CATEGORY

What is it about breasts—or if, you prefer, bazoombas, melons, Dolly Partons, or breastasauri—that inspires such fascination? No one is even sure why women have breasts when not pregnant or nursing, but start a conversation about them, Susan Seligson discovered, and every woman, man, child, and drag queen has something to say. In Stacked, this intrepid 32DDD writer takes us on a journey through a culture where breasts have come to stand for all that is woman. Seligson introduces us to the proud owners of the world’s largest augmented breasts; crusaders for the right to parade bare-chested in public; and women pining for larger breasts or smaller ones, who may resort to surgery or stranger fixes (breast-enhancing gum? giant suction cups?) to get the breasts of their dreams. She relates the history of the bra and takes us on a quest for the perfect one. She explores the thinking of surgeons who do hundreds of breast implants a year, academics suspicious of our changing standards of femininity, and the editor of Busty Beauties magazine. And she writes throughout with the wisdom and humor of a woman who knows what it is to wield body parts so powerful they can make men crash cars.