I questioned recently if we really need all the soaps and lotions and shampoos and other potions we've come to consider necessities.  Now the plot thickens and I find myself in even more ambiguous territory - territory that really pisses me off.  I went to the doctor this week, with what most would count as a legitimate medical inquiry.  The dermatologist spent 5 minutes on the serious potentially cancer-related question, and 25 minutes convincing me that I have a host of other medical problems curable by five different prescriptions. 

Am I going to tell him he's wrong?  That he's a beauty-fascist, disguising the demands of the beauty and pharma industries as medical advice?   Of course I wish I had flawless skin.  Of course I wish I looked like a movie star.  But it seems wrong to pathologize my average gifts.  What about all the people who fall nowhere near our cultural standards of beauty?  And why does my insurance pay for this stuff but not other stuff that's clearly more medically necessary?  What about all of the people (like myself a couple of years ago) who don't have insurance and need real drugs?  Maybe we can set up a program where the cost of all the prescriptions we don't choose to fill can be donated to people who need life-saving medicine?

At the same time, it's obviously appealing to think that with a little effort and a lot of money I could be a little less average in this department.  The stuff probably works...and then I'll be buying special skin crap for years to come.  Maybe I'd start to need it, take a huge bag with me when I travel, freak out when the bottles are low.  One of the things they gave me as a courtesy for some botched scheduling cost around $80 for a half an ounce.  Dependence on that could seriously impact my life - imagine giving up my part-time job freedom for some face cream!   I'll try the samples they gave me...and wonder if these doctors are just making more work for their friends the psychiatrists.