Presumably our friend Derbyshire is picking up a handful of these for all the over-20 crones on his list.

"Luckily their thoughtful husbands are gobbling up gift certificates from the office of New York vein specialist Lee Schulman, whose nurses are encouraging him to print up gift cards."

Are the husbands of these women [and do they all have husbands?] really to blame for this? Isn't it possible that the women who want these procedures came up with the idea on their own? Yes, yes, I know the evil and all-powerful Patriarchy-Matrix put that thought in their heads in the first place. [Why can't the Patriarchy-Matrix every conspire to do something useful, like ensuring my Nationals win the World Series some time in the next decade or so?] But at what point do we hold women accountable for their own choices? After all, the gigantically clever and ironic women who write this blog are insightful enough to look down upon cosmetic surgery and the evil husbands who force it upon their wives. So why can't other women share in this wisdom? Is the Patriarchy-Matrix really to blame? Are the evil husbands really to blame? Or should these other women, who, as we recall, lack the wit and intellect of Broadsheet writers, be held responsible for their own choices?

Just asking.

Enjoy the poison this holiday season.

or they wouldn't be buying them, maybe the wives do too, but really. I thought I was hyper sensitve. Still, since it has come up, it's probably as good a time as any to point out that while women feel pressure, etc, to look good they also get benefits out of looking good that men don't unless they're gay (indiscriminate positive regard from many potential partners). Men have more control over how they look but it doesn't matter much.