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The Breast Book: An Intimate and Curious History
Introducing the chunky, obsessive book of Breasts .
Using over 600 illustrations and photographs, The Breast Book is about changing social mores and attitudes, from classical Greek statuary to the Victorian corset to Twiggy to Pamela Lee. The Breast Book is about envy and etiquette, differences-why 90 percent of French women do not breastfeed, for example-and adornment, including make-up, tattooing, nipple rings, and more. Breasts is about politics, art, religion, kitsch, and burning the bra. About perceptions-90 percent of men prefer a size C over a D. About high art-whether the humanist breast in Renaissance painting or its feminist send-up by photographer Cindy Sherman-and pop art, from Vargas girls to World War II bomber mascots to Madonna. The Breast Book is about getting them right-falsies, bust improvers, gadgets, pumps, and creams-and showing them off, like Jayne Mansfield's, immortalized in cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.
A work of pop culture in itself, The Breast Book includes recurring visual elements like Time Lines and Great Moments of the Breast, plus Titbits-fascinating trivia running throughout.
Using over 600 illustrations and photographs, The Breast Book is about changing social mores and attitudes, from classical Greek statuary to the Victorian corset to Twiggy to Pamela Lee. The Breast Book is about envy and etiquette, differences-why 90 percent of French women do not breastfeed, for example-and adornment, including make-up, tattooing, nipple rings, and more. Breasts is about politics, art, religion, kitsch, and burning the bra. About perceptions-90 percent of men prefer a size C over a D. About high art-whether the humanist breast in Renaissance painting or its feminist send-up by photographer Cindy Sherman-and pop art, from Vargas girls to World War II bomber mascots to Madonna. The Breast Book is about getting them right-falsies, bust improvers, gadgets, pumps, and creams-and showing them off, like Jayne Mansfield's, immortalized in cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.
A work of pop culture in itself, The Breast Book includes recurring visual elements like Time Lines and Great Moments of the Breast, plus Titbits-fascinating trivia running throughout.
- GenresEroticaNonfiction
512 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2002
29 people want to read
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April 11, 2012
A curious book on history and meaning breasts have in today's society. The book is a compilation of art, photographs, poems, and quotes throughout history alongside some guiding text to emphasize certain themes on this particular topic. The book seems to jump around from theme to theme with no particular order, but overall does a nice job in expressing how dominant and pervasive women's breasts have been during all ages. While today's society glorifies and objectifies breasts with with a boldness not known in centuries past, by no means does this mean that these curves on a woman's body didn't have a profound place publicly even when societal mores didn't allow such openness with the human body. The book doesn't uncover any new material or worry about any deep analysis, but instead provides an interesting overview of the subject (or subjects I suppose), text and pictures nicely complimenting one another.
Displaying 1 of 1 review