Botox On The Brain...

"Botox: Bad for the brain?" And so goes the teaser for tonight's 11 o'clock news on the local CBS station here in NYC. Looks like there's some concern that injecting poison into your face to stave off aging may not just render your mug immovable -- it may cause a slow down in brain functions. For me, this is hilarious because I have an intense aversion to the botox phenomenon. Every time I go out to L.A., I'm shocked at how many women have faces that look extraterrestrial, as if Santa Monica had been invaded by female cat people from a far-flung galactic outpost a hundred billion clicks past Alpha Centuari. You can barely discern porn stars from the Angelina Jolie-wannabes if you find yourself caught at the Grove or the Third Street Promenade or anywhere along Abbot-Kinney. My disdain for these fish-like faces prompted one friend to unload on me: "Why do you care so much?" But I'm not a fan of apathy, partially because apathy kills. I'm also interested in seeing a woman age gracefully (or, hell, come into her own gracefully) and not morph into something that I couldn't possibly look without being utterly disturbed. If a woman wants a bit of a nip here and a tuck there, fine, but to a point. Once they get heavy into the plastic and the botulinum, they unwittingly plunge themselves headlong into a world of ridicule.

Newsweek has an article on the subject, and Sunday's Los Angeles Times asks "Are we supposed to pretend we don't notice?"