marriage, But Should You At Least Get Some Justice?

ChatGPT, Where Is Your Ethics?

After the Silence: The Unraveling of César Chávez

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