Botox: Medicine? Cosmetic?

First published April 12, 2012 at http://www.hercircleezine.com/2012/04/12/botox-medicine-cosmetic/

IMAGE COPYRIGHT MARY AND ANGUS HOGG

In my article about Ruth Brandon’s UGLY BEAUTY, I asked questions about cosmetics and discussed the rise of pharmaceuticals that are touted as cosmetics. Today, I saw an ad for Botox as a cosmetic in the April 2012 issue of GOOD HOUSEKEEPING. The language used in the ad claims Botox is a “prescription medicine that’s injected into muscles to temporarily treat moderate to severe frown lines between the brows of adults 18 to 65.” Botox is being marketed as a “prescription medicine.” Not only that, it is used to “treat.” And, it is for people starting at eighteen?

There is something seriously wrong with claiming that skin lines or wrinkles are a medical problem in need of prescription treatment, especially starting at age eighteen! I cannot believe it is legal, actually, to refer to something like Botox as a prescription medication used to “treat” anything, and tout it as a mere cosmetic at the same time. Since when were wrinkles and lines in skin a medical problem that required treatment? Is aging skin really something that warrants a talk with my doctor?

Are we also to just ignore the mention of “botulinum toxin” in the ad? We’re talking about injecting a poison into our muscles. The poison’s action includes muscle paralysis. So, we purposefully paralyze muscles in our faces with poison. I’m dumbfounded. Not only that, the ad itself, never mind the two additional pages of fine print warnings, lists the “serious side effects” as “life threatening” such as problems speaking, swallowing or breathing. Talk about giving new meaning to the “seen and not heard” axiom! We’re supposed to be wrinkle-free our entire lives, and, like a cardboard cut-out of a person, we’re unmovable in our pursuit of a lineless face. Oh, and to achieve such beauty, we just might stop talking, or breathing. Maybe we will just have trouble swallowing. That way, we can be drooling, speechless, and wrinkle-free, but also thin because if we can’t swallow, we can’t eat, right?

The language we use, which I have mentioned in countless posts for InContext, says so much about us. We worry about lead or other harmful chemicals in cosmetics, yet we view a poison as a cosmetic as harmless, or in some cases, necessary. We start to view this procedure as a “treatment” for a problem that seems medically based. And, we believe that any variation from the plastic mold is in need of correction, when we just barely reach the age of maturity.

Feminist rhetoric claims a foundation of choice and of women having options. This translates into things like elective c-section, plastic surgery and a place at the board room table. Yet, when and how do we recognize advertising ploys as just that, and not actual “freedom” or “choice” for women? The old Virginia Slims ads seem tame by comparison to the insidiousness of this latest Botox ad. Virginia Slims cigarettes ads at least came across as celebrating the strides women have made over the decades. These Botox ads claim we have “problems” in need of “treatment.” Not only that, they’re not shy about the side effects, and they attempt to confuse the issue of medical treatment, and make illness out of natural skin processes while at the same time claiming their product is akin to wearing mascara. As my mind whirls with the bizarre implications of an ad that at once lightens one’s mood about injecting poison into one’s face and calling it medicine and makeup simultaneously, I see the ad hopes to make a potential customer of me since the incredulous look on my face is sure to produce some “moderate to severe frown lines between (my) eyes.”

"Dotter of Her Father's Eyes" Review and Reflection

First published April 5, 2012 at http://www.hercircleezine.com/2012/04/05/dotter-of-her-fathers-eyes-written-by-mary-m-talbot-and-illustrated-by-bryan-talbot/

DOTTER OF HER FATHER’S EYES is written by Mary M. Talbot and illustrated by Bryan Talbot. This spouse team creates a compelling combination biography of Lucia Joyce and memoir of Mary M. Talbot, whose father, James Atherton, was a Joycean scholar. This graphic-novel format uses color to demarcate the present, sepia tones with some highlights for Mary’s past and blue-grey for the life of Lucia Joyce. This helps the reader explore all three aspects of the book without any confusion. We begin in the present, when Mary M. Talbot comes across an identification card that belonged to her quite famous scholar of a father. Ms. Talbot reads a biography of Lucia Joyce and finds startling and somewhat disturbing parallels between their lives as children and even as young women.

Of course, being born in another generation, Lucia Joyce’s choices were limited significantly by her gender. Lucia is also victim to her father’s fame and whims as a writer. Mary Talbot shares her own troubled childhood as the daughter of a famous writer, one rather obsessed with the work of James Joyce. She, too, finds herself limited by her femaleness, as her plans for college are sidetracked when she becomes pregnant outside of marriage. Fortunately, Mary Talbot continued her education, and found more opportunities even for mothers in her own generation.

DOTTER OF HER FATHER’S EYES is part memoir, part biography in graphic form. It explores the father-daughter relationship, especially one in which the father is a strong character and well-known public figure. The dichotomy between the public persona and the experience of living with such a man, as a father, is portrayed vividly. We see relative strangers revere both men who were far from admirable figures as fathers. Each daughter had to contend with the admiration of those outside the family unit, even as each suffered for the demanding nature of her father, in both Joyce and Atherton. This duplicitous personality is emphasized when Talbot writes, “My father worked his charm everywhere, it seems. Just very rarely at home” (p. 87). Mary Talbot also writes about reading Sylvia Plath and finding yet another woman with a troubled relationship with her father.

We also glimpse the relationship between Mary and Bryan Talbot in several places. Ms. Talbot interjects that some of the books Bryan includes as part of Mary’s childhood library are ones from his own. In another section of the book, Bryan Talbot exhibits artistic license as he adds generous dashes of color to the sepia tone of Talbot history when he and Mary meet and fall in love. The significance is not lost on this reader, who sees Bryan as a young man, with many “old fashioned” notions of women’s roles. We are never directly told that his attitudes changed, yet we realize they must have, given the feminist scholarship of Mary Talbot over the years as she pursued higher education even after marriage and motherhood. The fact that the Talbots are married and working together to produce such a work of innovative scholarship is a testament to what must have been fundamental changes to their relationship dynamic.

While we know how Plath’s story ended, and in DOTTER OF HER FATHER’S EYES, we learn that Lucia Joyce was repeatedly committed to mental institutions, we can take some solace in the fact that Mary Talbot managed to express herself in a positive way through her work, including the text under consideration. DOTTER OF HER FATHER’S EYES is a gripping memoir and introductory biography of two women who are the daughters of famous men. Their stories are significant and important as we determine whom we revere, and why. DOTTER OF HER FATHER’S EYES shows two examples where men are honored and respected, even if they are not model husbands or fathers. When there is so much criticism of women who are drawn to careers to the supposed detriment of their mothering, such as politics, this text asks us to lift the veil of admiration and to consider the whole of a person. It reminds us think before admiring men for their work and for denigrating women who might pursue roles outside the home.

"Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake" Book Review and Reflection

Anna Quindlen’s LOTS OF CANDLES, PLENTY OF CAKE (Random House, April 2012) is a treat of a memoir. The author examines and shares her experiences, yet each topic is set within a larger context. Quindlen tells us how she sees it, from a position of lived experience, and avoids preaching from the other end of the age spectrum. In fact, she takes on the issue of the very different lives women have in each generation in the section entitled “Generations,” in which she provides a bridge for each of us to consider.

Quindlen’s writing is honest and revealing. While segments are brief, like a blog or short column, each plants seeds of thought so the reader considers a particular chapter after closing the book. We’re not asked to measure our lives to the author’s, or to adopt her viewpoint. Rather, Quindlen seems to ask, “So, what do you think?” The tone is conversational and never patronizing. This is a perfect memoir for a book club or between friends.

LOTS OF CANDLES, PLENTY OF CAKE is a memoir with appeal for those who have lots of candles on their own cakes, as well as for women embarking on adult lives. While she says she’d be at a loss to say anything that would be meaningful to her twenty-two year old self if given the chance, Quindlen has something to offer young women, who can read her musings on work, career, marriage, friendship, parenthood and personal growth and use them to consider paths and options before them. Because she’s never claiming anything except for herself, the author makes us comfortable whether we’re nodding our heads in agreement or raising an eyebrow about a topic with which we have different thoughts or experience. For women in the same age group as the author, the book provides experiences one might relate to personally or that might help one relate to the struggles and joys of a friend going through a similar circumstance.

Even as women have so much more open to us compared to past generations, we find certain roles almost inevitable. Quindlen gets to the point of the modern conundrum when she describes the situation as thus: “the most liberated generation of women in American history, raised on the notion that they could be much more than caregivers, became caregivers cubed.” While those at middle age or older may resignedly recognize this, young women can take a statement like this and ask “why?” and consider how this situation might be changed. Sure, we’re in the boardroom, yet we’re on our multi-function phones simultaneously coordinating childcare and the health care of aging parents. Men in the boardroom have never done this; their wives handle all of that! In chapters that deal with these topics, Quindlen speaks to and for several generations at once.

Again sharing personal experience within a larger context, Quindlen writes about defining and redefining herself. Her young self loved the “question authority” bumper sticker, and her older self says we might “question who gets to be an authority in the first place.” These gems, presented without sententiousness, speak to women at every age and stage of life. With regard to women’s development, the author’s meta-view is evident when she writes, “the notion of what it means to be a woman, a mother, even a human being has changed so much during our lifetimes.” If we stop reading, and consider this a moment, we grasp the implications of this statement. Woman, as a sex and as a gender, has been deconstructed to singular elements inside the lab as well as within our society and across the globe. How we define mother is vastly different today than it was just thirty years ago. The nature of humans and humanity is discussed on radio talks shows, in magazines and in film. While adopting a wider view, Quindlen’s writing allows us to personalize the question and answer for ourselves, even as we see the larger picture.

Quindlen is sincere and yet does not beg our forgiveness or sympathy when she writes about the responsibility placed on her young self to leave college to care for her father, younger siblings and dying mother. She matter-of-factly admits, “I did not want to be there.” Most people would not want to allow themselves such a thought, never mind share it with others. It is this straight-forwardness that makes LOTS OF CANDLES, PLENTY OF CAKE an inviting memoir for women no matter how many candles their cakes may require.

First published: http://www.hercircleezine.com/2012/04/01/lots-of-candles-plenty-of-cake-by-anna-quindlen/

"Vaclav and Lena" Book Review

First published March 29, 2012 http://www.hercircleezine.com/2012/03/29/vaclav-lena-by-haley-tanner/

VACLAV AND LENA by Haley Tanner (Dial Press, 2012) tells the story of two immigrants who meet as children. Vaclav wants nothing more than to be a magician and to have his childhood friend, Lena, as his assistant. Lena comes from a troubled home and must face obstacles from the nature of which Vaclav’s mother protects him. Early in the book, we, the readers, are also not privy to the circumstances of Lena’s life or those that led to the point at which she is wrenched from Vaclav’s life. We learn that Rasia, Vaclav’s mother, is somehow responsible and involved with Lena’s departure and do not learn the stories behind each character until much later in the tale. Like the magician’s hat that seems infinitely full of tied multi-colored scarves, we marvel when, at long last, all the scraps are removed and yet still a rabbit is drawn from the hat.

In Haley Tanner’s book, we find strong female characters, including a few surprises. Vaclav’s mother, Rasia, is at first almost a caricature of the stereotypical immigrant mother. Even when we’re allowed into her thoughts early in the book, her worries are formulaic. She wants to be more like American mothers, and yet is simultaneously disdainful of the children raised by American mothers. We see her care for her son, like any mother, but also withhold information in a way that seems cruel at first. Later, when more of Rasia’s heart and mind are revealed, we find a complex woman who grapples with her immigrant status, her lost hopes and with being a mother who wants to ensure opportunity for her son also while not forcing him to live her unrealized dreams. I have to admit that by the end of the story, Rasia was my favorite character.

Emily, who adopts Lena when she is taken from her aunt’s home, is another woman of great strength. As a single mother, she takes on the challenge of raising a girl with a troubled past and with language barriers that inhibit her opportunities and ability to assimilate. Emily steadfastly stands by Lena, helps her work toward acquiring language and shows her the rewards of success as the result of hard work. She provides a loving home and unwavering support. She gives Lena a place and space wherein she can work through her frustrations and grow into herself.

Another character, who is not revealed to be strong until much later in the story, is Lena’s aunt, Ekaterina. At first, Ekaterina is referred to as “the Aunt.” We rarely see her name. She is depicted as responsible entirely for Lena’s suffering. In Ekaterina, we find a perfect example of someone we cannot understand until we become aware of her circumstances. It’s that proverbial “until you’ve walked a mile in her shoes” kind of situation. We find Ekaterina a monster, and then we see that there is much more to the situation. After the story ends, we must consider Ekaterina a little longer before we pass judgment, and we might come to see her actions as exhibiting strength more like the main character in the THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO than a typical female hero.

VACLAV AND LENA is a great new edition to novels that depict strong women and female characters. Tanner demonstrates the great variety of ways in which women can be strong, as well. She also does not provide a pat description, but asks us to actually question how we define strength and what constitutes this attribute.

"The Best American Science and Nature Writing - 2011" Book Review and Reflection

First published March 22, 2012 http://www.hercircleezine.com/2012/03/22/the-best-science-and-nature-writing-2011/

EDITOR: MARY ROACH

THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING 2011, edited by Mary Roach (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011), contains five articles by women science journalists. These represent one fifth of the authors in this particular edition of the series. The articles cover topics ranging from a historical consideration of chemistry and governmental policy, to the environment and energy, to land use, to the intersection of science and religion and, finally, our changing oceans.


Deborah Blum is the author of THE CHEMIST’S WAR, which was originally published in SLATE magazine. The article addresses the government sanctioned poisoning of industrial alcohol during the prohibition era. When the eighteenth amendment passed, congress passed laws to make sure that alcohol needed for industrial purposes could not be repurposed for whiskey and other spirits via the addition of chemicals that sickened and killed many people before the end of prohibition. Blum learned of this practice while researching her book THE POISONER’S HANDBOOK: MURDER AND THE BIRTH OF FORENSIC MEDICINE IN JAZZ AGE NEW YORK (Penguin, 2010).


SPECTRAL LIGHT by Amy Irvine was originally published in ORION magazine. Irvine’s article shares the story of the author’s family’s experience with a bear in their frontier home. She considers the traditional hunter’s perspective and values as well as those of contemporary environmentalists in an attempt to appreciate both viewpoints simultaneously. Ultimately, Spectral Light examines issues around land use. Irvine explores this topic further in her book, TRESPASS: LIVING AT THE EDGE OF THE PROMISED LAND(North Point Press, 2008).

PHOTO CREDIT: HTTP://OPENCAGE.INFO/PICS.E/LARGE_4976.ASP

Originally published in ECOTONE, Jill Sisson Quinncontributes SIGN HERE IF YOU EXIST. Quinn uses the life cycle of the ichneumon wasp to come to terms with the divide between science and religion. She struggles not with belief in a deity, but rather our human desire to somehow outlast or survive death. This article is unique in how it traverses between biological and philosophical discussion. Online reviewers of this series cite SIGN HERE IF YOU EXIST as a favorite in the text.


Fracking is the drilling of natural gas from shale.Sandra Steingraber, originally writing for ORION, is the author of THE WHOLE FRACKING ENCHILADA. The author explains fracking to readers, and discusses the environmental impact of this process. Admittedly, I do not know a lot about fracking, other than hearing news stories or headlines. However, the implications of this article beg me to research the topic further and to get active talking with representatives who control industrial ability to perform this procedure to access otherwise trapped natural gas deposits.

PHOTO: JAMES WILLIAMS

Abigail Tucker is the author of THE NEW KING OF THE SEA from SMITHSONIAN. Tucker writes about jellyfish blooms and examines research about these organisms. Scientists realize that proliferation of particular species can be cyclical in nature. However, it seems that the present increase in blooms may be related to human influence in the oceans. Tucker provides information not only on the phenomena of jellyfish, but also the different types and describes how these organisms thrive in environments that can kill other ocean creatures.


While analyzing the 2011 BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING series for inContext, I examined the contributor’s notes section of the book. I wondered how each author presented him or her self, and read these entries with interest. Some of the female authors did not include personal information, such as listing family or pets in addition to their place of residence and writing, research, publishing or academic credits, and many of the male authors included this information. That said, of the five articles contributed by female authors, two write about family and from a personal or memoirist viewpoint. Two of the twenty male-authored contributions specifically mention and include family as major elements of the articles. (Links to author’s websites are included where available to promote and encourage reading of women science writers.)

"Wild Swans" Book Review

First published March 15, 2012 at http://www.hercircleezine.com/2012/03/15/wild-swans-by-jung-chang/

WILD SWANS: THREE DAUGHTERS OF CHINA (Anchor, 1991) is an epic true tale of three generations of Chinese women. The book takes the reader from a China ruled by warlords, through the Maoist regime and, to the early 1980s. We glimpse at the strength three generations of women exhibited in spite of foot-binding, arranged marriages, and the hardships brought about by Maoist rule and the cultural revolution. Jung Chang, the author, tells her grandmother’s story, her mother’s story and then her own.

At the start of the book, a biography of Chang’s grandmother and mother, we learn of a China before communism. The metaphorical curtain is pulled aside and we discover what life was really like for women who were concubines of powerful warlords. We see the maltreatment brought on by jealousy of wives of powerful officials, as well. Yu-fang, Chang’s grandmother, escapes her fate as a concubine by running away from the General’s home with her infant daughter in tow. Because the General was on his deathbed, and he freed her, his surviving spouse could not compel Yu-fang to return. Yu-fang eventually remarries. She suffers life-long from the foot-binding she endured as a child.

The next part of the saga is about Jung Chang’s mother, Bao Qin/De-hong, who became active in the Communist Party and supported Mao’s Red Army. De-hong wanted a new world in which to live, one where prosperity would be shared, and in which women would not be bound, either physically in the form of their feet or through being kept as concubines or acquired through arranged marriages. Her own parents sought to arrange a marriage for her, to a man in a powerful position in the old government. De-hong could not imagine such a life, and fought with her parents to refuse the arrangement. She fell in love with Wang Yu/Shou-yu, a fellow comrade. This marriage, while one of love, met with turmoil and suffering since De-hong’s potential pairing with a member of the old government is revealed, and the Communist Party separates her from her husband and daughter for some time.

We learn of Chang’s personal struggles and hear her story in the last section of the book. We see her suffer in her childhood when she is separated from her grandmother, who is looked down upon for keeping up the “old ways” of class privilege. We see as she suffers separation from her mother, and bear witness as her father is ostracized for upholding what he believes are the true principles of communist philosophy, despite the Maoist government’s denial of problems such as mass starvation.

In WILD SWANS, we glimpse a very personal account and personal history of a significant historical period, in a place we rarely gain such intimate access. Some of what Chang writes has that quality we describe as “stranger than fiction,” referring to circumstances in a true tale that are beyond our capacity to imagine other than as fabricated. The cruelty meted out upon the people of China throughout history is illuminated in a personal narrative. As I’ve written in other inContext articles, story provides a personal context so that we may know what we would otherwise be able to cast aside as “other.” WILD SWANS helps us learn about a culture and history of incredible importance. The story is also far from over, as we read about citizens still persecuted by the Chinese government.

When I saw a theatrical performance of WILD SWANS at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, what struck me even more forcefully than reading the book was the strength of the women in the story. Chang’s grandmother, Yu-fang, defied her family, her late husband, tradition and culture to save her daughter. De-hong, too, exhibited incredible tenacity in the face of continued adversity in her life. All of the women in this familial line endured as much if not more than the men, and yet did not have their spirits broken, even as the men in their lives demonstrated the extent of their emotional and mental suffering. Chang left her family and country to live abroad in freedom. While in theory we are familiar with and support those who seek political asylum or become refugees to escape drastic and deplorable conditions, we never really know the extent or story of the people behind the news stories. Chang helps us understand the personal aspects of such bold moves on behalf of individuals so that we come to appreciate the extent of dislocation one might feel if faced with such a choice. In telling this tale, both De-hong and Jung Chang exhibit yet greater strength as women and global citizens.

"Denial: A Memoir of Terror" - Book Review and Reflection

First published March 1, 2012 http://www.hercircleezine.com/2012/03/01/denial-a-memoir-of-terror-by-jessica-stern/

Even after reading DENIAL: A MEMOIR OF TERROR by Jessica Stern (HarperCollins, 2010), my initial reaction upon hearing about a sexual assault that occurred at three-thirty in the morning was to ask, “What was she doing walking the streets alone at three o’clock in the morning?” Of course, I believe that the streets should be safe at any time of the day, and the fact that it was in the middle of the night has nothing to do, really, with what happened. If the street was clear and the same vehicle was there, and the same woman was walking at three in the afternoon, the result may have been the same. The point is that we cannot help ourselves but to place part of the blame on the victim.

Jessica Stern writes about the rape she and her sister endured during their early teens. She wants to understand, from her own and others’ experiences of trauma, what it is about trauma that makes society unable to bear victims. Stern herself, when interviewing a victim of clergy abuse, somehow wants to believe her interviewee had some flaw that made him not fight back, not report the abuse, even through three different changes in priests in his parish!

“Denial helps the bystander. We don’t want to know…would rather not know about terror or be confronted with evil” and, Stern claims this is true “about personal assaults and more private crimes, the crimes that occur inside families” (p 144). The author examines her own thoughts about victims, and admits that she has “embarrassingly cruel thoughts that are not politically correct. One feels sorry for victims, but one also feels lucky not to be one—even a bit superior, a not entirely unpleasant feeling. Victims are weak. They must be. Why else would they be victimized? Especially rape victims. Morally and physically weak. And then there is the comforting thought that victims lie. If the victim is exaggerating or has made his story up out of whole cloth, I don’t have to confront my own unattractive desire to punish him” (p 191).

This stance about denial enthralled me. I thought about the suspected abuse of my daughter that we needed to investigate when she was five years old. Once we learned my daughter had not been abused, we were quick to close the door on the topic. No more discussion was needed, right? The fact that she endured extensive and potentially traumatizing interviews and an invasive physical exam was written-off entirely. None of that was part of the assault. Thus, when I was the one who actually asked the pertinent question in a non-leading way, and got a satisfying answer, I was relieved of worry, anxiety and angst. Since it was the son of a close neighbor who was the suspected perpetrator, all the ugliness of the entire thing could be forgotten. We could all move on.

The same was true for the attempted kidnapping I experienced as a young teen. Because I was not kidnapped, and had, actually, outwitted my potential rapist/murderer, I could rest on the laurels of my trickery. According to my parents, I should feel superior. Oh, and I should immediately leave the house and start walking the streets alone again to “get over” my fears. Stern believes her family history of trauma, dating back to her family’s experiences in Nazi Germany, made her father gloss over her rape. I wonder now whether this denial of experience and emotion around even things that did not get that far is just as dangerous.

DENIAL: A MEMOIR OF TERROR discusses more than just victimhood and victimization. Stern explores the incidence of her own and others’ PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. She speaks directly to readers and lets us into the inner workings of her mind in an effort for us to confront our own humanness and the mess of juxtapositions that make up our minds and beliefs. Her examination of what makes a perpetrator, of rape or other violence, including terrorism, is an important contribution to our understanding so that we may seek to help those who (most often) were victims themselves before becoming the perpetrators we love to hate. She also humanizes victims, so that we can’t so easily write off the woman who walks alone back to her dorm in the dark.