Not at Home

I wrote the following as a tip to the Seattle _stranger_, the local 'bloid that touts itself as Seattle's only newspaper. I have GOT to get this info out, and this is in an effort to let the _stranger_'s blog-reader hear the first-hand account. If you google 'allergan league of women voters' you'll find their blog post.

5.19.08

Through means that I cannot describe, I managed to be invited to a very odd event that occurred this evening at the EMP. It was so bizarre sounding from the get-go, I decided I had to attend, if only to report on it, elsewhere.

This event was called, somewhat poetically, 'freedom of expression through film', and involved keynote speakers from a rather, well, diverse group of women. For being almost exclusively white women and obviously fairly well off. They're touring nationally.

Most women attending, not 500, but over 400, I suppose, had been invited through either a their personal doctor or a friend, it seems. Most women were told they were attending a dinner and a presentation featuring a keynote speech by an actress of note. Well, this works on many, but not me, as I just don't pay attention to movie billings. Even seeing some footage before she spoke didn't ring any bells. When it comes to Hollywood movies I'm as dumb as a stump, but I find it useful to not be easily impressed.

We were fairly corralled into the EMP. Happily, as we were being corralled, appetizers were being offered by serving staff, on trays. This helped. Also, free alcohol seemed to be offered with good effect.

I noted that the crowd seemed both thinner, and more made-up, and more bottle-blonde than the general populous. Also, whiter. I met one asian woman in the crowd, also disappointed by what was going as 'dinner': the petit fours were in much greater quantity than the appetizers, and the lack of produce represented by the offerings was not what one would expect to be offered this room. Curious and curiouser.

I also noted the congregation of the fairly well improved didn't seem to tip well to the bartenders. I suppose some were tiffed that we were not at the dinner we expected, but instead a happy hour and then an hour-long presentation. Not a reasonable form of protest, still.

The League of Women Voters table at the top of the stairs leading to the Sky Church seemed a bit incongruous. No other such group was present. Also interesting. We were set straight on just what that was about soon enough.

You see, this event was an effort to present to those gathered the cosmetic use of botox. Somehow, we were to make the logical leap from celebrity, to non-celebrity use of botox, and its relevance to each of us in the room, obstensibly as a form of 'self expression', and voting, which was applauded as an ultimate act of 'self expression'.

Virginia Madsen spoke after a (unwittingly hilarious) woman plastic surgeon and exponent of botox. Viginia's mother spoke, too, as she'd been gifted with, and herself corralled into regular use of, botox, and indeed DOES have her own film projects. The League of Woman Voters representative spoke to an increasingly thinning crowd: woman were filling out forms, submitting them, and whisking out to the parking lot. We were made aware of their '411' voting site, which in principle sounds like a great good thing: but sponsored? By a pharmaceutical? Touting botox?

The swag-bags left on chairs offered us rhinestone emblazoned 'botox' t shirts which can't fit anyone under about a size 10, cosmetic bags (bereft of cosmetics: I suppose we won't need them?), single-use cameras with the 'self expression' theme emblazoned on the side with 'freedom of expression through film'. And hilarious, gut-busting picture frames: they are in the shape of a Hollywood clapperboard, and say 'scene: prod no: director take 1' a la a Hollywood and have the Allergan botox logo. Who would want their photo in a botox picture frame?

Good To Know that the League of Woman Voters now 'partners' with Allergan. The logical leaps of spin and public relations are enough to involve chiropractors and osteopaths, next.

Pretty funny, huh?

Even funnier, to me, was being presented with a possibly-exhaustive list of plastic surgeons/MDs, anyway, who are trained 'n in cahoots with providing Allergan's product. We were promised at our invitation to the event to be able to schedule a free consult and treatment with botox, but to do so, we had to pick a MD from a 4 page spread sheet handout *right then* from their list of a couple hundred throughout the Puget Sound. Not the way most informed woman make decisions. Happily I had my palm pilot there, and recognized a few names. My choice of MD, and body area, might prove to be a great follow up piece.