Imigrantes, cirurgias plásticas e poder em dois tempos: contribuição para uma hipótese de pesquisa

Abstract

This article formulates a research hypothesis about the use of plastic surgery by immigrants in two political differing scenarios both socially and culturally at the time frontier between the XIX and XX centuries, plastic surgery being seen as a resource for affirmation of a sole and centered identity that were scientifically and politically legitimated by ideas propounding racial superiority and social evolution. In the transition of XIX century to the XX century, however, surgical interventions to change physical appearance was a strategy approach that did not eliminate the possibility of acquiring other identities (gender, sexual orientation etc). In the two scenarios, immigrants that underwent plastic surgeries were searching to “erase” bodily marks that would reveal their foreign condition and hamper their search of advancement in the job market and social environment.