You've come a long way, baby.

Remember the Virginia Slims ads from the seventies, targeting women with their "women's lib"-tinged ads, celebrating women's accomplishments while inviting women to light up? Interesting that since 1987, lung cancer has surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer-related death for women in this country*. We've come a long way, all right.

And things just seem to keep improving for women's health in the United States. Oh, sure, we still can't get our hands on RU-486 thanks to pressure on the FDA from fundy Christian groups, and birth control isn't covered under Medicare, Medicaid or most private health care plans (although Viagra is--oh, the irony). But just recently, the FDA finally approved BoTox for cosmetic use. And the "Tox" in BoTox is not just catchy; it's truly toxic. Know what BoTox is made from? You know that stuff that they warn you about when food goes bad, when the container swells and it smells rotten and you get rid of it as fast as you can, because if you tried to eat it, it could kill you? Yes, that's it: botulism.

So why, you might ask, would someone want to inject something potentially lethal into his or her body? Oh, don't worry, we're told, it's not that harmful. It just causes paralysis. Temporary muscle paralysis. Just a few months' worth. And after it wears off, you get another injection!

The next question might be this: why would you purposely want to paralyze your muscles? Beauty is the answer. Beauty? So now purposeful muscle paralysis is beautiful? Not only that, but it's a cure for a "medical condition" called "glabellar lines," described by the FDA as "moderate to severe frown lines between the eyebrows**." The BoTox injections are taken in the forehead, causing the muscles in the forehead to become paralyzed for a few months. No more frowning means no more frown lines, and therefore you look young and beautiful. And expressionless, at least above the eyes.

And that's exactly what you as a woman can spend hundreds or thousands of your hard-earned $.69 to each man's dollar to inject into your forehead. Sound like fun? Ready to join the line around the block? Believe it or not, there are customers galore for this injection of toxins into the skin, most of them (not surprisingly) women. And with the BoTox injection being less expensive and less complicated than cosmetic surgery, it has the potential of becoming the next beauty fad for the not-so-wealthy.

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