‘Dirty wellness’: a trend for the perfection-fatigued

SPOTLIGHT / The unbearable lightness of wellbeing

Fatigue at wellness culture, epitomised by Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, now has a name: dirty wellness.Credit: Getty Images

It’s been well over a decade since the launch of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, the wellbeing empire both popularised and parodied for its spruiking of jade eggs and coffee enemas. In the years since, many of us have bought into the preachings of wellness culture, subjecting ourselves to juice cleanses while nixing caffeine, sugar, gluten and dairy from our diets.

Are we finally Goop-ed out? Wellness-culture fatigue has been brewing for some time and, thanks to social media, it has a name: “Dirty wellness.” Neither a call for gluttony nor abstinence, it says you can have your green juice and drink your dirty martini, too.

For Australian dietitian Jonathan Steedman, the term is a response to the narrative of perfectionism peddled by celebrities and influencers: “It’s a pushback against unattainable standards that just aren’t necessary for good health,” Steedman says. “It also means ‘sexy moderation’, which is what most reasonable health practitioners advocate.”

Of course, the bigger question might be whether we really need these labels in the first place. Today, the churn and burn of internet culture presents us with a new buzzword each week. It has recently given us “damp drinking” (cutting down), “girl dinner” (low-effort meal) and “soft living” (minimising stress).

“Labelling like this,” says Steedman, “just makes [a behaviour] easier to market and catchier [to identify] as a trend on TikTok.” Ultimately, perhaps, it’s the habits that are sustainable long-term that have the most potential to truly change our lives. Lauren Ironmonger

WATCH / Magic moments

Josh O’Connor plays a scruffier, linen suit-wearing, Indiana Jones-like archaeologist in La Chimera.

La Chimera’s Arthur (Josh O’Connor) is in the same business as Indiana Jones – an archaeologist turned tomb raider – but he’s a low-rent version, getting around northern Italy in the early 1980s in a filthy linen suit, living in a shack and running with a group of vagabonds. O’Connor (Prince Charles in The Crown) is almost wordless here, his Arthur a scruffy, ethereal creature given to fainting fits when gripped by the spirit that allows him to divine hidden treasure beneath the soil; his love interest, Italia (delightful Brazilian actor Carol Duarte), is the earth to his air. There’s a lovely tension between the social-realist and magical-mythical elements at play in Alice Rohrwacher’s slippery tale, in addition to a cameo by Isabella Rossellini as the matriarch of a mansion slowly going to seed. Like the mythical creature of the title, La Chimera is a beast of many disparate parts – and a total joy. In cinemas now. Karl Quinn

The End of the Morning is Charmian Clift’s previously unpublished novel.

READ / Final say

When popular Australian writer and journalist Charmian Clift died by suicide in 1969, aged 45, she left behind an unfinished autobiographical novel. In The End of the Morning, edited by Nadia Wheatley (UNSW Press; $35), it is published for the first time as a novella, together with 30 of her newspaper columns. The novella reflects Clift’s childhood years in Kiama (on the South Coast of NSW) with bright, cultured but impoverished parents, while the essays meander through topics that are still timely – from the domestic burden shouldered by women to the state of the public education system. Clift’s writing is intelligent, witty and engaging, reminding us of the void left by her premature death. Nicole Abadee

LISTEN / The house next door

Paranormal sceptic Tristan Redman goes ghost busting.

I once knew someone who regularly encountered a late-night ghost at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre, so my mind is open to the paranormal. But the mind of British journalist Tristan Redman is firmly shut to the very idea of ghosts, despite the inexplicable things that went bump in his teenage bedroom. In Ghost Story (a podcast by Wondery), Redman embarks on a ghost-busting mission that threatens, in one of many wonderful twists, to also bust up relations with his wife’s family. The eight-part series raises questions about the darker tales of family history: who gets to tell these stories, why we tell them and whether we should even tell them at all. Melissa Fyfe

SHOP / Speaker of the house

The Tivoli Audio SongBook has vintage vibes.

Vintage vibes and futuristic flair collide in portable Bluetooth sound systems Tivoli Audio’s SongBook and SongBook MAX ($649 and $849). Tweak the analog equaliser sliders and toggle the switches for a return to a tactile, hands-on experience while, internally, a lithium-ion battery (that delivers 10 hours of playtime) paired with Bluetooth 5.3 packs a punch. Looking for some extra wallop for your turntable or electric guitar? The built-in preamplifier delivers a powerful sound experience that’s as classic as it is cutting-edge. Oh, and we’re loving the timeless good looks, too. Frances Mocnik

WEAR / Higher love

Run to new fashion heights in the adidas Gazelle Bold.

German sportswear giant adidas, known for its signature triple stripes, is, literally, elevating the style of its classic Gazelle to near-platform status with a leg-lengthening (and, therefore, flattering) triple-stacked rubber sole. Meanwhile, the mustard and burgundy colourway of the brand-new Gazelle Bold ($190) pays homage to its much-loved antecedent. Damien Woolnough

To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.