Tits Up

Author Sarah Thornton ventures behind the scenes to uncover the social and cultural significance of breasts. She 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 chauvinistic 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, Thornton has one overriding ambition--to liberate breasts from centuries of patriarchal prejudice. -- From publisher's description.