By Beauty Damned

Because Nothing Else Matters

A friend at work came over to show me an ad in a magazine. It is a photo of a wedding album inscribed with the words "Our Daughter's Wedding" and the ad says "Can you think of a better reason?" The kicker: It is an ad for Botox cosmetic treatments. At first I was grossed out because I thought the premise of the ad was to suggest that you should send your daughter in for Botox treatments before her wedding day. Then I realized that it is suggesting that you should try your best to avoid looking like an old hag on your daughter's wedding day. Ah nothing like American sensibilities.

This brings me back to the Swan, which I watched again last night despite my better judgment. I was once again struck by the frankenstein-esque feel of the entire show and sickened by the macabre scene at the end where you see the woman who have just been spit out of the cosmetic surgery cookie cutter, looking like a cross between a two dollar hooker and an android. They show you a camera angle taken from the other side of the mirror where each woman is seeing her new self for the first time and she is crying and touching her own face and body and sobbing "ooooh myyyyy gaaaawd, I am soooo beautiful!!!!" Then her loved ones come in and tell her for the first time in her life that she is beautiful, which is the worst part. I am still waiting for a family member to walk in and say "what did they do to you?" or for the girl to look in the mirror and cry out "ooooh myyyy gaaaawd I am still ugly, just at the other end of the spectrum!!!!"

This world becomes more and more like a scary sci-fi novel with each passing day.