An innovative investigation of the five strange worlds that worship women’s chests. After years of biopsies, best-selling author Sarah Thornton made the difficult decision to have a double mastectomy. But, after her reconstructive surgery, she was perplexed: What had she lost? And gained? An experienced sleuth, she resolved to venture behind the scenes to uncover the social and cultural significance of breasts. Riotous and galvanizing, Tits Up excavates the diverse truths of mammary glands from the strip club to the operating room, from the nation’s oldest human milk bank to the fit rooms of bra designers. Thornton draws insights from plastic surgeons, lactation consultants, body-positive witches, lingerie models, and “free the nipple” activists to explore the status of breasts as emblems of femininity. She examines how women’s chests have become a billion-dollar business, as well as a stage for debates about race, class, gender, and desire. Everywhere she turns, Thornton encounters chauvinist myths about this elemental body part that quietly justify deficits in women’s bodily autonomy and endorse shortfalls in their political status. Blending sociology, reportage, and personal narrative with refreshing optimism and wit, Thornton has one overriding ambition—to liberate breasts from centuries of patriarchal prejudice.

Boobs. Knockers. Jugs. Cans. Baps. Melons. Puppies. Fun bags. Bosoms. Hooters. In the English language there are over 700 expressions for female mammary glands – the majority of which are mostly used by men. In Tits Up, bestselling author, sociologist and journalist Sarah Thornton asks how is it that we look at breasts so much, but reflect on them so little. It was after Sarah underwent a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery that she found herself considering how we think about breasts, and what that tells us about ourselves. Across five chapters, she encounters strippers, plastic surgeons, bra designers, modern witches, lactation experts and donors to breast milk banks to create the ultimate biography of humanity's most culturally important body part. Surprising, sharp, tender and true, Tits Up explores how women’s chests shape our ideas of beauty, health, respect, self-esteem and equality. Blending real-life accounts with sociology, history, art and culture, and written with refreshing optimism and wit, Thornton has one overriding ambition to: liberate breasts from centuries of patriarchal prejudice.

A fly-on-the-wall account of the smart and strange subcultures that make, trade, curate, collect, and hype contemporary art. The art market has been booming. Museum attendance is surging. More people than ever call themselves artists. Contemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description, and, for some, a kind of alternative religion. In a series of beautifully paced narratives, Sarah Thornton investigates the drama of a Christie's auction, the workings in Takashi Murakami's studios, the elite at the Basel Art Fair, the eccentricities of Artforum magazine, the competition behind an important art prize, life in a notorious art-school seminar, and the wonderland of the Venice Biennale. She reveals the new dynamics of creativity, taste, status, money, and the search for meaning in life. A judicious and juicy account of the institutions that have the power to shape art history, based on hundreds of interviews with high-profile players, Thornton's entertaining ethnography will change the way you look at contemporary culture.

Breasts: The Women‘s Perspective on an American Obsession describes and explores our national breast fetish, which is defined as a culturally constructed obsession that is deeply interwoven with beauty standards, breastfeeding practices, and sexuality. By tracing the complex history of this erotic fascination and discovering how it affects men‘s an

Breasts: The Women's Perspective on an American Obsession describes and explores our national breast fetish, which is defined as a culturally constructed obsession that is deeply interwoven with beauty standards, breastfeeding practices, and sexuality. By tracing the complex history of this erotic fascination and discovering how it affects men's and women's sexuality and their relationships, this book will help women accept their breasts as they are and provide male readers with insight into how women think and feel about their bodies. This awareness will enable them to better understand and empathize with women's experiences as objects of a cultural fetish.Focusing on adult joys and anxieties about breasts, sex, and breastfeeding, this text uses research and expert opinions from several different fields, including psychology, anthropology, sociology, mythology, and sexology. You will find several other issues in Breasts: The Women's Perspective on an American Obsession that involve men's and women's struggles with this obsession, such as: breast implants human psychology and breasts beauty standards and breast sexuality how breasts are portrayed in mythology and art how ancient religions saw the breast as a sign of motherhood and giver of life "breast men" debates on how and why the breast evolved adolescent girls and breasts breast activists, such as La Leche League, who are proponents of breastfeeding in publicThrough personal interviews with men and women, Breasts: The Women's Perspective on an American Obsession also addresses women's pride and shame about their breasts and their confusion about the attention their breasts receive. Ultimately, this exploration of breast obsession sheds light on our society's general fear of and ambivalence toward women's bodies. Breasts: The Women's Perspective on an American Obsession shows you that breasts have a venerable history and urges you to see beyond the contemporary standards of visual perfection to give you an overall sense of the female body's power and worth.

This is the first book to analyse the complexities of women's political participation on a cross-national scale and from a feminist perspective. Surveying forty-three countries, chosen to represent a variety of political systems, regions, and levels of ecomic development, questions of women's status, power, means, and methods of reform, are addressed on a global scale. Includes chapters on the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia(former), Egypt, France, Germany, Ghana, Great Britain, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Rebpublic of(South Korea), Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Peru, The Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Switzerland, Turkey, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics(former), United States, Uruguay.

"Whether you want to augment them, lift them, reduce them, or embrace them just the way they are, you'll get the inside scoop about breasts and cosmetic breast surgery in this educational and entertaining book. Dr. Ted Eisenberg, a plastic surgeon who holds the Guinness Record for most breast augmentations done in a lifetime, candidly answers hundreds of actual patient questions like: Am I too old for breast augmentation? Will my implants boil in a hot tub? Do I need to replace them every 10 years? Joyce Eisenberg offers up titillating titbits and extra padding about breast goddesses, go-topless days, and Great Britain, whose women have the largest breasts in Europe. Filled with close to 200 photographs and illustrations, The Scoop on Breasts: A Plastic Surgeon Busts the Myths is an amusing and revealing read. By book's end, you'll consider the authors your BBFs: Bosom Buddies Forever"--Amazon.com.