Breasts

The Women's Perspective on an American Obsession

Ellen Cole, Esther D Rothblum (Autoren)

Buch | Hardcover

216 Seiten

1998
Routledge (Verlag)
978-0-7890-0422-2 (ISBN)

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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.

Ellen Cole, Esther D Rothblum

Contents
Preface

Acknowledgments
Part One: Image and Icon
Love and Loathing
Initiation
Dressing the Part
A Matter of Life and Death
Part Two: We Two Are the Universe
Garden of Paradise
When Instinct Meets Culture
Part Three: Sex
Circles of Desire
Breast Men
Part Four: Thinking About Breasts
How the Woman Got Her Breasts
The Great and Terrible Breast
Breasts Unbound
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	16.6.1998
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	148 x 210 mm
Gewicht	521 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Sozialpsychologie
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
ISBN-10	0-7890-0422-4 / 0789004224
ISBN-13	978-0-7890-0422-2 / 9780789004222
Zustand	Neuware