BOTOX: Something to furrow your brow about, by Nikko Snyder

(Originally published in good girl magazine No. 4, Winter 2003)

Know much about botulism? What with the media frenzy around bioterrorism over the past year and a half, you may have heard botulism's name in the company of anthrax and small pox,making up lists of terrifying potential biological weapons. Or maybe you know that botulism is a rare but serious form of bacterial food poisoning that can cause paralysis and death. But did you know that botulism is a sibling of BOTOX, the recently approved pharmaceutical product used for the treatment of wrinkles, and one of the most popular cosmetic procedures on the market?

Maybe.Or maybe not,since even the manufacturing company's (Allergan Inc.) product website avoids making the connection. They stick to calling BOTOX by its technical name, Botulinum Toxin Type A, and make sure to emphasize that the therapeutic doses injected into the forehead for the treatment of "glabellar lines" (a.k.a. brow furrow) are extremely small. But Allergan's marketing savvy notwithstanding, BOTOX is in fact a purified form of the bacteria that causes botulism. And like botulism, BOTOX works through paralysis, essentially freezing the muscles in the face that, when contracted, cause wrinkles.

Of course, by all accounts BOTOX injections are relatively harmless, resulting in occasional mild and temporary side effects such as temporary bruising or droopy eyelid, flu-like symptoms and nausea. It's also nothing new, having been used for years in the treatment of wrinkles, as well as in the experimental treatment of migraine and cerebral palsy, among others. BOTOX is even used to treat excessive sweating, by injecting it into underarm sweat glands. (You know, for all those Hollywood actresses that are tragically stricken with hyperhidrosis on Oscar night.)

So if it's such a wonder drug, why make trouble by drawing attention to the relationship between BOTOX and its evil twin, botulism, at all? As with anti-aging procedures generally (surgical and non-surgical alike), BOTOX is most popular among women, and the fact that it's the most popular cosmetic procedure in the US (with around 1.6 million procedures performed last year) means that tons of women are using it. At around $350.00 a pop, repeated every four to six months, it's quite an investment, and obviously one that not everyone can afford. So why are so many women jumping on the BOTOX bandwagon? Is it possible to use BOTOX as a kind of symbol for the cultural imposition of youthful perfection on women, a kind of terrorism of youth?

I started thinking about this after a coincidental intersection between two apparently unrelated moments. Always a sucker for cult kitsch, I've recently taken to gleefully watching 70s sci-fi classics, mostly for their futuristic electronic music, outrageously feathered hair and seductive use of Technicolor, but also for their fascinating (and often prophetic) envisionings of the future. One of my recent favourites is the 1976 classic Logan's Run, which portrays a 23rd century, computer-controlled hedonist utopian society, where the only catch is that the human citizens are put to death at age 30.

Without going into the nitty-gritty, it's only when the hero, Logan 6, and his sidekick/lover Jessica 5 escape their domed city and meet up with "Old Man" that they realize for the first time the wonders of aging they've been so cruelly denied. The movie ends in the overthrow of the computers and salvation for all, the moral of the fable being that one of the wonders of being human is the process of growing old.

Logan's Run is a delightfully dated sci-fi movie that I would recommend to anyone,but for all its mini dresses and model cities it's still possible to read it as a social commentary applicable to the present day. My personal reading of choice involves comparing the inhuman computers in Logan's Run to our real life media and social systems,which value youth and beauty above all else, especially for women. Of course,we don't kill people when they reach 30, but according to the media the only people of value are those that are young enough, thin enough and airbrushed enough to make it onto the cover of mainstream magazines.In our reality, age is not romanticized,and the eating disorders,cosmetic surgeries and other procedures that are necessary to achieve and maintain cultural worth prove it.

The anti-aging industry does big business playing on our individual and cultural fears of aging,which many of us have come to avoid like the plague. I don't use this cliché thoughtlessly - instead, I'm responding to the language the pharmaceutical industry feeds us and that we've grown increasingly accustomed to: aging is not a natural process of human life, but rather a medical condition in need of treatment.

The cosmetic anti-aging industry is not the first to jump on the bandwagon of the medicalization of aging, particularly women's aging. In the last number of months the debate on the "treatment" of menopause - another natural life process - has raged after new research showed that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may in fact cause more harm than good, increasing women's risk of breast cancer, heart attack, stroke and blood clots. Though HRT is certainly not a cosmetic procedure, it gets me worrying about what else we can expect from other "treatments" for "conditions" related to aging in the coming years,once long term side effects have been studied. It's impossible to know, but I can't help wondering what other ways women's health is being risked to achieve the culturally-prescribed ideal of youth.

We live in a youth-obsessed culture. So what else is new? And younger people are more and more likely to turn to BOTOX so they can stop aging before it starts. Disturbing, but am I surprised? And rich ladies are going to the BOTOX clinic together for group injections before a day of shopping. Weird,but big deal. But there's other stuff going on here as well. One of the most interesting things about BOTOX is how it actually works. Like I mentioned before, BOTOX and botulism do work in the same way, so although Allergen markets BOTOX as "relaxing the muscles" that cause aging, "nerve paralysis" might be more appropriate. The result: although a person feels like they're frowning or furrowing their brow, nothing shows but a serene expression of relaxation.

In some cases, people who experience this enforced expression of relaxation like it - some even go so far as to claim that when they look relaxed people treat them differently. "I look totally serene! I'm flipped out, and no one can tell!" "Secret of the universe: If you look more relaxed, people treat you as more relaxed. May have found sanity in Botox syringe." (Montreal Fashion, March 2002) I won't deny that during the process of writing this piece I've been acutely aware of how often I furrow my brow,and I've even pictured my wrinkles ten years in the future and felt worried. But the idea of not being able to express my state of mind through the look on my face is profoundly troubling to me ,and I have to wonder what it means to have millions of people walking around with enforced expressions of false serenity.

What does it mean for women not to be able to frown, and to be treated better as a result? I can't help but add this evenness of countenance to the ever-growing list of requirements necessary to achieve the female ideal. Anatomically incorrect dolls, malnourished supermodels, Internet broadcast liposuction, permanent laser hairlessness, treatment of wrinkles and sweating, and now finally a serene and relaxed expression at all times. It seems that every day there is yet another way that women are not perfect enough. Just like any effective form of terrorism, the key to the success of the anti-aging industry is to enlist the participation of those being terrorized. And without the fears of women, they wouldn't have a market.

Sources:

Montreal Fashion, March 2002, pp. 118; The Montreal Gazette, April 14, 2002 ('Deadly toxin irons out wrinkles'); www.botoxcosmetic.net; www.botox.com; www.wrinkle.ca (don't be deceived - this website is produced by Allergan Inc., the makers of BOTOX); and Logan's Run, 1976.

home