Clearly there’s a theme this year. We’ve shared skin care products and talked about self-preservation strategies in the work place. Now, we’d thought we’d broach a topic that seems appropriate because 1) it’s controversial and 2) academia steals us at our prime. In this two-part post, you’ll learn more about the politics of youth in tandem with muscle relaxers (i.e. Botox) and what they are, you’ll read about why we fear, and subsequently judge others about these procedures and finally, you’ll hear from a working professional in plastics who does this for a living.
There seems to be a certain kind of image that’s associated with young women: frivolous, naive, and easy. And so for academics and our prioritization of work, it is easy to judge those who don’t seem to worry at all – and forgive me for sounding jaded here – whose youth gives us extreme FOMO. But having started grad school directly after college, I know from experience that being young in academia also means less respect. So there’s an ambivalence to youth making it desirable and dismissible at the same time. Likewise, this ambivalence makes us wary but also judgmental about procedures and products that claim to preserve youth, like injections and fillers.
In this vein, I find that aging, in academia but also elsewhere, is romanticized in such a way that doesn’t reveal what it does to our mind, energy, and perception of ourselves and the world. Yes, we become more comfortable with ourselves and our experiences better inform our decisions, but aging is also extremely scary and can come with increased stress, crises, and a sense of alienation. Perhaps we think we can be better than Botox, or that we’ve accepted aging and its many (especially physical) changes, or even that we don’t care about how we look. But wanting to preserve or extend one’s physical appearance of youth is not a sin. It’s a very normal response to come to terms with the process of aging. When we think about these kinds of reasons behind procedures like Botox injections, it makes them less superficial.
So what exactly is Botox?
Botox (short for Botulinum toxin, made from a bacteria) is a drug that can be used to treat a number of conditions including excessive sweating, chronic migraines, lazy eyes, and even bladder incontinence. In large quantities, it can be quite dangerous, but has been used in small measured doses for overactive muscle movement (facial ticks, spasms, etc. associated or not with certain disorders). Of course, it is most known for its dermatological benefits. Approved in 2002 for cosmetic use, it works to relax muscles so that they do not continue to crease the skin with movement. More and more, people are using Botox for preventative measures, relaxing the muscles that will likely lead to forehead lines, crow’s feet, and frown lines. Once those lines are set, in place even without any expression, they are difficult to correct.
But Botox has come a long way since Ally McBeal and Real Housewives. A decade ago, it might’ve been easy to diss the facial alterations of celebrities or the rich who simply “couldn’t stop,” but since then, it has become more affordable and more prevalent. The versatility of the drug also makes it a common medical and cosmetic solution – who would’ve thought that getting injections to relieve teeth grinding could lead to a nice contouring of the cheek and jaw? With a solution like that to my anxiety, I would be tempted....
To wrap up this first post, maybe Botox itself is not the problem. As Erica Berman puts it in this 2014 article, “the Ally McBeal effect,” or the belief that women can and should have it all, took us a step backward from the work done in the 80s and 90s to challenge the objectification of women. Women continue to be held to unrealistic standards of beauty, including looking forever 25.
In Vietnamese, getting any kind of procedure done is called “sửa xuất đẹp” translated directly as “fixing one’s beauty.” It quickly escalates these procedures to be aesthetic alterations that violate the qualities of Vietnamese beauty: natural, pure and effortless. But there’s a deep irony to this because as much as we are appreciated for our youth and beauty, we are also expected to do a lot of back breaking labor. And so when some decide to preserve that youth because that is what we are made to believe makes us beautiful or valuable, we are judged or shunned by other women and men. #Canwehaveitall?
In the next post, I’ll share more about what Botox usage looks like today, with notes from a childhood friend of mine who answers some FAQs about muscle relaxers and more. Stay tuned! #botoxornotox
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