Terry Sanderson, a 76-year-old retired optometrist, has recently accused Gwyneth Paltrow, an actress-turned-businesswoman—known for selling a variety of wellness products, especially intriguing candles, and for her comments regarding finding balance in life—of skiing “out of control” and crashing into him causing severe injuries including a traumatic brain injury. Now, I wonder, which part of Paltrow’s famous life philosophy of “finding the balance between cigarettes and tofu” could this bizarre accusation be classified under?
Perchance, would the balance-loving Paltrow classify this event as the cigarettes or the tofu in her life? Is this skiing incident reflective of her environmentally and health-conscious lifestyle, as exemplified by her love of organic products, or is it reflective of the grotesque, deeply disturbing and gory dark side filled with laser hair removal and tobacco products (by the way, can you imagine Gwyneth Paltrow smoking a cigar? I, for one, cannot).
Well, one could argue that skiing, movement, and sports could be symbolic of her salubrious side. On the other hand, crashing into an old man and leaving him with irreversible physical injuries could be an expression of the deep darkness that Paltrow tries to conceal with almond milk and trail mix.
Even beyond this poorly-constructed analogy between the Paltrow Ski Hill Incident and the two wolves of morality inhabiting Gwyneth Paltrow, the issue of public image and its dissonance from the individual is a modern dilemma. As French theoretician Jean Baudrillard's theories regarding simulation suggest, reality is often replaced by simulations of reality.
What this means in the case of the Paltrow Ski Hill Incident, is that Paltrow’s various portrayals in the media led to the construction of a public persona, as opposed to a direct reality. Prior to the incident, Paltrow’s portrayals as health-conscious and generally unhinged also contributed to the creation of a persona. Baudrillard would refer to this phenomenon as a simulacrum, a constructed representation that is detached from reality. All in all, Gwyneth Paltrow is just a constructed representation. She is but a figment of the zeitgeist’s imagination.
As Marshall McLuhan, a prominent figure in media studies, puts it, “The medium is the message.” The media through which the Paltrow Ski Hill Incident was circulated—id est tabloids, social media posts and memes—depended on the sheer absurdity of the incident. Gwyneth Paltrow, esteemed purveyor of vampire repellant spray and things in 24-karat gold that should not be in 24-karat gold, was the perfect victim to the herd of hysteria regarding the situation. The sensationalism rooted in the core of these mediums shaped the way we regarded the content of these mediums.
What this all means is that this whole situation was practically just inflated beyond what it is; Gwyneth Paltrow ended up being innocent. McLuhan once said, “We look at the present through a rear-view mirror.” Maybe if Terry Sanderson had not been so focused on the rear-view mirror, he could have prevented himself from crashing into Gwyneth Paltrow in front of him and having to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees. Oh well!
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