Here's a fascinating detailed account of aesthetic surgery since
the mid-19th-century - the reconstruction of noses, breast
enhancing and buttock-lifting, liposuction, abdominoplasty,
'foreskin reconstruction' (don't ask) and (oh dear, yes) the
swopping about of genitals. Fascinating, yes; but not for the
squeamish, and as if detailed descriptions of the surgery were not
enough, the reader is provided with bloody close-ups of noses built
from the skin of the forehead, vaginas invented from the ruins of
penises, penises contrived from folds of stomach fat... An
excellent present, perhaps, for a squeamish enemy? (Kirkus UK)
Nose reconstructions have been common in India for centuries.
South Korea, Brazil, and Israel have become international centers
for procedures ranging from eyelid restructuring to buttock lifts
and tummy tucks. Argentina has the highest rate of silicone
implants in the world. Around the globe, aesthetic surgery has
become a cultural and medical fixture. Sander Gilman seeks to
explain why by presenting the first systematic world history and
cultural theory of aesthetic surgery. Touching on subjects as
diverse as getting a "nose job" as a sweet-sixteen birthday present
and the removal of male breasts in seventh-century Alexandria,
Gilman argues that aesthetic surgery has such universal appeal
because it helps people to "pass," to be seen as a member of a
group with which they want to or need to identify.
Gilman begins by addressing basic questions about the history of
aesthetic surgery. What surgical procedures have been performed?
Which are considered aesthetic and why? Who are the patients? What
is the place of aesthetic surgery in modern culture? He then turns
his attention to that focus of countless human anxieties: the nose.
Gilman discusses how people have reshaped their noses to repair the
ravages of war and disease (principally syphilis), to match
prevailing ideas of beauty, and to avoid association with negative
images of the "Jew," the "Irish," the "Oriental," or the "Black."
He examines how we have used aesthetic surgery on almost every
conceivable part of the body to try to pass as younger, stronger,
thinner, and more erotic. Gilman also explores some of the extremes
of surgery as personal transformation, discussing transgender
surgery, adult circumcision and foreskin restoration, the
enhancement of dueling scars, and even a performance artist who had
herself altered to resemble the Mona Lisa.
The book draws on an extraordinary range of sources. Gilman is
as comfortable discussing Nietzsche, Yeats, and Darwin as he is
grisly medical details, Michael Jackson, and Barbra Streisand's
decision to keep her own nose. The book contains dozens of
arresting images of people before, during, and after surgery. This
is a profound, provocative, and engaging study of how humans have
sought to change their lives by transforming their bodies.
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