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Nose reconstructions have been common in India for centuries. South Korea, Brazil, and Israel have become international centres for procedures ranging from eyelid restructuring to buttock lifts and tummy tucks. Argentina has the highest rate of silicone implants in the world. Around the globe, aesthetic surgery has become a cultural and medical fixture. The author of this text seeks to explain why by presenting a systematic world history and cultural theory of aesthetic sugery. Touching on subjects as diverse as getting a "nose job" as a sweet-sixteen birthday present and the removal of male breasts in 7th-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 or need to identify.;The book draws on a range of sources. Gilman discuses Nietzsche, Yeats and Darwin, grisly details, Michael Jackson and Barbara Streisand's decision to keep her own nose. It contains dozens of images of people before, during and after surgery.