So what on earth is O'Neill doing now by falling backwards into the bottomless pit that is the beauty myth? When quizzed by Judith Warner in The New York Times as to why a tax on Botox was ''devaluing'' women ''for being middle-aged'', O'Neill argued that access to cosmetic surgery – Botox, breast enhancement, face lifts etc – is an important contemporary feminist issue. In a nutshell, this leading feminist is suggesting that if middle-aged women are serious about getting - or keeping - a job, then they must buy into the myth that they are only as good as they look, and spend money on a good plastic surgeon. ''I know a lot of women whose earning power stalled out or kicked down as they entered into their 50s, unlike their male counterparts', whose really went up'', she told Warner. And no doubt that is very true. But is cosmetic surgery really the answer? And are women really the problem?

This issue is hot in the US right now because the massive health care reform bill currently before Congress includes a 5 per cent excise tax on cosmetic surgery and ''related procedures''. It's been dubbed the ''Bo-Tax''. O'Neill is arguing against it because she says it hits middle-aged women hardest: which it no doubt does. But her claim that cosmetic surgery is not a luxury, but rather a modern day necessity is where she comes unstuck. Her argument that it's up to women to nip, tuck and enhance themselves as much as they can afford, because ''we live in a society that punishes women for getting older'', is where her particular brand of feminism not only falls apart, but shatters with contradiction.

As president of NOW, surely O'Neill is aware of her own organisation's ''Love Your Body'' campaign? In its website blurb women are told how dreadful it is that Hollywood and the fashion, diet and cosmetic industries ''make each of us believe that our bodies are unacceptable and need constant improvement''. The campaign calls on women to rally and ''together we can fight back''. So, where's the ''fight back'' in encouraging middle-aged women to believe that the battle has been lost, and their best weapon of defence is the cosmetic surgeon's scalpel, or the beautician's syringe?

There is no doubt cosmetic surgery is no longer an ''if'' but a ''when'' proposition for many women. And as a dull ''sameness'' pervades celebrity circles, where it's getting increasingly harder to tell one puffed lip and expressionless brow from the other, perhaps it just doesn't matter. Perhaps it's just an exercise in choice. But where is the feminist scrutiny of that choice?

What hope is there of women receiving any respect and admiration for the wisdom and maturity they've achieved by middle-age, if even NOW is telling them they're old hags? Ironically the NOW ''Love Your Body' campaign appears aimed at girls and young women, rather than those in their 40s, 50s or beyond. And yet it's that older demographic most at risk of being socially sidelined and rendered invisible.