VIRGINIA POSTREL ON breaking the plastic surgery taboo.

Why must public figures pretend that “aging gracefully” means accepting whatever nature doles out? Why can’t cosmetic surgery be as morally neutral as makeup or hair dye? Why do we surround cosmetic surgery with obfuscations and outright lies?

When aging stars pretend that their youthful faces are merely the product of good personal habits, they aren’t downplaying the importance of appearance or encouraging people to focus on more important things. They’re doing exactly the opposite — asserting their superiority to the aging plebes whose chins droop and foreheads crease. Fonda does have excellent posture, but no 80-year-old has a neck like that without the medical intervention she acknowledges but so many others deny.

Plus, what Megyn Kelly didn’t get about the Today Show: “She naively assumed she could hijack what amounted to a video press release with a legitimate reportorial inquiry.”