A new series for Vogue titled “What on Earth is Wellness?” plans to catalogue and explain all the ways humans are desperately trying to cleanse themselves of the dirty food and thoughts polluting their lives, from blowing smoke over a crystal to drinking twelve dollar smoothies out of soft plastic.
Our host, Camille Rowe, admits in the trailer that she loves being well, but has only the vaguest idea what that actually means. As a model/actress who lives in L.A., Rowe probably has a significant investment in the idea of eating clean and changing her energy through some sort of spiritual dance. The picture of what constitutes Wellness develops as a mix of expensive powders and Woo, while hinting at the ways advertising has warped our ideas about what having a healthy body and mind means.
While it looks likes Rowe will be speaking with her fair share of snake oil salesman and charlatans, she’ll also be interviewing psychologists and nutritionists, who perhaps have a more scientifically based analysis of health and diet fads. Or maybe you think science is the real false god. Wellness already seems like a confusing melange of superstition, pyramid schemes, and the status symbol of luxurious self-care. Somewhere in the stew, there must be a salty nugget of actual healing.
