Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

Why I’m Glad Gwyneth Paltrow Didn’t Stump for Clinton

Sisterhood readers will know that I’m mildly obsessed with the question of whether various lifestyle icons will take an anti-Trump (or pro-Trump!) stand. If you’re selling something — particularly something geared towards an audience of white women with conventional tastes — chances are you’re not storming any barricades. Fine. But maybe you’d make a statement of some kind?

On the Cut, Allie Jones picks apart Gwyneth ‘Goop’ Paltrow’s stance or lack thereof when it comes to The New Fascism. As per the Page Six story Jones cites, Paltrow refused to say, after the fact, whom she’d voted for, instead producing very on-brand platitudes. But Jones points out that Paltrow used a pantsuit-centric election-day Instagram photo, and that she’d supported Obama and other Democrats in the past. Moreover, Jones also points to rumors that Paltrow had wanted to host a fundraiser for Clinton, but Clinton didn’t want Paltrow’s support.

Jones suggests that Paltrow’s non-endorsement is either an egotistical grudge (“Gwyneth Paltrow doesn’t forget.”) or a privileged celebrity inhabiting a bubble (“It does not really matter what multimillionaire Gwyneth Paltrow thinks about Trump’s ascendancy; she’s going to be fine regardless.”) I have a different theory: Optics.

Could you imagine the think-pieces we’d be getting if Paltrow had been a Clinton surrogate? Remember the Lena Dunham finger-pointing? Imagine that anti-limousine-liberal (and misogyny-tinged) backlash times a billion. Think of the headlines we were spared! It would have been, ‘Gwyneth Paltrow, Poshest Celebrity Ever, Lost Clinton the Election’. It would have been that and nothing else.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at [email protected]. Her book, The Perils of “Privilege”, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.