Capitulating

NOW's president has decided that we should just give up and give in. Re: a proposed excise tax on cosmetic surgery:

Terry O’Neill, the president of the National Organization for Women, said middle-age women, who make up a bulk of her group’s financers, would be particularly susceptible to the tax, especially now. Many who have lost jobs might be considering surgery, she said, because they are looking to impress potential employers.
“They have to find work,” Ms. O’Neill said. “And they are going for Botox or going for eye work, because the fact is we live in a society that punishes women for getting older.”
[NY Times]

What, did Naomi Wolf write The Beauty Myth for nothing?

This is a weak argument, especially coming from NOW.  The societal demand that all women look perpetually taut and youthful is an unreasonable, oppressive one. Every 45 year old woman who Botoxes herself back into her 30s reinforces the rule, making it that much more accepted that we must all be smooth and perfect if we are to be judged competent and worthy.

Cosmetic surgery, when it's elective and "just to get ahead," puts women in a double bind. Go for the surgery, look younger, get ahead. But play by rules that are unfair. Participate in a system that undermines all women, everywhere, and that is exactly the problem with NOW's president trying to defend it like it is a liberating, feminist act.

She could argue, though, that it is unfair to levy a tax that will predominantly affect a single group that is already economically disadvantaged and already gets charged more by insurance companies (though I guess people getting elective cosmetic surgery can't be TOO disadvantaged).

And finally--she could simply focus her energy on the jillions of other more important issues right now, like language about reproductive rights in the healthcare bill, or making sure that insurance will have to cover costs for women's health procedures and preventive visits.