The Ugly History of Cosmetic Surgery

submitted 5 years ago by johnburnette122 to news

Cosmetic surgery instinctively seems like a modern phenomenon. Yet it has a much longer and more complicated history than most people likely imagine. Its origins lie in part in the correction of syphilitic deformities and racialized ideas about “healthy” and acceptable facial features as much as any purely aesthetic ideas about symmetry, for instance.