Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery [Hardcover]

Professor Elizabeth Haiken (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 1997

"Haiken has written a humane, balanced history of cosmetic surgery, drawing with sensitivity and deftness on impressive archival sources, including surgeons' folders on prospective patients... Her book is a first-class exercise in medical history, raising intriguing questions about normalization, ideological manipulation, gender, ethnicity, and the profit motive in medicine."--Richard Davenport-Hines, Nature

"What makes Venus Envy such an enthralling read is that alongside a host of macabre and 'no--really!' stories... there is a hugely intelligent and perceptive analysis of American culture and history going on."--London Times

Face lifts, nose jobs, breast implants, liposuction, collagen injections -- the body at the end of the twentieth century has become endlessly mutable, and surgical alteration has become an accepted part of American culture. In Venus Envy, Elizabeth Haiken traces the quest for physical perfection through surgery from the turn of the century to the present. Drawing on a wide array of sources -- personal accounts, medical records, popular magazines, medical journals, and beauty guides -- Haiken reveals how our culture came to see cosmetic surgery as a panacea for both individual and social problems.

"An informative, often engaging account of the history of cosmetic surgery in the United States."--Parade Magazine

"Original, well-researched, and a pleasure to read. It constitutes an astute analysis of the modern commodification of the body and the role of the medical profession in such developments." -- Roy Porter, Times Higher Education Supplement

"This is an important book, raising provocative questions about the ubiquity of cosmetic surgery in our culture... I'll certainly draw on its insights when counseling patients considering cosmetic surgery."--Janet E. Shepherd, M.D., Journal of the American Medical Association

"An entertaining history and serious analysis of the tensions among professional medicine, entrepreneurial practitioners, and the mutable ideal of beauty that reminds us how unchanging is the American search for self-improvement... If Venus Envy is a history of cosmetic surgery, it is equally a political history of beauty."--Sharon Lieberman, Women's Review of Books

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Cosmetic Surgery lies at the nexus of medicine and consumer culture," says University of Tennessee historian Elizabeth Haiken. In Venus Envy , she looks at this peculiarly American medical specialty as it developed over the 20th century. Doctors wanted power and control, to only perform surgery for medical reasons, while patients--or consumers--wanted to alter their appearance as they saw fit, without much regard for the usual standards of medical necessity. Haiken documents this struggle in scientific debate, medical records, women's magazines, and the faces of celebrities like Fanny Brice, Michael Jackson, and Cher. In the end, cosmetic surgery has become an accepted tool in the American drive toward self-definition. "Surgeons and patients are confident that, by altering individual facial configurations, cosmetic surgery can confer a wide range of benefits that together add up to the American dream--and they are right."

From Library Journal

Haiken (history,. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville) tracks the evolution of plastic surgery in America from early attempts during World War I to the numerous varieties of cosmetic surgery available today. The author uses materials from the National Archives of Plastic Surgery and the Jerome Pierce Webster Library of Plastic Surgery as well as popular and medical literature of the times to illustrate the social, ethnic, psychological, and economic concerns that have contributed to the tremendous expansion of cosmetic surgery. Haiken also discusses why plastic surgeons who originally practiced only reconstructive surgery began to include cosmetic surgery in their practices. This well-written volume portrays an interesting example of the intersection between medicine and culture and is recommended for medical history collections in academic or special libraries.?Tina Neville, Univ. of South Florida at St. Petersburg Lib.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (September 29, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801857635
• ISBN-13: 978-0801857638
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #337,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting book, June 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery (Hardcover)

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.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TERRIFIC BOOK ABOUT ABOUT COSMETIC SURGERY!, November 25, 2000

By 

David Roger Allen (Freeland, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery (Paperback)

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.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, detailed look at the history of Cosmetic Surger, April 18, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery (Hardcover)

This book is full of detailed information on how Cosmetic Surgery has progressed and I found it truly fascinating. However, it was difficult to follow at times, when a topic was brought up only to be dropped and then resurrected again at a later point. Full marks for thoroughness.