Thinking about cosmetic surgery

Ok, so I just read this really interesting piece on the Nation's website about a proposed sales tax for all elective cosmetic surgery procedures (i.e., Botox) and oddly enough, one of the most vocal opponents has been the mainstream feminist organization NOW.  I was really angry and surprised when I read this. The author notes that their position appears to be steeped in 'choice rhetoric' - that is, they are basically taking the position that women need to have access to this choice in order to stay competitive in the marketplace. While I can, sort of, see where they are coming from, I find it shocking that they would be willing to ultimately support the idea that women are the ones who need to change and adapt, rather than the workplace and/or employers. How very retrograde! This seems to be taking the fight for women's equality several steps back, in the wrong direction. My feeling is that by making such claims, NOW is attempting to appeal to a younger, perhaps more mainstream audience but I'm not sure that all women who are strong advocates for 'affordable' cosmetic surgery would necessarily identify as feminist anyway. Making elective cosmetic surgery a 'woman's issue' in the same way that we have daycare, abortion, equal pay, and so on leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Perhaps this then becomes a subjective position based on one's own definition and/or understanding of feminism. But then the problem becomes, what does feminism mean when it can mean anything to anyone? It would seem to me, that it becomes rather meaningless. There must be another way for feminists to tackle the issue of cosmetic surgery without uncritically endorsing it.

I find that I straddle a very odd position here because in some ways, I am totally supportive of a woman's right to bodily self-expression through various means like tattooing, piercing, and so on but I have a hard time accepting the alteration of one's face and/or body which functions as a way of upholding capitalist-patriarchal definitions of femininity. Yes, I think this is what lies at the heart of my own personal opposition and concern over these procedures because I don't see them as resisting gender norms, although I am sure they could be used in that way (here I am thinking of the French artist Orlan) but rather, they serve to create an unfair and unequal hierarchy between women who are able to afford such procedures and therefore can attend to the maintenance of the self which is so much part and parcel of our neoliberal, postfeminist culture, and those women who are either unable to or do not wish to partake in such activities. Not to mention that most of these procedures also privilege certain racialized features of Caucasian persons (i.e., small nose, eyes) and I rarely see any discussion of that! And yet, I am not oblivious to the ways in which we alter our bodies in other ways, however subtly, whether through exercise and diet, personal style and fashion, and yet, many of these techniques are not so permanent, allowing for more flexibility and playfulness perhaps. I guess I'm still thinking through what this whole thing means to me, to other women, to feminism...