Making the body beautiful : a cultural history of aesthetic surgery / Sander L. Gilman.

Author
Gilman, Sander L. [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, ©1999.
Description
xxii, 396 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks RD118 .G55 1999 Browse related items Request
    Forrestal Annex - ReserveRD118 .G55 1999 Browse related items Request

      Details

      Subject(s)
      Summary note
      • "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."
      • "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."--Jacket.
      Bibliographic references
      Includes bibliographical references (p. [335]-383) and index.
      Contents
      • Judging by Appearances
      • What Is Aesthetic Surgery?
      • Why Is It Aesthetic Surgery?
      • Remaking the Self
      • "Passing"
      • Criminal Bodies
      • Gender Questions
      • "Before and After"
      • Victory over Disease
      • Amy and the Princess
      • The Syphilitic Nose
      • The Strange Case of Tristram Shandy
      • Renaissance Noses
      • A Cure from the Colonies
      • The Racial Nose
      • Enlightenment Noses
      • The Jewish Nose
      • Irish Noses
      • "Oriental" Noses-and Eyes
      • Black into White ill
      • Marks of Honor and Dishonor
      • Character Inscribed on the Face
      • Too-Jewish Ears and Noses
      • The Telltale Foreskin
      • Greek Ideals
      • Noses at War
      • Fixing Shattered Faces
      • Patriotic Noses and Weimar Surgery
      • Nazi Noses
      • Assimilation in the Promised Lands
      • Helping Jews Become Americans
      • The Israeli Experience
      • The Importance of Being Barbra
      • After the Nose
      • Erotic Bodies
      • Buttocks Have Meaning
      • Big Breasts and Bellies
      • Small Breasts--No Breasts?
      • The Wrong Body
      • Men with Breasts
      • Transsexual Surgery
      • The First Cut Is the Deepest
      • Dreams of Youth and Beauty
      • Beauty and Age
      • Post-Aesthetic Bodies
      • Conclusion: "Passing" as Human.
      ISBN
      • 0691026726 ((CL ; : alk. paper))
      • 9780691026725 ((CL ; : alk. paper))
      • 0691070539
      • 9780691070537
      LCCN
      98048423
      OCLC
      40311505
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