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"To see the feminine power (that feminist groups) did so much to unleash used to support or promote breast implants, something they deeply oppose, ...

At issue: whether Botox and breast implants empower women

By COLIN STEWART

The Orange County Register

Ms. Magazine and Irvine-based Allergan are going head-to-head over the value of cosmetic medicine.

The feminist magazine's current issue takes aim at campaigns by Allergan and others that depict breast augmentation, Botox and Juvederm anti-wrinkle treatments, and other cosmetic procedures as ways for women to take control and make informed choices about their bodies.

Allergan's campaign slogan for Botox and Juvederm is "Keep the Wisdom, Lose the Lines," with actress Virginia Madsen as its spokeswoman. She calls anti-wrinkle injections "part of my normal health and beauty routine along with eating right and exercising,"

Allergan has a similar approach for its line of breast implants, which it markets as the "Natrelle Collection" with the tagline, "To each her own."

"The new pitch for cosmetic surgery co-opts feminism," writes Ms. author Jennifer Cognard-Black, an associate professor at St. Mary's College of Maryland. In an online excerpt, she argues that "the cosmetic-surgery industry is doing exactly what the beauty industry has done for years: It's co-opting, repackaging and reselling the feminist call to empower women into what may be dubbed 'consumer feminism.' Under the dual slogans of possibility and choice, producers, promoters and providers are selling elective surgery as self-determination."

Cognard-Black's article delves into a subject covered in June by my "Inside Innovation" column on Allergan's new marketing efforts. The column's headlines were "Allergan rethinks marketing of Botox, implants," and "Breast implants 'empower' women, while Botox injections are 'a little gift' for yourself."

Allergan's "latest pioneering initiative is aimed at nothing less than changing the way we think about our bodies," the column stated. "The Irvine-based company that brought us Botox intends to persuade us we should feel free to choose the body we want."

On Allergan's side in the dispute over cosmetic procedures are advocates such as author Alex Kuczynski, a New York Times reporter who calls the new attitude toward cosmetic medicine "the new feminism, an activism of aesthetics."

The opposition includes bloggers such as Sybil Goldrich. "To see the feminine power (that feminist groups) did so much to unleash used to support or promote breast implants, something they deeply oppose, is outrageous and quite frankly painful," she writes. "Getting breast implants is not a feminist act."

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