{"id":9651,"date":"2008-07-25T13:35:38","date_gmt":"2008-07-25T18:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/07\/25\/big-boo-for-botoxed-bridesmaids\/"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:23","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:23","slug":"big-boo-for-botoxed-bridesmaids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/07\/25\/big-boo-for-botoxed-bridesmaids\/","title":{"rendered":"big boo for botoxed bridesmaids"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> L<\/em><\/strong>ike any normal American male, I often find myself both amused and appalled by the Fashion & Style Section of the New York Times<\/em>. Appalled — and<\/em> apprehensive over the state of our nation’s soul — was my main reaction to yesterday’s article titled “It’s Botox for you Dear Bridesmaids<\/a>” (by Abby Ellin, July 24, 2008). In the piece, we meet bride-to-be Kacey Knauer, for whom “cosmetic interventions for herself and her entourage are as vital as the centerpieces or food.”<\/p>\n

With help from an aesthetician, Kacey and many other women planning their weddings are now adding treatment plans for bridesmaids — “a quick chemical peel, say, or an injection of a wrinkle-filler,” or perhaps a series of Fraxel laser treatments over months [which “could set you back $1,200 a session”]. Over months? Yep:<\/p>\n

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“[Camille] Meyer of TriBeCa MedSpa suggests that a bride contact her the minute the question is popped. ‘ . . . If you have to do eight treatments, six weeks apart, that could take up to a year, she said.” And,<\/p>\n

“It is no longer sufficient to hire a hairstylist and makeup artist to be on hand the day of. Instead, bridal parties are indulging in dermal fillers and tooth-whitening months before the Big Day.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Okay, I admit that I’m a little bit touchy about this subject, and have been since certain female relatives strongly suggested that my brother and I needed to get haircuts for our sister’s wedding back in 1971. We both declined and were said by some to have “ruined your sister’s wedding photos.” [see their proffered proof at the head and foot of this posting] That little incident, combined with my natural distaste for ostentatious expenditures of money in the vain hope of creating a “perfect wedding” for the bride, plus many tales of chubby or pimply cousins left out of bridal parties, make me shudder to know that:<\/p>\n