Boing Boing posts on GOOD!
We at Boing Boing are all big fans of GOOD. For those of you haven't checked it out, in print or online, GOOD creates media "for people who give a damn." That's something we can get behind. We've linked to their fantastic articles and data visualizations frequently in the past. So we were delighted when the good people at GOOD approached us about collaborating in some way. Our first dance together is "Boing Boing on GOOD," wherein each week Mark, Xeni, Joel, or I will post a short essay or article to the GOOD blog. We'll take those opportunities to delve a bit deeper into our current fixations and fascinations and connect the dots between groups of posts we've made here. "Boing Boing on GOOD" promises to be a fun experiment and we hope you'll join the conversation! Mark wrote the first piece and it's a doozy, about the science fiction horrors of Botox. Apparently, Botox injections may prevent "people from responding with appropriate anger to things that aren’t good for them." From Mark's essay, titled "I Have No Wrinkles And I Must Scream":
"I Have No Wrinkles And I Must Scream" (GOOD)I enjoy studying my five-year-old daughter’s facial expressions, because they’re such immediate and sensitive indicators of her emotional state. This morning, when I told Jane there was a stack of hot pancakes on the table, her face lit up with glee. In the afternoon, when she found out her older sister had given our pet chickens names without first consulting her, a dark cloud of anger and disappointment crossed her face. (She got over it in forty-five seconds.)
It goes without saying that our internal emotional states drive our outward behavior and emotional expressions. What’s not as obvious is that the path runs in both directions — that is, our actions and facial expressions tell us how to feel, just as our emotions tell us how to act. This effect is known as the facial feedback hypothesis. Charles Darwin, who wrote The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals in 1872, understood that an action can cause the experience of a feeling. As William James said of the phenomenon: “We don’t run because we are scared; we are scared because we run.”
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Mark,
I agree that using Botox for cosmetic reasons is stupid. But believe it or not there are a lot of useful applications for it as well.
I have Oralmandibular Dystonia. I have to get Botox injections in my pterygoid muscles once every three months or I cannot eat or talk as my jaw opens uncontrollably and cannot be closed without clamping down with my hands.
My doctor has also told me that Botox is used for many other problems from migraine headaches to excessive sweating.
Just thought you'd be interested in a case where Botox has actually benefited someone.
I had a permanent scowl from twenty years in the hospital industry. Botox injections just into the scowl lines every three months for a year and I'm a happy mutant. Sometimes the face needs a little help to catch up with the feelings. Faces show trauma. Once you get past the trauma, you don't want to carry it around on the top of your neck for the rest of your life.
These are both great reasons to get botox injections.
I think this is really oversimplifying things, and not respectful of the people who use Botox and don't consider themselves automatons or hapless zombie victims.
From Mark's essay: Botox prevents people from responding with appropriate anger to things that aren’t good for them.
Come on, that's not true at all. If you're going to a Botox practitioner who uses so much of the stuff on you that you have *no* facial expression, UR DOIN IT RONG.
Some of the people who you can pay to inject you with Botox are plastic surgeons. However, a lot of services with lesser or zero medical credentials can also do this, so the quality of care varies dramatically. There's a lot of room for bad botox, but not all botox is bad botox. And Svenski, it's no more "stupid" than anything else we might do to temporarily alter our visage. Remember, the stuff only lasts a few months.
A Botox practitioner who has good training and good ethics (and isn't going to inject the shit out of your face just so he can charge for lots of the stuff) will apply it artfully and with restraint.
I've used it before, and believe me, I got no problem expressing anger or sadness. What I have less of, though, is that kind of permanent "scarring" Antinous talks about, and the tendency to "over-express." It's hard to explain, but I like what it does to my face. Just like some people like to wear noserings or get tattoos. Don't judge me for it.
Botox softened deep lines in my face formed by years of trauma and depression. To pass judgement on me and others who would use this substance seems unfair.
Botox can be a therapeutic tool that changes your appearance, and in doing so, how you feel about yourself and the world around you, in a subtle way. I went to a good doctor who used less than I expect. He errs on the side of restraint. It did not turn me into a mouthless Stepford wife. Yes I could live without it, but I like what it does to my appearance and my feelings about myself. If this is science fiction, I rather like living in science fiction.
I would take a bath in a vat of Botox if I could afford it.
"To pass judgement on me and others who would use this substance seems unfair. "
I'm not judging anyone for using Botox. The reason I wrote this piece is that think it's worth thinking about the findings of the experiment before anyone uses Botox. If you think the benefits are greater than the risks, then by all means use it!
Anonymous,
Botox + sphincter = fail. I'm just sayin'.
Ewwwwwww! Botox-related sphincter failure == EWWWWW!
...If only Harlie had no mouth, we wouldn't care if he screamed.
“We don’t run because we are scared; we are scared because we run.”
All reason is embodied reason.
If botox is preventing the appearance of negative expressions, surely it's also preventing the appearance of positive expressions, like smiling. The net result should be no change in average 'happiness' (however you measure that), but a flattening of the highs and lows. Whether you think that's a good thing or not is up to you.