You can't make this stuff up.  I promise; it's just way beyond my powers of imagination.

I've noticed lately that NOW president Terry O'Neill has been inveighing against the so-called Bo-Tax.  That's the popular name for a tiny part of the Senate health care bill that would raise some of the revenue to pay for its changes to the healthcare system with a five-percent tax on elective cosmetic surgeries.  These are not reconstructive surgeries to deal with disfigurement from, for example, a terrible accident or cancer surgery.  No, the proposal would tax surgery done for cosmetic purposes - the usual nips, tucks, lifts, enhancements and reductions.

And that's got O'Neill spitting mad.  Why?  It's discriminatory against women, and worse, that's why.  Now, most of us realize that our health care system, like those of every other country, is one of limited resources.  Sensible public policy, therefore seeks to allocate those resources as prudently and efficaciously as possible.  For most, then, cosmetic surgery is not high on the list of sacred cows.

But O'Neill is having none of it.  A five-percent tax on cosmetic surgeries intolerably discriminates against women, and she's womanning the barricades to stop it. 

I vaguely wondered what the fuss was about.  I mean honestly, don't these people have anything important to complain about?  Well, Judith Warner at the New York Times took the bull by the horns and asked O'Neill about her Bo-Tax backlash and here's what she reports to be the "reasoning" behind it (New York Times, 12/3/09).  Pay attention, class; this is important.

Lots of men are out of work.  Therefore, women have to pick up the earnings slack.  Women who don't look good have a harder time getting hired.  Middle-aged women need cosmetic surgery to look good.  Ergo, a five-percent tax on cosmetic surgery not only discriminates against women, it's bad for men and the economy.

Amazing!  Who'd have guessed that the wellbeing of all of us was so dependent on cosmetic surgery for middle-aged women?  I mean, I knew the economy was in bad shape, but who'd have guessed?

Don't you just know that middle-aged Chinese women have unfettered access to cosmetic surgery?  That must be why the Chinese kicking our butts!  Now we know.  In a true "Dr. Strangelove" moment, I'm moved to write President Obama:  "Mr. President, we cannot allow a cosmetic surgery gap!"

Let's try to imagine how much of an effect on anyone or anything such a tax might have.  We're talking about (a) middle-aged women (b) who are not employed, (c) but who want to be employed, (d) who have the money for cosmetic surgery, (e) who believe cosmetic surgery would assist them in their job search and (f) who would be deterred from obtaining said surgery by the proposed five-percent tax.  Yep, that's a serious issue allright.

Perhaps more astonishing than O'Neill's nonsense is the fact that Warner apparently buys it.  At least if she doesn't, she never lets on.

Like I said, you just can't make this stuff up. 

But there's an up side to everything, and Pollyanna that I am, I like to see it.  From now on, whenever anyone asks how feminism got so marginalized, we've all got a ready answer.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 5th, 2009 at 1:50 pm and is filed under Feminism/NOW.