Extreme Makeover: Jews And The Invention Of Cosmetic Surgery February 23, 2006

Sander Gilman on "Extreme Makeover: Jews And The Invention Of Cosmetic Surgery"

What does the nose job have to do with the Dreyfus Affair or Kant's theories of beauty? Sander Gilman considers philosophical and historical questions rarely broached by cosmetic surgeons or their patients. He looks at how new notions of race, beauty, and happiness arose in the 18th and 19th centuries, and how these turned "the Jewish nose" into an obsession for Jews and non-Jews alike. How are ideals of beauty informed by notions of race and ethnicity? How does external appearance relate to emotional well-being? And how has plastic surgery affected debates about Jewish identity? Sander Gilman's many books include The Jew's Body, Creating Beauty to Cure the Soul, and Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of Aesthetic Surgery.
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