Betty studies at the university and works in a supermarket on weekends to earn money for a breast enlargement. Laura has decided to remove the wrinkles from around her eyes with a facelift in order to save her marriage. Peters friends mock him because of his protruding ears, and his parents are thinking of corrective surgery. Changing ones body with a scalpel is an increasingly widespread practice, but it is really a recent development? And why do we do it: to please ourselves or others? This book reviews the history of cosmetic surgery, identifying surprising continuities in the process that has lead to its contemporary status as a commonplace activity. Cosmetic surgery was already practiced on noses injured during medieval duels and on immigrants Jewish noses at the beginning of the 20th century. After World War II many Asians attempted to westernize the appearance of their eyes. The sculpted body of the businesswoman is only the most recent manifestation of individuals desire for social integration.Betty studies at the university and works in a supermarket on weekends to earn money for a breast enlargement. Laura has decided to remove the wrinkles from around her eyes with a facelift in order to save her marriage. Peters friends mock him because of his protruding ears, and his parents are thinking of corrective surgery. Changing ones body with a scalpel is an increasingly widespread practice, but it is really a recent development? And why do we do it: to please ourselves or others? This book reviews the history of cosmetic surgery, identifying surprising continuities in the process that has lead to its contemporary status as a commonplace activity. Cosmetic surgery was already practiced on noses injured during medieval duels and on immigrants Jewish noses at the beginning of the 20th century. After World War II many Asians attempted to westernize the appearance of their eyes. The sculpted body of the businesswoman is only the most recent manifestation of individuals desire for social integration.

Rossella Ghigi teaches Cultural Sociology at the University of Bologna.