Orange County Register

QUOTE WITHOUT COMMENT

Margaret Morganroth Gullette (pictured), resident scholar of the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, says the beauty industry should instead be called the “uglification industry.”

Why? Because “it makes people feel ugly — inundates people with messages that they should be dissatisfied with how they look,” cited the Chicago Tribune.

People who use Botox to improve their appearance during job interviews do a disservice to society, said Gullette, who is the author of the book “Aged by Culture”:

With job-related Botox, the danger may be that it deepens the pressure people feel to battle aging like it’s a terrible disease. …

“There’s a tremendous amount of resistance to the cult of youth,” Gullette said, adding that there’s no evidence you can Botox your way to a better job. While she doesn’t criticize people for decisions to get cosmetic surgery, she said feeding into the idea that “youthful” is better can perpetuate age discrimination, a very real problem in the workplace.

“We want people to defy an ageist culture, because an ageist culture is as ugly as a racist culture and a sexist culture.”

Related links:

• Plastic surgery could become ‘must have’ career move. (Do you agree?)
• Jab market: Job seekers turn to cosmetic surgery for an edge (Chicago Tribune)
• Google says O.C. tops list for Botox searches
• The young face of Botox
• Indiana Jones star Harrison Ford is showing his age, but rejects plastic surgery
• Local doctors disagree, but Cheryl Tiegs denies plastic surgery
• ‘Mamma Mia’ star Julie Walters thrives on menopause, no Botox
• Buddhist sex kitten Mamie Van Doren vs. the signs of aging
• Priscilla’s face divides cosmetic docs; what about you?

For more on cosmetic medicine, see the list of links on the right side of this blog.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.