Buch, Englisch, 262 Seiten
A Cultural and Political History
Buch, Englisch, 262 Seiten
ISBN: 978-1-5095-6782-9
Verlag: Polity Press
While sometimes described as a secondary sex characteristic, the female breast is of primary interest. It nourishes but also seduces, it is considered sacred or depraved – depending on the era, culture, context and perspective. The way breasts are seen, shown or concealed has been the subject of debate and scandal for centuries. Breasts, in other words, are by no means 'private parts': on the contrary, they're a subject of great public interest. The breast is the organ through which some of the central cultural and political conflicts of Western societies have been conducted, now and in the past. But the power of the breast does not lie in any ‘natural’ force. It lies in the cultural characteristics that we attribute to it and that make it a symbol of femininity, naturalness, motherliness or sexuality.
Zimmermann takes the reader on an extended tour of how the breast and its symbolism are politically constructed. She examines this ambiguous and versatile body part from various perspectives but always with a political question in mind. This is a book about art and pornography, fashion and gender norms, the ideal of motherhood and heteronormativity, body positivity and self-determination, sexism and protest. She shows that the dialectic between revealing and concealing, visibility and invisibility, played out discursively in different fields, is a key to understanding the social, cultural and political significance of the breast. Her book delves into the past, seeking to explain the origins of a conflict that has surfaced again and again in different times and places and is still with us today.
Fachgebiete
Weitere Infos & Material
The Politics of the Breast: An Introduction
Chapter One: Tops On! Tops Off!
The ambiguity of the in/visible breast
The breast as a political organ: the role of in/visibility
Lust, vice, pain: visual narratives of sinful and virtuous visibility
'Then' and 'now', as seen in clothing
The corset as a visibility machine
'Artificial' and 'natural' visibilities: the enlightened breast
The 'liberated' breast makes itself useful: breastfeeding
New views: the breast as a medical problem
Modern breasts and new visibilities
The breasts of the 'other' woman: the new visibility of the breast as racism
'White' breasts - 'Black' breasts
Chapter Two: From Venus to Pin-Up and Back
The breast between art and pornography
Venus
Ideals of modesty
Modest or immodest? How female bodies became Venuses
Paleo porn
The gender politics of the gaze
Another 'other' woman: the 'Hottentot Venus'
Nudes, power, pornography
Baring the bosom: feminist provocations
Beauty
. and back to Venus again
Chapter Three: Breasts and Other Illusions of the Natural
Fantasies and fictions of lactation
Politics makes nature makes science: breastfeeding propaganda and the class of mammals
The asexual breast
Poison from the breast
Animal breasts - human breasts
Half breasts
Breasts and foreignness
Male nipples and male dignity
The ethics of the artificial breast
Breastfeeding/chest-feeding and a law
Breasts, balls and other equipment
Scars
Chapter Four: I Am God
The breast as an organ of protest
Are breasts like swords?
Amazons as role models
'Anarchic Amazons': the women of 1968 and their breasts
Burning bras: feminism as breast liberation?
'Beautiful women': the limits of protest
Hysteria, ecstasy and the dance of the maenads: the naked breast as a sign of the 'other'
The two bodies of Angela Merkel: breasts and power
Conclusion: Weighty Breasts
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Bibliography
Notes
