To a Woman With a Big Nose
Opinion
By Judy Oppenheimer
My sister Debbie has always been gorgeous — great face, great body. When I happened to find a picture taken 20 years ago, showing us all grouped around our family’s beloved dining room table, I was thrilled at how young and fit we all looked.
But I hid it from her for months.
The reason is simple: the picture shows her in profile. My sister hates her profile. More specifically, she hates her nose, with a passion beyond reason, at least to my mind and to everyone else’s.
Small noses don’t run in the family; I don’t think any have appeared in several generations.
My grandfather, who died when I was 5, reportedly had one, but so far as anyone knows, this particular gene was then lost, or submerged, forever. Anyway, Zayde’s nose, which is still fondly remembered by older relatives — “Now Zayde had a good nose!”, accompanied by general murmurs of appreciation — has yet to reappear.
On the whole, though, we’re a good-looking family, and so what if our noses aren’t tiny raised bumps? We’re Jewish, aren’t we?
Never bothered me. My sister’s another matter. I’ve argued with her about it often enough, but finally gave up. She wants to hate it, that’s her prerogative.
But then something happened: I happened to see the recent Julie Christie movie, “Away from Her,” the one she got an Academy Award nomination for. Everyone had been raving about how absolutely beautiful she looks in it, despite her age, which is apparently something unspeakable, like 60.
So I saw it. The acting was fine, but something was definitely off. Christie, who I remembered well from her (and my) youth, just didn’t look the same. The Julie Christie of the past — “Darling,” “Shampoo,” “Dr. Zhivago” — had been truly stunning. Memorable. The kind of looks that haunt you.
This Julie Christie was older, sure, but that wasn’t it. She was also conventionally pretty. Regular, uninteresting, dime-a-dozen prom queen looks.
She’d never looked like that before. I’d heard she’d had a facelift, but somehow, I knew that wasn’t it. Was it possible this was someone else, masquerading as Christie? I couldn’t figure it out.
Then one night I came across an old Christie film, “Heaven Can Wait.” And the answer was there: The young Christie was as ravishingly beautiful as I remembered — with a proud, impressive nose.
She’d gotten a nose job! That was what had made the difference. It had to be something she’d always wanted; noses don’t change with age. Obviously she figured if she was fixing things up, she might as well go all the way.
And with one fell swoop of the surgical knife, she had gotten rid of everything that made her exotic, arresting, interesting — and beautiful.
It reminded me of the Jennifer Grey story. Remember her? A little girl, but with quite a nose on her. She got a lot of attention for her role in “Dirty Dancing,” where apparently her nose was considered okay since she was playing a Jewish girl.
Only it wasn’t to her — not long afterwards, she got herself to the nearest surgeon, who obligingly chopped her nose down to a bare nub.
And no one ever heard from her again.
A fully rendered nose can be not only distinctive, but actually enhance a person’s attractiveness, giving it interest, an arresting beauty. As Jennifer Grey knows, the lack of one can sink the whole enterprise.
My friend Janie is an actress. She is also Jewish and has a decent sized nose, no minor blip. Early on in her career she played the Anne Sullivan part in “The Miracle Worker.” That play has a strenuous physical scene in which Anne, the teacher, is trying to tame Helen Keller.
Wrestling with her co-star in one performance, Janie smashed into the table, fell — and broke her nose. (Trooper that she is, she was all for finishing the scene, but they pulled her offstage before she bled all over the set.)
She had only one instruction for the surgeon: Don’t dare change my nose! No smoothing out, no carving, nothing. Her nose is a part of her looks and she wanted it to stay exactly as it was. And so it has.
I hold no breach against plastic surgery, and wouldn’t mind having a few things ironed out, or lifted. But my nose will stay as it is, for the duration. And so should my sister’s. Yours, too.
Judy Oppenheimer is the author of “Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson” (Ballantine Books, 1989).
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Jennifer Grey did NOT intentionally get a nose job. She was very proud of her nose. She needed surgery on her nose for other reasons and the surgeon without her permission altered her nose to its present state.
I am definetly a nose man. A nose really defines character. My own nose is miniscule (my luck!) If nose extenders would be available at a reasonable price, I would buy one.
Noses CAN change with age--but, without surgical intervention, they do not shrink.
Many long centuries of inbreeding has taken a toll on the Jewish body (and mind) for sure. And the Jewish nose is only one result of all of that inbreeding.
Some Jews have big noses just like Arabs, Italians, and others do. I'm personlly sick and tired of everyone equating Jews with big noses. None of my large extended Jewish family have big noses and we all have two Jewish parents. There is nothing wrong with Jewish bodies or minds. Look at the number of Jewish Nobel Prize winners and all the conrtibutions that Jews have made to the world. Other ethnic groups have big noses not just Jews so what does that have to do with inbreeding? Eman is the product of inbreeding between his White trash mother and her brother. Where do these idots come from?
Hurray! We don't all have to look the same. I think our culture needs to appreciate our faces and noses as God intended them to be. Our nose and our ears are the only parts of our face that continue to grow as we age.
This is a libel on Julie Christie. Go to imdb.com and compare the pictures of her from 1966 and 2006 -- her nose is larger in 2006, which is a normal course of aging. You owe your readers a correction and Julie Christie an apology.
There's probably nothing better looking than a big nose. All the better to smell with, the paraphrase the wolf from "Little Red Riding Hood".
I may have a big nose, but that's not the only part of me that's big. Eat your hearts out ...
Jennifer Grey was perfect with her nose the first way. They should hang the doctor who touched her.
that was just beautiful wise words :)i am thinking to have a nose job, cause im the girl that gets teased all te time for haveing a big nose. but people still say im pretty its just my nose :( it makes me soo upset and deppresed about myself and makes me want to get a nose job but i dont want to have a fake nose, i want it the way it is now im not trying to impress everyone. but it would be nice just for someone not to tease me about how big my nose is :(..
Thank´s for this words! I have a ugly big nose and I think of it every day. I´m 44 years old!!! But now I will try to think like you! Thanks!
awesome
hey im 12 with a big nose and i cant take it anymore i ahte when people make fun of me and i hate meeting people becuz i wonder what they say about my nose and people keep making fun of me and i dont know what to do i cry everyday about and i cant take it anymore what should i do????
Melanie, I promise things will get better for you.
You are 12 and kids your age can be very mean and cruel. As you grow up people gradually become more mature and more polite.
Verbal abusers are people who hate themselves and need to make someone else feel bad in order to make themselves feel better. They are pathetic and weak.
I have a small nose and when I was 12 people made fun of me for other things. Your problem is not your nose. If you didn't have a big nose you would be feeling bad about something else. Girls your age almost always feel bad about themselves one way or another. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
Self-love and self-acceptance get easier as you get more mature, more experienced, and stronger. You will be a completely different person in five years. Wait it out. Things will get better, I promise.
I have a big nose. If I didn't i'd be absolutely gorgeous and could model. I hate my nose. I almost got it fixed a couple years ago but then i felt guilty. I still might. Let's be honest, if someone is beautiful they are beautiful even if they have a slight bump like Rachel Weisz...however a big nose on a beautiful face just gets in the way. I think big noses are horrible. For me I mean. If someone likes their nose that's awesome, but if I could make all the noses in the world small and pretty I would. I hate my big nose and I hate people who have pretty noses because they complain about other things that are easily fixable. There's not makeup to make your nose smaller...not in the way that lipstick enhances small lips or eyes can get bigger with liner. A big nose is the worst flaw to have. I would rather be flat chested or have no ass if I could have a perfect face.
I have a big nose and i have been teased for a long time. I have hated myself and i sometimes dont want to go to school because i see other popular preety girls. But i guess we just have to live with it and try to ignore it even if they tease us big noses in public, we have to think were beautiful !
I have a small nose,so I wouldn't know how it'll be to have a big nose. But some people with big noses are very attractive cause everything else about them is perfect.Don't think people with big noses are automatically ugly.It is distracting,tough,I'm not gonna lie.
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