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theonyxpath · 5 years

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According to Eddy Izzard, that’s the literal translation of JFK’s famous quote as he entered Berlin during the cold war. I don’t know if Mighty Matt McElroy or Matthew “The Gentleman Gamer” Dawkins issued a similar proclamation as they entered the city for last weekend’s PAX convention, but there they were anyway.

Now, it’s a Paradox Entertainment convention so it was really focused mostly on their electronic games – but Onyx Path was there representing the happy land of Tabletop Role-Playing Games. And from what the dynamic duo reported back, it was a fantastic chance to talk with all sorts of gamers – many of whom were unfamiliar with Onyx Path and/or TTRPGs.

What was really gratifying for our team was just how positive and friendly the attendees were. You never know, going to a new city or country for a con, just how the reception will be. Well, from what they said, it was fantastic! They were able to talk about our upcoming games, both V5 and upcoming White Wolf projects, and also there was a lot of interest in our other, non-WW game lines!

For those folks who did know about us, we had some sneak previews of upcoming V5 projects – some from the V5 Chicago By Night KS, and also the text from V5 Cults of the Blood Gods. So, a lot of excitement there! There was also a lot of interest from the Paradox/White Wolf team for us to run a Kickstarter for V5 Cults of the Blood Gods. Which is always nice to hear from the folks who are licensing you their properties!

In case it sounds like our crew were just there to hang out in our booth and chat, they also had the responsibility of representing Onyx Path in many meetings where the future of V5 and all the WW IPs was discussed. Again, this was an extremely positive experience for our duo, with just tons of ideas and possible projects coming out of those discussions!

Of course, being business meetings, there wasn’t anything I can share with you here, but I can say that the refocusing of White Wolf last year has seemed to have really altered how they are proceeding, and has borne fruit in a lot of new licensed projects folks are going to enjoy.

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition art by Brian LeBlanc

To switch gears slightly, but not totally as I did mention Kickstarters up above, we finished up the Deviant: The Renegades Kickstarter last week! Again, huge kudos to Eric Zawadzki for his nigh-constant efforts to answer everybody’s questions in the comments as the KS ran. He was indefatigable!

We’re pretty happy with how it turned out, and big thanks to all of your who backed and spread the word about this one! We hoped that running the Creature Collection at the same time wouldn’t collide our audiences too much, and it looks like both KSs ran just fine and without overwhelming potential backers.

We’re going to try to avoid running two KSs of similar size and that might have too large of an overlap of audiences, but we have so many cool projects and settings that folks want to see Kickstarted that they’ve been backing up until now. Now, we’re going to try and use our two KS accounts to give both us and all of you the flexibility to put a project on Kickstarter as we need to and when it makes sense to.

We have, as many folks have pointed our previously, an embarrassment of riches when it comes to our projects, which really starts with the large number of game lines we are always working on.

VtR 2e Spilled Blood art by Andrea Payne

Of course, that goes all the way back to when Onyx Path first started with the WW licenses. We didn’t just get the licenses to one of the WoD lines or CofD lines, we took on the responsibility of shepherding all the existing lines and on bringing forth new ones if that what was needed.

Plus, we brought over other WW game lines, and one of those (cough, Trinity Continuum, cough) had multiple lines within it as well. We took, and still take, those responsibilities seriously as we know that every line has dedicated, long-term, fans that truly love it.

It is a real juggling act, and we’ve tried to provide every game line, every setting, with a new project and the spotlight at least once, regardless of the number of fans, over these past 7-8 years. And the flip side is that we are actually a business, we need projects that sell more than what it cost to make them – if only so everybody we work with keeps being able to afford to keep on making TTRPGs.

So those projects that sell well get follow-up projects, and those are usually within a single line, and so that line gets more focus. Which is one of reasons I’ve pushed for cross-line projects like the Night Horrors books, the Dark Eras books, or even the Contagion Chronicle, for Chronicles of Darkness (our biggest umbrella line).

Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties art by Michele Giorgi

Which is why our brochure this year, which is days away from going to press, is set up to talk about each setting, each game line, rather than trying to push for particular projects within the lines. We’ll do that with con-specific flyers at the conventions we’re attending, and news on all our social media sites, but we’re going to have the brochure there as a primer on just which game lines we’re doing right now.

We think that we’re at the point where we need that info out there where folks can reference it and compare and contrast our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

Kickstarter!

Coming soon!: Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition!

Onyx Path Media!

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast features a deep dive into our new game Legendlore with developer Steffie de Vaan, Dixie, and Matthew! Come find out about this very different fantasy RPG!

As Matthew has only just got back from a rather hazard-strewn trip from Berlin, our media update for this week is brief but punchy! So there’s only the events Matthew’s poor addled brain could pull together this week – but we’ll be back with our usual full run-down next week!

Character Creation Month continues this weekend as Meghan Fitzgerald takes us through character creation for Scion, over on the Onyx Path Twitch channel!

Plus, we again have a full week’s worth of fantastic gaming, so if you’re unsure about how any of our games run, please check out footage on the channel and interact with the people playing!

I’m going to link both here in case you’re not following / subscribed to them. www.twitch.tv/theonyxpath & www/youtube.com/user/theonyxpath

It really helps us to have subscribers on our Twitch channel, and you can do so for free and catch premieres as they go up if you have an Amazon Prime account. Just type Twitch Amazon Prime into Google and you’ll be shown how to subscribe for free.

Remember, if you miss any content on our Twitch channel, some of it finds its way to our YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/user/theonyxpath Don’t forget though, that some of that content is Twitch exclusive or belongs to the Storytellers running their games, so don’t miss out and remember to follow us!

Meanwhile, our fans keep creating excellent content for us, not limited to:

Occultists Anonymous continues with their fantastic Mage: The Awakening game:

Episode 53: Everyone Dies With safe passage into Tucume promised by the local Qero Shaman, the cabal prepares with spells and Songbird makes a deal with Supernal Being. https://youtu.be/52hYTlw8RpE

Drop Matthew a message via the contact button on matthewdawkins.com if you have actual plays, reviews, or game overviews you want us to profile on the blog!

Please check any of these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And NOW Scion Origin and Scion Hero are available to order!

As always, you can find most of Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

The big Halloween Sale on DriveThruRPG and Storytellers Vault continues until Halloween.

Most of our Chronicles of Darkness PDFs will be on sale on both sites, plus there will be some Halloween Treats (i.e. free PDFs) hidden around the sites.

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, you can get a jump on the end of the world with the Dystopia Rising: Evolution Jumpstart: Trouble On The Steel Pier PDF and physical book PoD on DriveThruRPG.com! Everything you need to start playing DR:E – a setting, adventure, and characters – with a basic Storypath rules-set!

Conventions!

GameHoleCon: October 31st – November 3rd PAX Unplugged: December 6th – 8th 2020: Midwinter: January 9th – 12th

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Creating in the Realms of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Redlines

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

Second Draft

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Wraith20 Fiction Anthology (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Development

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum Core)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Manuscript Approval

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad (Scarred Lands)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Post-Approval Development

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Scion LARP Rules (Scion)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Editing

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Let the Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Geist 2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Mythical Denizens (Creatures of the World Bestiary) (Scion 2nd Edition)

Vigil Watch (Scarred Lands)

Post-Editing Development

Chicago Folio/Dossier (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

TC: Aeon Ready-Made Characters (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

TC: Aeon Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Indexing

Dystopia Rising: Evolution core (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!

In Art Direction

Contagion Chronicle – Sent out contracts.

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant

Hunter: The Vigil 2e – Sam on the fulls.

Ex3 Lunars – Contracted.

TCfBtS!: Heroic Land Dwellers

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed – Notes out to artists.

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Trinity RMCs – Sketches in. Got interactive sheets from Gone in.

Cults of the Blood God (KS) – Mark is almost done, Denmark is done, and Amy is done.

Chicago Folio – Got stuff from Denmark and Mirko in… so far so good.

Mummy 2 (KS) – First half of Sam’s fulls are in and at WW for approval. Working on graphics in the morning.

City of the Towered Tombs – Contracted.

Let the Streets Run Red – Right after Chi Folio art is in.

CtL Oak Ash and Thorn – Sent breakdown for artnotes to Meghan.

Scion Mythical Denizens – Andrea is gonna do the portraits… waiting to hear back from Marco.

Deviant – Need art notes for the rest of the book.

Trinity Continuum Aeon Jumpstart – Going through it to see what we need.

In Layout

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Template created… system chapter done.

Trinity Continuum Aeon: Distant Worlds

VtR Spilled Blood – In progress.

Geist 2e Screen – Need notes from developer, still.

Pirates of Pugmire

Proofing

C20 Cup of Dreams – At WW approval.

M20 Book of the Fallen – Josh finishing cover.

DR:E Threat Guide – Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties – PDF going out to backers.

Memento Mori – Layout proofing as art comes in.

Dark Eras 2 – In proofing

At Press

Trinity Core Screen – At Studio2 – shipping to backers.

TC Aeon Screen – At Studio2 – shipping to backers.

Trinity: In Media Res – PoD proofs coming.

Trinity Core – At Studio2 – shipping to backers.

Trinity Aeon – At Studio2 – shipping to backers.

V5: Chicago – Printing.

Aeon Aexpansion – Waiting to order PoD proofs.

DR:E Jumpstart – PDF and PoD versions on Sale this Wednesday.

W20 Art Book – PoD proof ordered.

Geist 2e (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition) – Getting print files ready.

DRE Screen – Getting print files prepped.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Today is another five year anniversary! This time for Merely Marvelous Meredith’s time working with DriveThruRPG and helping us keep our PDFing and PoDing straight ovuh dere! DTRPG’s Customer Service are the unheralded saviors of many a small game company, and Mere’s ability to find solutions for non-tech people who just want to get their project online with the least amount of hassle – all with a smile in her emails – is a huge part of their success story. Congrats, Mere!

#Onyx Path Publishing

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bluewatsons · 4 years

Text

Deborah L. Rhode, Appearance as a Feminist Issue, 69 SMU L. Rev. 697 (2016)

In 1929, in A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf maintained that every woman needed to consider “what is your relation to the ever-changing and turning world of gloves and shoes . . . .” Since then, that world has grown ever more complicated. In today’s universe of escalating opportunities for cosmetic enhancement, the issues surrounding beauty have posed increasingly complex challenges. For some women, our cultural preoccupation with appearance is a source of wasted effort and expense, a threat to physical and psychological well-being, and a trigger for workplace discrimination. For other women, the pursuit of beauty is a source of pleasure and agency, and a showcase for cultural identity. The question for the women’s movement is whether it is possible to find some common ground, and to develop a concept of beauty that is a source of pleasure rather than shame, and that enhances, rather than dictates self-worth.

I. Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Debates

Contemporary challenges to appearance-related practices have long- standing roots. During America’s first two centuries, “respectable” women did not “rouge,” a practice associated with prostitutes.3 Women might ingest chalk, vinegar, or even arsenic to achieve a fair complexion, or kiss rosy crepe paper to redden their lips, but any detectable use of paints or powders put their reputations at risk.4 Beauty and virtue were intertwined, and reliance on cosmetics was thought corrosive to a “chaste soul” and a sign of moral depravity.5 Some black women’s leaders similarly condemned anyone who wanted to whiten her skin: “Why does she wish to improve her appearance? Why not improve her real self?”6 On hair, many leaders echoed the advice of Marcus Garvey: “Don’t remove the kinks from your hair! Remove them from your brain!”7

Market forces, however, kept putting temptation within ever-easier reach, and by the early twentieth century much of the stigma surrounding cosmetics had eroded.8 They became seen as a form of self-expression and an emblem of emancipation, as well as a means of moving up in the marriage market.9 According to Zelda Fitzgerald, “paint and powder” were a way for women to “choose their destinies—to be successful competitors in the great game of life.”10 By the early twentieth century, suffragists advocated lip rouge as a symbol of women’s rights and incorporated its use in public rallies.11

Although some activists in this “first wave” of feminism also attempted to link dress reform with other feminist causes, their initial campaigns had little success. In 1851, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Amelia Bloomer launched their crusade against corsets and crinolines by wearing shortened skirts over Turkish-styled pantaloons, a style quickly labeled “bloomers.”12 A few other suffragists joined the effort, but soon dropped out after journalists viciously caricatured the costume and spectators jeered and stoned women who wore them.13 However, many doctors, educators, editors of women’s magazines, and authors of advice manuals supported at least some reform, and “sensible dress” apart from bloomers gradually emerged.14 The increasing popularity of the bicycle and other forms of physical exercise, as well as women’s entry into the paid labor market, ultimately reinforced the demand for functional fashions.15

In the 1960s, the emergence of a “second wave” of feminism brought a more fundamental and sustained challenge to the beauty industry. In 1968, protestors at the Miss America pageant announced a boycott of all products related to the competition, and unceremoniously deposited bras, girdles, curlers, false eyelashes, and women’s magazines into a “Freedom Trash Can.”16 Although no undergarments were burned, the label “bra burner” stuck as an all-purpose pejorative to characterize “radical” feminists.17 Among that group were authors of a statement accompanying the protest, which explained, “Women in our society are forced daily to compete for male approval, enslaved by ludicrous beauty standards that we ourselves are conditioned to take seriously.”18 Building on the premise that the “personal is political,” activists shed a range of conventions along with their undergarments. Unshaved legs and unadorned faces became a symbol of “liberation.”19

The public reception was not unlike the response to early dress reformers. Feminists were seen as “dowdy,” “frumpy” “moralizers,” who hated men because they could not attract them.20 Because radicals gained disproportionate media attention, the early feminist movement, in general, and its critique of beauty in particular, was often dismissed even by those who accepted most of its other egalitarian principles.21 In The Sceptical Feminist, Janet Radcliffe Richards voiced a common concern: “The image of the movement comes from the individuals in it; if large numbers of them are unattractive the movement as a whole is bound to be so too.”22

Over the last quarter century, as the feminist movement has grown increasingly fragmented, different subcultures have differed sharply on matters of appearance. Since the late 1960s, fat activists have sought to challenge discrimination on the basis of weight and to make tolerance for all body sizes a social priority.23 Beginning in the 1990s, a group of young activists, self-labeled as “third-wave feminists,” focused on interlocking categories of oppression and ways of encouraging sexual agency.24 For some of these women, that has involved reclaiming conventional emblems of femininity—sexualized clothing and stiletto heels. For others, such as those in punk rock subcultures, it has meant rejecting traditional images of femininity and asserting deviant styles—green hair or shaved heads.25 And for aging second-wave feminists, the challenge has been finding ways to reconcile their personal attachment to femininity with their political commitments.

II. Critiques of Prevailing Beauty Practices

Despite their other differences, many contemporary feminists have raised shared concerns about current norms of appearance. The most obvious is cost. In her widely publicized account, The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf noted that women’s absorption with appearance “leeches money and leisure and confidence.”26 Because women are held to unattainable ideals, their task is boundless. Almost all areas of the female body are in need of something. The result is to focus women’s attention on self-improvement rather than social action.

The costs of our cultural preoccupation with appearance are considerable. The global investment in grooming totals over US $100 billion, and Americans alone spend over US $40 billion a year on diets.27 Much of that investment falls short of its intended effects or is induced by mislead- ing claims. The weight loss industry is a case in point. Ninety-five percent of dieters regain their majority of their weight within one to five years.28 Yet in the fact-free fantasy land of diet marketers, miracle products abound. Claims that the Federal Trade Commission has targeted include topical gels, patches, and dietary supplements that “eliminate fat deposits” and cause “rapid weight loss” without “diets or exercise.”29 Consumers squander millions of dollars on such products because most Americans assume that manufacturers could not make these claims with- out a factual basis.30 Yet resource limitations have prevented state and federal regulatory agencies from keeping up with the barrage of mislead- ing advertisements regarding diet and cosmetic products.31

Our preoccupation with appearance also carries health risks, including eating disorders, yo-yo dieting, and cosmetic surgery.32 From a health perspective, the current obsession with thinness is misdirected; it compromises reproductive and work capacity, and predicts higher rates of sickness.33 Except at extreme levels, weight is less important than fitness in preventing disease and prolonging life.34 Concerns about appearance are also linked to depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem.35 Even fashion footwear carries a cost; high heels are a major contributor to serious back and foot problems.36 Hillary Clinton learned that fact the hard way. One Christmas season during the Clinton presidency, after standing for hours in receiving lines at holiday parties, she became bedridden with back pain.37 A specialist concluded that she “shouldn’t wear high heels again.” “Never?” Clinton asked. “Well, yes, never,” he responded, and added, “With all due respect, ma’am, why would you want to?”38

Another cost of our cultural preoccupation with appearance is discrimination. Appearance skews judgments about competence. Resumes and essays get less favorable evaluations when they are thought to belong to less attractive individuals.39 Overweight individuals are seen as having less effective work habits and ability to get along with others.40 Less attractive teachers get less favorable course evaluations from students,41 and less attractive students receive lower ratings in intelligence from teachers.42 A meta-analysis that aggregated findings of over a hundred studies found that although less attractive individuals are perceived as less competent, the actual correlation between physical appearance and intellectual competence is “virtually zero.”43 Although the relative importance of appearance varies by occupation, less attractive individuals are generally less likely to be hired and promoted and earn lower salaries.44 Penalties are apparent even in professions like lawyer and college professor, where appearance bears no demonstrable relationship to job performance.45 About 60 percent of overweight women report experiences of employment discrimination.46 Such discrimination on the basis of appearance carries both individual and social costs. It undermines self- esteem, diminishes job aspirations, and compromises efficiency and equity.47

The overemphasis of attractiveness diminishes women’s credibility and diverts attention from their capabilities and accomplishments. In the long run, these are more stable sources of self-esteem and social power than appearance. The devaluation and sexualization of women based on appearance is particularly apparent for women in leadership positions. On Condoleezza Rice’s first day as national security adviser, the New York Times ran a profile discussing her dress size (6), taste in shoes (comfortable pumps), and hemline preferences (modest).48 After becoming secretary of state, her appearance in high boots when visiting troops in Germany inspired portrayals as a dominatrix in political cartoons and comedy routines.49

Kamala Harris, California’s Attorney General, received front page coverage when President Barack Obama described her as “by far, the best-looking attorney general in the country.”50 As first lady and then as a political candidate, Hillary Clinton faced a barrage of criticism as frumpy, fat, and “bottom heavy.”51 As secretary of state, when a man at a town hall meeting in Kyrgyzstan asked her which designers she wore, an exasperated Clinton responded, “Would you ever ask a man that question?”52 Shortly after Marissa Mayer was appointed CEO of Yahoo, a Forbes article described her as “attractive, well coifed, and poised under pressure,” and described her reputation as the “hottest CEO ever,” and one of the “sexiest geek girls” of Silicone Valley.53 Although Supreme Court Justices are not known for being eye candy, no male nominee to the Court has attracted comments like those directed at Elena Kagan; to talk show host Michael Savage, she looked “as if she belongs in a kosher deli.”54 I got a personal glimpse into the phenomenon just described after publicizing my book, The Beauty Bias. It was surprising how many men took time to send me comments like “You ugly cunt,” or “Let’s take up a collection to buy the professor a burka and improve the aesthetics at Stanford.”55

One other cost of discrimination on the basis of appearance is the exacerbation of economic and racial inequality. Appearance both reflects and reinforces class privilege. Prevailing beauty standards disadvantage individuals who lack the time and money to invest in attractiveness. Fashion, makeup, health clubs, weight loss products, and cosmetic procedures all come at a cost. Discrimination based on weight is particularly problematic from a class standpoint. Low-income and minority individuals have disproportionate rates of obesity, and as one expert puts it, there is some evidence that “poverty is fattening,” and “much stronger evidence that fatness is impoverishing.”56 Many poor people live in nutritional deserts—areas with no readily accessible grocery stores that sell fresh fruits and vegetables.57 These areas also tend to lack public recreational facilities and schools with adequate physical education programs.58 The bias that overweight individuals confront compromises their educational, employment, and earning opportunities. Although images of beauty are growing somewhat more diverse, they still reflect the legacy of racial privilege. Light skin, straightened hair, and Anglo-American features carry an economic and social advantage.59 Those who look less “white” have lower incomes and occupational status after controlling for other factors.

Discrimination on the basis of appearance also compounds gender inequality by reinforcing a double standard and a double bind for women. They face greater pressures than men to be attractive and greater penalties for falling short; as a consequence, their self-worth is more dependent on looks.60 Overweight women are judged more harshly than overweight men and are more susceptible to eating disorders and related psychological and physical dysfunctions.61 About ninety percent of cosmetic surgery patients are female, with all the financial costs and physical risks that such procedures pose.62 Yet even as the culture expects women to conform, they often face ridicule for their efforts. A case in point was the comment from a Boston Herald columnist about the appearance of a prominent politician: “There seemed to be something humiliating, sad, desperate and embarrassing about [Katherine] Harris yesterday, a woman of a certain age trying too hard to hang on.”63 The “certain age” was forty- three.64 But neither should women “let themselves go,” nor look as if they were trying too hard not to.65 Beauty must seem natural—even, or especially, when it can only be accomplished through considerable unnatural effort.

Feminists are in a particularly problematic situation. Those who defy conventional standards are ridiculed as homely harpies; those who com- ply are dismissed as hypocrites. Jane Fonda’s decision to have breast im- plants and other surgical procedures seemed to “contradict everything she advocates” concerning health and fitness.66 When confronted by the contradiction, Fonda responded, “I never asked to be a role model. . . . I don’t pretend to be different from any other woman. I’m subject to the same foibles and pressures.”67 Most disturbing of all is the toll that these criticisms take on individuals’ own self-esteem. Many women who recognize beauty norms as oppressive feel humiliated by the inability to escape them. They are ashamed for feeling ashamed. Writing about her resort to electrolysis to eliminate unsightly facial hair, Wendy Chapkis confesses: “I am a feminist. How humiliated I then feel. I am a woman. How ugly I have been made to feel. I have failed on both counts.”68 Eve Ensler, in The Good Body, recounts her own struggles with self-deprecating irony: “What I can’t believe is that someone like me, a radical feminist for nearly thirty years, could spend this much time thinking about my stomach. It has become my tormentor, my distractor: it’s my most serious committed relationship.”69

Responses to these critiques have proceeded on multiple levels. Some women stress agency. Cosmetic surgery patients often describe their deci- sion as “the independent choice of a liberated woman” and deny that they are pressured by others.70 In one widely circulated Playboy article, Jan Breslauer, a former Yale feminist theory professor, further insisted that having a “boob job” expressed feminist principles—”a woman’s right to do what she wants with her body.”71 It “made me focus on how far I’ve come. . . . I have arrived at a point where I can go out and buy myself a new pair of headlights if I want. . . . [I]f somebody asks if they’re [mine, I can] tell them, ‘Yes, I bought them myself.’”72

At the same time, many patients have acknowledged ridicule, humiliation, and shame as driving their decisions. One female patient described a common experience: “I wish I could have said, ‘To hell with it, I am going to love my body the way it is’. . . but I had tried to do that for fifteen years and it didn’t work.”73 Hillary Clinton, who has had a number of minor makeovers, captured similarly common views when she told Elle magazine, “Cosmetic surgery may be just as important for someone’s state of mind and well-being as any other kind of surgery.”74

So too, studies of women’s use of makeup, salons, and spas find considerable satisfaction with such purchases. Cosmetics make many individuals feel more “credible” and “professional.”75 Time spent shopping or in spas and salons provides pleasure and opportunities for female bonding. It can also seem like an occupational necessity. One study of women in Congress between ages forty-six and seventy-four found that over ninety percent had no visible grey hair.76 The reasons for tinting are not unlike those that motivate users of Botox. As Susan Brownmiller observed three decades ago, the facelift is “a logical extension of every night cream, moisturizer, pore cleanser and facial masque that has gone before it.”77

Yet as Carolyn Heilbrun argued in a celebrated essay, “Coming of Age,” makeup or hair tints are a form of temporary “camouflage” that can be shed at will.78 Surgery reflects a riskier attempt to alter the body, and the efforts are often only “briefly if at all effective. Worse, they increase the fear of age. . . . [O]ne should encourage youth, not try to be it.”79 Freedom in midlife can only come in understanding that “who I am is what I do” not how I look.80 Eve Ensler makes the same point about diets and other appearance-related regimes: “LOVE YOUR BODY. STOP FIXING IT.”81

While women remain divided over cosmetic practices, they also often share discomfort about the culture that produces them. Appearance is an opportunity for self-expression and self-determination, but many women recognize that their options are far too “limited by circumstances which are not of their making.”82 In one study of makeup in the workplace, virtually all the participants believed that they had a choice about whether to use cosmetics.83 But many also believed that women who de- cline to wear makeup “do not appear to be (1) healthy, (2) heterosexual, or (3) credible.”84 So, too, even women who are satisfied with their deci- sion to have cosmetic surgery are often highly critical of the culture that had led them to take that step. Such surgery is “a symptom of an unjust social order in which women [have] to go to extremes” just to look acceptable.85 To Katha Pollitt:

[W]hat is most of this starving and carving about but accepting that woman is basically just a body . . . with a rather short shelf life? You can postpone the expiration date if you “work” at it . . . or you “have work done,” as if the body were some sort of perpetual construction site. But basically you are suffering a lot to please people . . . and disguising that fact from yourself with a lot of twaddle about self- improvement and self-esteem.86

Not all women are, of course, under such illusions. Many also recognize that in the long run, their efforts to conform to conventional ideals carry “heavy costs for them and for all women.”87 But this seems like the price for success in the short run, which requires “making do with a culture that they believe judges and rewards them for their looks.”88 As one feminist noted, “I am a midlifer in today’s world and I don’t think I have time to reeducate society for the greater good.”89 “Plastic surgery,” she acknowledged, “is a bit of a sellout, but I don’t think it means I have to skewer myself on the feminist spike. . . . The personal may be political, but the personal is also personal. . . . I know that aging naturally is the more honorable way to go but I’m not there to be honorable to my gender. I’ve done quite a lot of that in my life.”90 Jan Breslauer defends her implants along similar lines. Sexism is “not going to change any time soon. Here’s the choice: You can rail at an imperfect world or go get yourself a great pair of bazongas.” As long as “women are judged by their jugs . . . it’s sometimes better to acknowledge that the injustice exists and get on with your life.”91

Such comments point up the discomfiting dilemma that many feminists face between personal interests and political commitments. Even leaders of the women’s movement who try to set the right example frequently fail to achieve the inner peace that their politics demand. As a matter of principle, Susan Brownmiller stopped shaving her legs, but years later she “had yet to accept the unaesthetic results.”92 Patricia Williams makes a similar confession about her attachment to “power point” footwear— shoes with spindle heels and narrow toes that are unsuitable for actual walking.93 Such ambivalence is scarcely surprising, given the deep-seated cultural forces and market pressures that underpin appearance ideals.

So where does that leave us? “Has feminism failed women?” Karen Lehman wonders.94 “Have women failed feminism? Or has society failed them both?”95 Perhaps more to the point, are those helpful ways of framing the question? Is a better way forward to avoid looking back and to get beyond blame? Can we criticize appearance-related practices without criticizing the women who find them necessary?

Underlying this question are deeper, more vexed issues of false consciousness, female agency, and the “authentic” self. Much of the early work on appearance by contemporary feminists underscored the need to link the personal with the political.96 From this perspective, a “choice” to engage in practices that objectified women or imposed undue costs seemed irreconcilable with feminist principles. When women experienced themselves as autonomous agents, making pleasurable decisions, that was simply evidence of the power of repressive ideologies.97 The only answer was to raise women’s consciousness and to demand that they value their authentic unreconstructed selves.98 They should accept their bodies as they “really” are, and please themselves, not others, with the way that they look.99

By contrast, most contemporary feminist theorists, influenced by postmodern perspectives, see no universal, uncontested standpoint from which consciousness can be declared “false” or identities considered “authentic.”100 Yet they also emphasize the link between the personal and political.101 Choices are never wholly “free” or solely “personal.”102 Cultural practices inevitably shape individuals’ preferences, and their individual responses in turn help sustain or alter those practices. According to critics such as Susan Bordo, that entails viewing the body as a site not simply for self-expression but also for political struggle.103

Yet to many activists, such theoretical formulations offer too little guidance on personal choices that have political implications. As Katha Pollitt notes, the failure to take a stance on practices that subordinate women as a group leads all too easily to a “you go, girl” approach, in which “[a]nything is feminist as long as you ‘choose’ it.”104 It has now become “unsisterly, patronizing, infantilizing and sexist to question another woman’s decision. . . . There’s no social context and no place to stand and resist; there’s just a menu of individual options and preferences.”105 An Onion parody makes a similar point.106 Under the title “Women Now Empowered by Everything a Woman Does,” a fictional woman’s studies professor explains that “[f]ortunately for the less impressive among us, a new strain of feminism has emerged,” in which almost all activities—shopping for shoes, or gaining weight—are “championed as proud, bold assertions of independence.”107 Another fictional feminist in the parody says, “Only by lauding every single thing a woman does . . . can you truly go, girls.”108 It was “so much simpler,” Pollitt observes, when feminism could just “tell women to use their famous agency to pull up their socks and say Screw you.”109

IV. Beyond the Impasse

“What do women want?” Freud famously asked, as if the preferences of half the world’s population could be captured in some universal standard.110 When it comes to appearance, what women want is not always the same or always compatible. Many women who opt for cosmetic enhancement feel well-served by the result.111 But the cost is to reinforce standards that make it harder for other women to resist.112

Yet whatever their disagreements on these issues, most individuals appear to share certain core values. Appearance should be a source of plea- sure, not of shame. Individuals should be able to make decisions about whether to enhance their attractiveness without being judged politically incorrect or professionally unacceptable. Our ideals of appearance should reflect diversity across race, ethnicity, age, and body size. In this ideal world, the importance of appearance would not be overstated. Nor would it spill over to employment and educational contexts in which judgments should be based on competence, not cosmetics. Women would not be held to higher standards than men. Neither would their self-esteem be tied to attractiveness, rather than accomplishment. In order for appearance to be a source of enjoyment rather than anxiety, it cannot dictate women’s self-worth.

So how do we get from here to there? There are no easy answers, but refocusing the feminist critique is an obvious place to start. It has not helped feminists’ political agenda or public image to denounce widely accepted beauty practices and women who won’t get with the program.113 Greater tolerance is in order, along with recognition that women are not all similarly situated in their capacity for resistance. Those who write about women’s issues need to recognize that not everyone has the luxury of being able to say “screw you” to the cosmetics industry. In my job as a law professor, no one cares whether I use mascara. For television’s legal commentators, such as Greta Van Susteren, the circumstances are far different, and the condemnation she received for her surgical makeover seemed misdirected.114 Why center criticism on her choice rather than on the preferences of viewers and network executives that made the choice seem necessary? Focusing attention on personal decisions rather than collective practices asks too much of individuals and too little of society.115

To that end, we need a broad range of initiatives. Individuals should educate themselves and others about the risks of cosmetic practices and offer more support for women who resist them. Schools and workplaces should do more to discourage discrimination based on appearance. The media needs to offer more diverse and natural images of beauty, and to avoid promoting fraudulent appearance-related advertisements. The law should prohibit appearance discrimination and more effectively regulate the marketing of beauty products.116 When a leader such as Donald Trump demeans the appearance of his rivals, critics, and even women of who accused him of sexual abuse, the public should make its outrage felt.117

Feminists claim to speak from the experience of women. But that experience counsels tolerance for the different ways that appearance is perceived by different women under different constraints. Fat is a Feminist Issue, declared the title of Susie Orbach’s widely circulated critique.118 So are implants, Botox, stilettos, and a host of other appearance-related concerns. Women need better ways of talking to, rather than past each other, on these issues, which continue to shape their opportunities and identities.

Footnotes

Original publication available at Deborah L. Rhode, Appearance as a Feminist Issue, in BODY AESTHETICS 81 (Sherri Irvin ed., Oxford Univ. Press, 2016). The editorial assistance of Eun Sze is gratefully acknowledged.

Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own and Three Guineas 117 (Oxford University Press 2015).

Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture 53 (1998).

Id. at 15, 17; Karen Kozlowski, Read My Lips: A Cultural History of Lipstick 18 (1998).

Peiss, supra note 3, at 57.

Id. at 207.

Ayana D. Byrd & Lori L. Tharps, Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black hair in America 38 (2001).

Peiss, supra note 3, at 54.

Id. at 59.

Zelda Fitzgerald, The Collected Writings of Zelda Fitzgerald 416 (Matthew J. Bruccoli ed., 1997).

Sarah E. Schaffer, Reading Our Lips: The History of Lipstick Regulation in Western Seats of Power, 62 FOOD & DRUG L.J. 165, 176 (2007).

Susan Brownmiller, FEMININITY 88-89 (1984).

Id. at 89.

Lois Banner, American Beauty 98-99, 147-50 (1983). 15. Id. at 150.

People & Events: The 1968 Protest, PBS.org: Miss America, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/missamerica/peopleevents/e_feminists.html [https://perma.cc/8HHC-5BP4].

Id.

Brownmiller, supra note 12, at 24-25.

Betty Luther Hillman, “The Clothes I Wear Help Me to Know My Own Power”: The Politics of Gender Presentation in the Era of Women’s Liberation, 34 FRONTIERS: J. WOMEN STUD. 155, 158 (2013).

Id. at 160-62.

Janet Radcliffe Richards, The Sceptical Feminist: A Philosophical Enquiry 282 (1994).

Id. at 283.

Dan Fletcher, The Fat-Acceptance Movement, TIME (July 31, 2009), http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1913858,00.html [https://perma.cc/TPA6-4B76].

Leslie Heywood & Jennifer Drake, Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism (1997); see also Jennifer Baumgardner & Amy Richards, Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future (2000).

Lauraine Leblanc, Pretty in Punk: Girls’ Gender Resistance in a Boys’ Subculture 13, 219 (1999).

Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women 53 (1991).

Alex Kuczynski, Beauty Junkies: Inside Our $15 Billion Obsession with Cosmetic Surgery 7 (2006); Gina Kolata, Health and Money Issues Arise Over Who Pays for Weight Loss, N.Y. TIMES, Sept. 30, 2004, at C4.

Francine Grodstein et al., Three Year Follow-up of Participants in a Commercial weight Loss Program: Can you Keep it off?, 156 ARCHIVE INTERNAL MED. 1302, 1305 (1996).

Deborah L. Rhode, The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law 33-34 (2010).

Widespread Ignorance of Regulation and Labeling of Vitamins, Minerals, and Food Supplements, According to a National Harris Interactive Survey, Harris Interactive Health Care News (December 23, 2002), http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/widespread-ignorance-of-regulation-and-labeling-of-vitamins-minerals-and-food-supplements-according-to-a-national-harris-interactive-survey-77244857.html.

Jodie Sopher, Weight-Loss Advertising too Good to be True: Are Manufacturers or the Media to Blame? 22 CARDOZO ARTS & ENT. L.J. 933, 941-43, 963 (2005); Michael Specter, Miracle in a Bottle: Dietary supplements are unregulated, some are unsafe—and Americans can’t get enough of them, THE NEW YORKER, Feb. 2, 2004, at 68.

Paul Campos, The Obesity Myth: Why America’s Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health 32, 225, 234 (2004); Glenn A. Gaesser, Big Fat Lies: The Truth About Your Weight and Your Health 34, 155-6 (2004).

Patricia R. Owen & Erika Laurel-Seller, Weight and Shape Ideals: Thin Is Dangerously In, 30 J. APPLIED PSYCHOL. 979, 980 (2000).

CAMPOS, supra note 32, at 34-35; LAURA FRASER, LOSING IT: AMERICA’S OBSES- SION WITH WEIGHT AND THE INDUSTRY THAT FEEDS ON IT 253-54 (1997); Tara Parker-Pope, Better to be fat and fit than skinny and unfit, N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 19, 2008, at F5.

Thomas Pruzinsky, Psychopathology of Body Experience: Expanded Perspectives, in Body Images: Development, Deviance, and Change 183 (Thomas F. Cash & Thomas Pruzinsky eds.,1990); Rebecca M. Puh and Kelly D. Brownell, Confronting and Coping with Weight Stigma: An Investigation of Overweight and Obese Adults, 14 OBESITY 1802, 1802-03 (2006).

Marc Linder, Smart Women, Stupid Shoes, and Cynical Employers: The Unlawfulness and Adverse Health Consequences of Sexually Discriminatory Workplace Footwear Requirements for Female Employees, 22 J. CORP. L. 295, 296, 306-307, 309 (1997); Alyssa B. Dufour et al., Foot Pain: Is Current or Past Shoewear a Factor? 61 ARTHRITIS CARE RES. 1352, 1356-57 (2009).

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Living History 490 (2004).

Id. at 491.

Mohammed Y. Quereshi & Janet P. Kay, Physical Attractiveness, Age, and Sex as Determinants of Reactions to Resumes, 14 SOC. BEHAV. & PERSONALITY 103, 107 (1986); David Landy & Harold Sigall, Beauty is Talent: Task Evaluation as a Function of the Performer’s Physical Attractiveness, 29 J. PERSONALITY & SOC. PSYCHOL. 299, 302, 304 (1974).

Sondra Solovay, Tipping the Scales of Justice: Fighting Weight-Based Discrimination 101-05 (2000); Janna Fikkan & Esther Rothblum, Weight Bias in Employment, in Weight Bias: Nature, Consequences, and Remedies 15, 16-17 (Kelly D. Brownell et al. eds., 2005).

Daniel S. Hamermesh, Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People are More Successful, 80-81 (2011); Daniel S. Hamermesh & Amy Parker, Beauty in the Classroom: Instructors’ Pulchritude and Putative Pedagogical Productivity, 24 ECON. EDUC. REV. 369, 375 (2005).

Vicki Ritts et al., Expectations, Impressions, and Judgments of Physically Attractive Students: A Review, 62 Rev. Educ. Res. 413, 422 (1992).

Linda A. Jackson et al., Physical Attractiveness and Intellectual Competence: A Meta-Analytic Review, 58 SOC. PSYCHOL. Q. 108, 115 (1995).

Hamermesh, supra note 41, at 81; Megumi Hosoda et al., The Effects of Physical Attractiveness on Job-Related Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis of Experimental Studies, 56 PERSONNEL PSYCHOL. 431, 457-58 (2003); Markus M. Mobius & Tanya S. Rosenblat, Why Beauty Matters, 96 AM. ECON. REV. 222, 223 (2006).

Jeff E. Biddle & Daniel S. Hamermesh, Beauty, Productivity, and Discrimination: Lawyer’s Looks and Lucre, 16 J. LAB. ECON. 172, 197 (1998); Hamermesh, supra note 41, at 78-79.

Solovay, supra note 40, at 103.

Id. at 104.

Fiona Morgan, No Way to Treat a Lady: Was the New York Times Profile of Codoleezza Rice Sexist or Just Silly?, Salon (Dec. 19, 2000), http://www.salon.com/2000/12/19/rice_5/ [https://perma.cc/LJJ4-H3AY].

Deborah F. Atwater, African American Women’s Rhetoric: The Search for Dignity, Personhood, and Honor 3-4 (2010).

Joe Garofoli, Obama Apologizes to California’s Harris, SF GATE, Apr. 5, 2013, http://www.sfgate.com/politics/joegarofoli/article/Obama-apologizes-to-California-s-Harris-4413842.php [https://perma.cc/2HYY-Z99W].

Deborah L. Rhode, Speaking of Sex: The Denial of Gender Inequality 60 (1997); From the Women’s Desk—Why Does Larry King Think Hillary Clinton’s Hair, Legs, Smile and Figure Are ‘News’?, FAIR (June 14, 1999), http://fair.org/take-action/action-alerts/from-the-womens-desk-why-does-larry-king-think-hillary-clintons-hair-legs-smile-and-figure-are-quotnewsquot/ [https://perma.cc/2UT9-8WM6].

Jonathan Alter, Hillary Clinton: Woman of the World, VANITY FAIR, June 2011, at 201.

Meghan Casserly, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer is the ‘Hottest CEO Ever.’ And it’s Great For Business, FORBES (July 17, 2012), http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/07/17/yahoo-marissa-mayer-hottest-ceo-ever-great-for-business/#106f456751c7.

Deborah L. Rhode, Why Elena Kagan’s Looks Matter, The Daily Beast, June 26, 2010, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/06/26/elena-kagans-looks-and-why-they-matter.html [https://perma.cc/BJ6G-FEAT].

Michael Savage, Comments during Savage Nation, the savage nation (Apr. 9, 2010)

Paul Ernsberger, Does Social Class Explain the Connection Between Weight and Health?, in The Fat Studies Reader 26, 32 (Esther Rothblum and Sondra Solovay eds., 2009).

Elizabeth A. Baker et al., The Role of Race and Poverty in Access to Foods that Enable Individuals to Adhere to Dietary Guidelines, 3 Preventing Chronic Disease 7 (2006).

Jeffrey Kluger, How America’s Children Packed on the Pounds, TIME, Jun. 12, 2008, at 66, 69; Penny Gordon-Larsen et. al., Inequality in the Built Environment Underlies Key Health Disparities in Physical Activity and Obesity, Pediatrics, 2006, at 417, 421.

April E. Fallon, Culture in the Mirror: Sociocultural Determinants of Body Image, in Body Images, at 97-98; Imani Perry, Buying White Beauty, 12 CARDOZO J.L. GENDER 579, 587-88, 590, 606 (2006).

Fallon, supra note 59, at 80-81.

Solovay, supra note 40, at 105; Fikkan & Rothblum, supra note 40, at 16-18; Kate Sablosky, Probative “Weight”: Rethinking Evidentiary Standards in Title VII Sex Discrimination Cases, 30 N.Y.U. REV. L. & SOC. CHANGE 325, 330-334 (2006).

Quick Facts: Highlights of the ASAPS 2012 Statistics on Cosmetic Surgery, AM. SOC’Y AESTHETIC PLASTIC SURGERY (2012), http://www.surgery.org/sites/default/files/2012-quickfacts.pdf [https://perma.cc/K87A-XL4H].

63. Caryl Rivers, Mockery of Katherine Harris Shows Double Standard, WOMEN’S ENEWS, (Nov. 29, 2000), http://womensenews.org/2000/11/mockery-katherine-harris-shows-double-standard/ [https://perma.cc/J8TM-UYQF].

Id.

See Katha Pollitt, Learning to Drive: And Other Life Stories 187-207 (2007); Wendy Chapkis, Beauty Secrets: Women and the Politics of Appearance 2 (1999).

Myra Dinnerstein & Rose Weitz, Jane Fonda, Barbara Bush, and Other Aging Bodies: Femininity and the Limits of Resistance, in FEMINIST ISSUES, Fall 1994, at 3, 13.

Id.

Chapkis, supra note 65, at 2.

Eve Ensler, The Good Body 5-6 (2005).

Decca Aitkenhead, Most british women now expect to have cosmetic surgery in their lifetime. How did the ultimate feminist taboo just become another lifestyle choice?, THE GUARDIAN (Sept. 13, 2005), https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/sep/14/gender.deccaaitkenhead [https://perma.cc/3DB9-6R9D].

Jan Breslauer, Stacked Like Me, PLAYBOY, Jul. 1997, at 64, 66-67.

Id.

Debra L. Gimlin, Body Work; Beauty and Self-Image in American Culture 100 (2002).

Deborah L. Rhode, The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law 78 (2010).

Kirsten Dellinger & Christine L. Williams, Makeup at Work: Negotiating Appearance Rules in the Workplace, 11 GENDER & SOC’Y 151, 165-66 (1997).

Anne Kreamer, The War Over Going Gray, Time (Aug. 31, 2007), http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1658058,00.html [https://perma.cc/BU5Q-GUTZ].

Brownmiller, supra note 12, at 167.

Carolyn G. Heilbrun, Coming of Age, N. Y. WOMAN, Feb., 1991, at 56, 58.

Id.

Ensler, supra note 69, at xv.

Kathy Davis, Reshaping the Female Body: The Dilemma of Cosmetic Surgery 170 (1994).

Dellinger & Williams, supra note 75, at 156.

Id.

Davis, supra note 82, at 162.

Pollitt, supra note 65, at 202.

Gimlin, supra note 73, at 107.

Id.

Katharine Viner, The New Plastic Feminism, THE GUARDIAN, Jul. 21, 1997, at T4.

Id.

Breslauer, supra note 71, at 66.

Brownmiller, supra note 12, at 156.

Patricia J. Williams, Have Pantsuit, Will Travel, THE NATION (Aug. 27, 2008), https://www.thenation.com/article/have-pantsuit-will-travel/ [https://perma.cc/A6UL- 4QYQ].

Lehman, supra note 74, at 9.

Id.

See Hillman, supra note 19, at 158-59. 97. See id. at 161.

See id. at 161-162.

See id.

Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body 38, 40-41 (1993).

Id. at 17.

Id. a 20, 27.

Id. at 16.

Pollitt, supra note 65, at 192.

Id.

Women Now Empowered by Everything a Woman Does, THE ONION (Feb. 19, 2003), http://www.theonion.com/article/women-now-empowered-by-everything-a-woman-does-1398 [https://perma.cc/WV3E-G3GY].

Id.

Pollitt, supra note 65, at 204.

Noam Shpancer, What Do Women Really Want?, PSYCHOL. TODAY (Aug. 22, 2013), https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/insight-therapy/201308/what-do-women-really-want [https://perma.cc/5T5V-9FM7].

See, e.g., Breslauer, supra note 71, at 64, 66-67.

See Aitkenhead, supra note 53.

See, e.g., Brownmiller, supra note 12, at 160-62.

Lisa De Moraes, Greta? Is That You? Analyst Moves from CNN to, Uh, Fox, WASH. POST, Feb. 2, 2002, at C1; Kim Ode, The Heart Has Reasons: It’s Easy to Understand Why Van Susteren Chose the Eye Tuck: It May Even Be Tempting, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Feb. 12, 2002, at E12.

Lynn S. Chancer, Reconcilable Differences: Confronting Beauty, Pornography, and the Future of Feminism 96 (1998).

Rhode, supra note 29, at 154.

Trump asked about Carly Fiorina, “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that?” Nicholas Kristoff, Clinton, Trump, and Sexism, N. Y. TIMES Jan. 24, 2016 (quoting Trump). For Trump’s demeaning comments about his accusers, see Donald Trump Mocks Accusers, Calls Them Unattractive and Liars, Fortune, Oct. 15, 2016, http://fortune.com/ 2016/10/15/donald-trump.

See generally Susie Orbach, Fat is a Feminist Issue: The Anti-Diet Guide for Women (1997).

#physical appearance #beauty #beauty standards #feminism #cosmetic enhancement #culture #workplace discrimination #agency #identity #shame #self-worth #looks discrimination #intersectionality

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Crime and Parkinson's The Jury is Out Movement Disorders August 2018

Background

A recent murder trial in Belgium attracted widespread media attention and raised concerns within the Parkinson’s community. On trial was a 55-year-old man with a 14-year history of Parkinson’s disease (PD), who confessed to raping and then murdering two women and who attempted to victimize two further women in a similar way. His defence lawyers argued that pathological impulsivity caused by his dopaminergic treatment was responsible for his actions. Our aim here is to place this devastating case history in a broader perspective, highlighting the need to carefully judge a person’s actions against the background of a highly complex neuropsychiatric disorder like PD, its treatment and treatment-related side effects, substance abuse, and any premorbid character traits.

The case

A full transcription of the case is not available to us, but several details became public as a consequence of the intense media interest. We share several potentially relevant items here. The accused was diagnosed with PD in 2004 (at the age of 41 years) and started treatment with pramipexole in 2010. He had abused cocaine and alcohol for several years prior to his neurological diagnosis and continued to do so throughout the disease course. Expert forensic psychiatric evidence provided in court described him as narcissistic, manipulative and antisocial. Throughout his life, he had numerous sexual relations with women and boasted about his stud-like sexual dominance. These premorbid personality characteristics worsened after PD was diagnosed.

After his diagnosis of PD his cocaine use increased drastically and his sexual behaviour became more violent, including performing sadistic acts on his partners. This had occurred already years before the start of dopaminergic treatment. He was first arrested in 2014 after an unprovoked shooting incident, during which he randomly fired a bob gun at a woman. Prior to that, he had murdered an older lady, and unsuccessfully attempted to break into the house of another woman with the intention of killing her. Shortly after release from prison, he unsuccessfully assaulted another woman. He was finally arrested at the end of 2015 after murdering an ex-girlfriend in an extreme act of sadistic violence, which he had recorded on videotape. He confessed and admitted the planning of more homicides.

In court, the defence argued that dopaminergic treatment had caused a change in behaviour, with obsessive thoughts, repetitive actions and hobbyism (playing with miniature train sets). They interpreted these as signs of an impulse control disorder and suggested a causal link with paraphilia and the urge to commit homicide. It is unclear from the media reports whether any attempts were made to modify his treatment. Nevertheless, some newspaper articles had sensational headlines, stating that the defendant "became a serial killer after intake of antiparkinsonian treatment". The forensic psychiatrists refuted the defence lawyers' arguments and stressed the accused’s premorbid sociopathic personality and the meticulous and premeditated planning of his crimes. He was found guilty of all charges and held accountable for his actions, and finally sentenced for life.

Discussion

Regardless of the outcome of this specific trial, we consider it important to discuss whether this unfortunate case history might point to a larger and hitherto undetected problem, and address carefully whether a potential relationship might exist between PD and its treatment on the one hand, and aggressive behaviour – causing an urge to commit homicides – on the other.

In contrast to other neurodegenerative disorders, such as frontotemporal dementia and Huntington's disease1,2, there seems to be no reason to suspect an overrepresentation of patients with PD in homicide statistics. Thus far, only a handful of cases have linked PD to aggression. The first was a case of unprovoked violence in a 77-year old man with a 10-year history of PD who was treated with dopamine receptor agonists3. His prior history mentioned a single episode of depression 20 years earlier. There were no previous bouts of violence or aggression. This patient violently attacked his wife with a knife. He was found to be hallucinating and confused, apparently due to self-medication with dopamine receptor agonists, attempting to improve his progressing motor symptoms. Cognitive testing suggested mild cognitive impairment. No further aggressive episodes were seen during follow-up, and confusion disappeared when his dopaminergic treatment was modified. The patient expressed remorse on what had happened. This report pointed to an unequivocal temporal relation with overdosing of dopaminergic agonists in the setting of drug-induced hallucinations and confusion.

The second case involved serial pet killing by a patient with early-onset PD who was treated with high doses of pramipexole4. This patient had a longstanding prior history of psychiatric problems with drug abuse, depression, suicidal attempts and repeated aggression to others. He experienced his misdemeanour as an urge he could not resist, but also wanted to be helped and expressed remorse. His symptoms disappeared after switching pramipexole to levodopa and adding clozapine.

We are personally aware of 1 more ill-documented case of severely violent aggression in a PD patient. It concerned a middle-aged patient, who was treated with a moderate dose of levodopa and a dopamine agonist for several years. This man attempted to kill his former girlfriend in an act of jealousy. The patient was cognitively intact and was not delusional at the time of the attempted homicide. A forensic psychiatric examination identified antisocial traits in his personality profile and presented evidence that these had been present before his disease. This patient was convicted to emprisonment (P. Santens, unpublished observations). Finally, one of us (A.J. Lees) is aware of two cases of attempted rape committed by patients with PD. There are also media reports of rape cases and a poorly documented homicide committed by an 82-year-old man with PD.

Is it reasonable to suspect that criminal behaviour could reflect an impulse control disorder, as a side effect of dopaminergic medication? The presence of impulse control disorders following treatment with dopaminergic agents is well documented, occurring in up to 20% of PD patients over the course of their illness, with a preponderance of younger men, and especially those who demonstrated a premorbid tendency for impulsivity5. Compulsive sexual behaviour, leading to inappropriate actions such as repetitive masturbation, exhibitionism, voyeurism and an obsessive interest in pornography has been reported6. In addition, cases of paraphilia, including (transvestic) fetishism, have also been published7. Although a novel interest in violent sexual acts such as sadomasochistic sexual activity and strangulation are not usually included in this list, such rare cases with even penal consequences have been reported8. There are also rare reports of pedophilic behaviour in treated PD patients, but in these cases, insight seemed to be retained and the behaviour occurred against a general background of marked hypersexuality9. It remains to be established to what extent these sexually aberrant phenomena correlate with premorbid features and behavior.

Although impairments of social cognition have been found in PD10 and can be explained by existing models of basal ganglia dysfunction11, there is no unequivocal evidence for a severe disruption of moral decision making that correlates with dopaminergic treatment12. Further research in moral neuroscience is needed, but until new insights arise, there is currently no evidence that impulsivity caused by dopamine replacement therapy alone can serve as a valid defence in homicide cases. However, there is little doubt that this argumentation will be used by the defense in every case involving criminal activities by a patient with PD and dopaminergic treatment to suggest nonaccountability.

There may be other possible explanations for a relation between PD and criminal (or other aggressive deviant) behavior. First, special attention should be paid to patients with detectable deterioration of cognition, in whom moral judgment might be impaired in the context of dementia. In these patients, aggression and violence may occur more easily, particularly among patients with a premorbid personality profile fitting with such aggression and violence. Second, psychotic episodes may severely disrupt the interpretation of reality and lead to acts of violence due to hallucinatory or delusional experiences.

We conclude that violent and criminal behaviour in PD patients has been reported only scarcely. Although it is likely that this reflects its rare occurrence, we suspect that there is underreporting of these cases in the medical literature. We therefore urge the movement disorder community to report additional cases of violent criminal behaviour in PD patients whenever they are encountered. The interpretation of such behaviour in relation to the disease and its treatment should be done very carefully, and must include an analysis of premorbid personality traits, thorough investigation of the nature of the defective behaviour and an appreciation of the temporal relation with start of dopamine replacement treatment and any dose augmentations (and similarly, any improvements following dose reductions or cessation of treatment). We should avoid making generalizable statements concerning the relation between PD (and its treatment) with criminal acts to avoid unfair stigmatization of this already vulnerable population of patients, especially in this era of social media and rapid unfiltered diffusion of messages. Adverse publicity including headlines such as ‘Sick old man chases nurses round the ward’ delayed the widespread introduction of levodopa in the nineteen sixties, as the medication was viewed as a powerful drug that should only be used in specialist centers. Likewise, although we are beginning to overcome the harmful phobia for levodopa and other dopaminergic medications13, we should also avoid installing a new and unnecessary fear of dopaminergic medication among patients as this might lead to anxiety and avoidable disability. Meanwhile, however, clinicians should remain aware of behavioral alterations as a potential source of disability in patients with PD, and therefore evaluation and, if necessary, remediation of behavior should be considered an integral part of the follow-up of patients.

References

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