Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery

Rating:
Summary: TERRIFIC BOOK ABOUT ABOUT COSMETIC SURGERY!
Review: Elizabeth Haiken, a U. of Tennessee history professor, has written a great, and at times chilling book about what used to be commonly called "plastic surgery," but which has come to be termed "cosmetic surgery."

From the start (in the 19th century!), Cosmetic Surgery has always been controversial, and its practitioners accused of being quacks, often with justification. More than 100 years ago (in 1892), Rochester, NY surgeon John Orlando Roe published reports about his work doing "intranasal rhinoplasty" (nose jobs), and his success at correcting the then widespread "saddle nose" deformity caused by syphilis. Roe's idea was to build up the depression on noses of people afflicted by "saddle nose" problems, and thus help free them from the public stigma of having contracted a terrible venereal disease. Roe's "nose jobs" were NOT done only to make people prettier. People with "saddle noses" were denied employment and rejected as marriage partners (even though their syphilis episode may have been over).

The politics of Cosmetic Surgery has been thick for a century. Haiken relates the tale of breast enlargements done in the 1960's using techniques of silicone injections. Such operations resulted in terrible tragedies, including amputated breasts. When the special "cosmetic silicone" was withdrawn from the market by its suppliers, quack surgeons CONTINUED to offer the breast enlargement operation (made famous by Carol Doda, a San Francisco night club dancer) using industral silicone, even more dangerous than the withdrawn silicone.

Elizabeth Haiken's book is filled with fascinating graphic illustrations of cosmetic surgery examples and not a few "quack display advertisements" (including a current era ad offering penis enlargement and lengthening by Cosmetic Surgery International. The ad includes both an 800 phone number and an Internet Web Site address!). It also includes detailed discussion and examples of various persons seeking to escape ethnic identity labeling, or at least accused of so doing by detractors.

Haiken has written a valuable and, for all its spectacular examples and gossipy talk, a surprisingly thoughtful and intelligent book. She has combined worthwhile history professor scholarship with clear and fast paced writing style. The result is a book worth buying and reading over and over again.

Rating:
Summary: TERRIFIC BOOK ABOUT ABOUT COSMETIC SURGERY!
Review: Elizabeth Haiken, a U. of Tennessee history professor, has written a great, and at times chilling book about what used to be commonly called "plastic surgery," but which has come to be termed "cosmetic surgery."

From the start (in the 19th century!), Cosmetic Surgery has always been controversial, and its practitioners accused of being quacks, often with justification. More than 100 years ago (in 1892), Rochester, NY surgeon John Orlando Roe published reports about his work doing "intranasal rhinoplasty" (nose jobs), and his success at correcting the then widespread "saddle nose" deformity caused by syphilis. Roe's idea was to build up the depression on noses of people afflicted by "saddle nose" problems, and thus help free them from the public stigma of having contracted a terrible venereal disease. Roe's "nose jobs" were NOT done only to make people prettier. People with "saddle noses" were denied employment and rejected as marriage partners (even though their syphilis episode may have been over).

The politics of Cosmetic Surgery has been thick for a century. Haiken relates the tale of breast enlargements done in the 1960's using techniques of silicone injections. Such operations resulted in terrible tragedies, including amputated breasts. When the special "cosmetic silicone" was withdrawn from the market by its suppliers, quack surgeons CONTINUED to offer the breast enlargement operation (made famous by Carol Doda, a San Francisco night club dancer) using industral silicone, even more dangerous than the withdrawn silicone.

Elizabeth Haiken's book is filled with fascinating graphic illustrations of cosmetic surgery examples and not a few "quack display advertisements" (including a current era ad offering penis enlargement and lengthening by Cosmetic Surgery International. The ad includes both an 800 phone number and an Internet Web Site address!). It also includes detailed discussion and examples of various persons seeking to escape ethnic identity labeling, or at least accused of so doing by detractors.

Haiken has written a valuable and, for all its spectacular examples and gossipy talk, a surprisingly thoughtful and intelligent book. She has combined worthwhile history professor scholarship with clear and fast paced writing style. The result is a book worth buying and reading over and over again.

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting book
Review: I read this book while doing undergraduate research on plastic surgery in the 1920's. As far as I can tell, this is the only scholarly history of plastic surgery done to date. The book was fascinating and well-written, and Dr. Haiken did an incredible job of showing the social climate that lent to the proliferation of plastic surgery in American society.

Rating:
Summary: Pop history -- not medical history -- of the thinnest sort
Review: This book is tendentious screed, written by a would-be social constructionist who has little feel for patients who seek plastic surgery and the physicians who offer it.