History of the BreastIn this provocative, pioneering, and wholly engrossing cultural history, noted scholar Marilyn Yalom explores twenty-five thousand years of ideas, images, and perceptions of the female breast--in religion, psychology, politics, society, and the arts. Through the centuries, the breast has been laden with hugely powerful and contradictory meanings. There is the "good breast" of reverence and life, the breast that nourishes infants and entire communities, as depicted in ancient idols, fifteenth-century Italian Madonnas, and representations of equality in the French Revolution. Then there is the "bad breast" of Ezekiel's wanton harlots, Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, and the torpedo-breasted dominatrix, symbolizing enticement and aggression. Yalom examines these contradictions--and illuminates the implications behind them. A fascinating, astute, and richly allusive journey from Paleolithic goddesses to modern day feminists, A History of the Breast is full of insight and surprises. As Yalom says, "I intend to make you think about women's breasts as you never have before." In this, she succeeds brilliantly. |
Contents
THE SACRED BREAST GODDESSES PRIESTESSES BIBLICAL WOMEN SAINTS AND MADONNAS | 9 |
THE EROTIC BREAST ORBS OF HEAVENLY FRAME | 49 |
THE DOMESTIC BREAST A DUTCH INTERLUDE | 91 |
Copyright | |
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Adrienne Rich advertising Agnès Sorel Amazons American artist baby bare-breasted beauty became bodices bosom Bourgeois bras brassieres breast cancer breast fetish breast-cancer breast-feed breast-feeding BUST DEVELOPER century chest child Cicciolina Cited corset courtesans culture Diane de Poitiers disease doctors dress Dutch early England English erotic fantasy fashion female body feminine feminist France French Freud Gabrielle d'Estrées German girls goddesses Greek hand Helvétius husband Ibid ideal images implants infants Italian lactating ladies London look Louise Bourgeois Madonna magazines Maidenform male Mary mastectomy maternal breast milk nipple nipple rings nude nursing Madonna nursing mother nurturance offered paintings Paris patients Photo Bulloz picture pin-up pleasure poem poet political popular pornography portrayed poster Renaissance Saint sexual sucking suckling surgeon surgery Susan symbols Tetin tion topless trans tumor uncovered Virgin wet nurses woman women women's breasts Wonderbra Yalom York young