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Tits Up

What Our Beliefs About Breasts Reveal About Life, Love, Sex and Society

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Tits Up

Written by: Sarah Thornton
Narrated by: Sarah Thornton
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About this listen

Read by the author, Sarah Thornton.

Boobs. Knockers. Jugs. Cans. Baps. Melons. Puppies. Fun bags. Bosoms. Hooters.

In the English language there are over 700 expressions for female mammary glands – the majority of which are mostly used by men. In Tits Up, bestselling author, sociologist and journalist Sarah Thornton asks how is it that we look at breasts so much, but reflect on them so little.

It was after Sarah underwent a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery that she found herself considering how we think about breasts, and what that tells us about ourselves. Across five chapters, she encounters strippers, plastic surgeons, bra designers, modern witches, lactation experts and donors to breast milk banks to create the ultimate biography of humanity's most culturally important body part.

Surprising, sharp, tender and true, Tits Up explores how women’s chests shape our ideas of beauty, health, respect, self-esteem and equality. Blending real-life accounts with sociology, history, art and culture, and written with refreshing optimism and wit, Thornton has one overriding ambition to: liberate breasts from centuries of patriarchal prejudice.

 Gender Issues Sexual & Reproductive Health Social Sciences Women's Studies

Critic Reviews

A consciousness-raising romp around feminism via the rack. (Philippa Perry)
An excellent new book. . . Owners and admirers will not look at breasts in the same way again. (The Economist)
Will make any woman reconsider her body, and any man reconsider how he treats the bodies of the women in his life (Sunday Independent)
[Thornton’s] impassioned polemic makes a convincing case that the derogatory way Western culture views tits…helps perpetuate the patriarchy…Tits Up asks readers to reimagine the bosom, no matter its size and shape, as a site of empowerment and even divinity. (New York Times)
Tits Up is avant-garde sociology as well as a witty and important feminist contribution to knowledge. (Angela McRobbie FBA, Prof. Emeritus Goldsmiths University of London)
This witty and informative sociological study of women's breasts in Western societies is sometimes shocking, often hilarious, always revealing. Tits Up is a must read – especially for men (Professor Simon Frith, Edinburgh College of Art)
Sarah Thornton strikes the perfect balance of personal experience, scholarship, and fun. This is an important book. (Professor Sarah Oglivie, University of Oxford)
A foundational ethnography of the most visible emblems of womanhood. (Professor Mandy Merck, Royal Holloway University Of London)
Tits Up is a wonderfully written book which deepens our understandings of the many and complicated lives of breasts, tits, bosoms and baps. Hugely entertaining, amply proportioned and wide-ranging, Sarah Thornton’s field guide to how tits are treated across different spheres of life and culture challenges many existing preconceptions and makes an important contribution to both feminist thought and everyday experience. (Professor Jo Littler, Goldsmiths University of London)
I highly recommend this brilliant, witty, informative and activist book, both to those who have breasts and those who don’t. (Dr Lucy Soutter, University of Westminster.)
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