Change Your Face, Change Your Life? Prison Plastic Surgery as a Way to Reduce Recidivism.

The paper explores the history and ethics of prison plastic surgery programs, which ran from the 1950s through as late as 1988 in the UK, the US, and Canada. I focus in particular on the Oakalla Prison, the Haney Young Offenders Correctional Unit, and the Kingston Penitentiary in Canada; the Huntsville Penitentiary in Texas; the Camp Hill Borstal in England; and the collaboration between Montifiore Hospital and Sing-Sing Prison in New York. Sometimes federally funded, these programs were designed to reduce rates of recidivism, operating under the notion that a changed face could lead to a changed character. The surgeries were rooted in a commitment to rehabilitation through medicine, offering participants access to surgery in exchange for good behavior, participation in an experimental protocol, and in some cases, providing training for medical students and residents. As I show, these programs were consonant with prevailing experimental and ethical ethos, and maintain deep continuity with the idea that changes in appearance could lead to changes in behavior.

Forward--the visual culture of the queer in the clinic.

This short essay provides an overview of the Visual Studies section of the special issue "Queer in the Clinic." Addressing the impact of visual culture on queer experiences in the clinic, the author offers thoughts on the graphic artwork of Edie Fake and Brain Cremins's essay included in this issue. Arguing that contemporary and historical visual assessments of the LGBTQ clinical subject are vital contributors to queer bioethical debates, she explains relevant concepts such as "radical somatic transformation," "the nature of bodily possibility," and Walter Benjamin's "world of secret affinities."

Building beauty: physiognomy on the gas-lit stage.

From 1816 onwards, London theatres began to install gas-lighting systems to replace candles. In addition to allowing theatre managers to adjust the level of illumination, gas lights offered greater brightness and visibility for the audience. Actors had to adjust to this new level of exposure that threatened their ability to "look the part." Until this illuminating moment, there had been little need for makeup and actors to adhere to the principles of physiognomy--a system that correlated character traits to facial features. Under the new harsh glare of the gas lights, both the faces of the actors and the theatres themselves were found wanting.