As feminism has empowered women to become the best version of themselves, many Hollywood stars and other famous people have started to encourage their counterparts with different practices to achieve this goal. Recently, Gwyneth Paltrow's website, Goop, started selling jade eggs for women's vaginas.
The website is created to be the ultimate beauty guide, according to the Goop editors, and Paltrow created her own online lifestyle magazine in an attempt to help women everywhere achieve their true potential.
Jade Eggs, A Practice For Empowering Women
However, while the jade eggs are not the first controversial product on the website, the Goop readers started to seriously document it, hence the massive editorial space dedicated to the news of jade eggs.
"Yoni eggs, once the strictly guarded secret of Chinese concubines and royalty in antiquity, harness the power of energy work, crystal healing, and a Kegel-like physical practice. Jade eggs' power to cleanse and clear make them ideal for detox, too," mentions the product description on Goop.
The website also features an interview with the jade egg guru Shiva Rose, where the health activist promotes the benefits of wearing a jade egg.
"The word for our womb, yoni, translates as 'sacred place', and it is a sacred place-it's where many women access their intuition, their power, and their wisdom. It's this inner sanctum that we can access when it's not in use creating life. I see it as a place to celebrate ourselves as sexual, powerful beings, or as mothers, not a place to carry negative or un-dealt-with emotions," Rose noted.
The egg is also supposed to enhance women's sexuality, and make them feel and be perceived as more attractive and appealing to the opposite sex.
Jade Eggs Are Unhealthy
However, while many women have turned to ancient practices to access their inner beauty, scientific opinions tend to strongly disagree, saying that not only does it fail to bring any benefits, but it could also produce infections of the womb.
"For one, this is a porous rock you're putting in there, not medical-grade silicon, and who knows what bacteria can lodge in those nooks and crannies. Then there's also this magical belief that putting something inside you can do something to your aura or chi," noted Jen Gunter, San Francisco OB/GYN.
According to Gunter, who is specialized in pelvic floor disorders and infectious disease, it isn't fair that Paltrow promotes pseudoscientific mysticism, as it is medically flawed to use these practices, and not be aware of the health issues they pose, especially since the readers don't always question the information they are presented.
The open letter Gunter addressed to Paltrow on her website doesn't just dismiss the jade eggs, but also its use for women empowerment.
"Nothing says female empowerment more than the only reason to do this is for your man! And then the claim that they can balance hormones is, quite simply, biologically impossible. Pelvic floor exercises can help with incontinence and even give stronger orgasms for some women, but they cannot change hormones. As for female energy? I'm a gynecologist and I don't know what that is," quotes Gunter's letter.
