I’d spent the past year and a half
researching the history of tits in the
United States you heard that correctly
TI TS or whichever of these hundred
euphemisms you’d prefer instead tits is
my euphemism of choice because it’s the
most disarming of the group but I would
also vote for the calculator spelling of
boobs which is eight zero zero eight
five for those of you who missed that
portion of seventh-grade math so all
that begs the question why breasts
clearly given our vernacular we live in
a culture that harbors a deep
fascination breasts represent so many
powerful things fertility maternity
maturity femininity sexuality yet
statistically 75 percent of the women in
this room would admit to being
dissatisfied with that particular body
part and if I’m being perfectly honest
until I started this project I was among
that 75 percent as well here’s why it
seems like that shouldn’t have happened
to me though when I was around three
years old I decided that when I grew up
I wanted two things
well technically three I wanted to
become a writer and I wanted to have
really huge boobs which is why
throughout most of the 90s if there was
a pair of round objects in front of me
they went right up my shirt it’s true
I’m a millennial I’ve always been told
to follow my dreams I’d also been told
that my body was a temple and yet
fast-forward to 10 years later and my
body felt more like a prison I hated
having breasts first of all they were
heavy and they fell into my armpits when
I slept which I did not sign up for
but also I was ashamed of having breasts
because of the attention that it called
to my body and because it seemed to me
that there was only one acceptable
breast shape and you know what I’m
talking about large round perfectly
symmetrical breasts I didn’t have which
is why throughout so many New Year’s
resolutions I continually promised that
body acceptance for me was only a dream
and here’s the thing that they don’t
tell you about dreams it’s not enough to
follow them you have to chase them it
wasn’t until I got to graduate school
and fell down this rabbit hole of
information-gathering that I finally
started to acquire the body acceptance
that I’d so wanted and a large part of
that came from gaining a historical
perspective on the body so I’d like to
give you the highlights of 242 years
worth of American breasts I’ve been
calling at it straight needless to say
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time
in various Columbia libraries looking at
it and one of the richest insights I
found was this in her book the beauty
myth Naomi Wolf wrote how the qualities
that a given period calls beautiful and
women are merely symbols of the female
behavior that period considers desirable
in other words ideal standards of beauty
are less prescriptive of how a woman
should look than how she should behave
and in that sense breasts are a portal
into a much broader set of questions
about American conceptions of feminine
beauty and behavior in viewing these
images I’d like you to notice how
limiting middle and upper-middle class
body ideals especially in women’s
magazines where the bulk of these images
come from really were there very few
women of color represented and very
quickly we start to see the same body
types emerging over and over again and
while this is by no means a
comprehensive history
it does chart how frequently the ideal
breasts change and the links we’ve gone
to conform to them since the beginnings
of American history our breasts have
been flattened with corsets bound with
gauze cinched in to bust developers and
surgically altered with materials from
glass balls – bees – bees wax goat’s
milk and Teflon these moments in
American history prove it the way we
shape our breasts and bodies is
constantly in flux and for the sake of
everyone’s attention span I’m going to
guide us through the tits tree in
30-year increments in the earliest years
of American history the ideal body was
young and virginal for more youthful
looking breasts a popular medical book
advise older women which probably meant
women around my age to make a plaster
from hemlock which is a poisonous plant
we already knew with deadly because it
was what killed Socrates 2,000 years
before and it gets worse in the
mid-1800s Victorian ideals came to the
fore which equated small features with
virtue so a gaunt pale body with small
breasts implied a higher moral standing
for paler skin women use body lotion
laced with arsenic which in the next
century would be reclaimed by women as a
convenient means of killing one’s
husband towards the end of the 1800s
voluptuously Illustrated Gibson girls
epitomized the rise of the educated
independent women who took a more
visible role in public life but even an
icon is seemingly liberated as she
wasn’t immune to conforming to the ideal
body on the right you’ll notice is a
series ad of a bus developer and I know
what you’re thinking it’s not a toilet
plunger it was actually used to enlarge
the breasts and I’m not sure that it
worked but by the 1920s no one were on
it anyways a new feminine idea
took hold with a flapper and while she
could now vote and was liberated from
the corsets her mother and grandmother
wore she bound her breasts in keeping
with the era’s flat-chested androgynous
ideal and that accordion looking
contraption on the right is a bandeau
after world war ii the population
swelled the economy swells and guess
what else welt technological innovations
led to a new circular sewing stitch
which created the cone-shaped bullet bra
breast mania in the 50s and 60s was
bolstered by another landmark in women’s
health the first fda-approved oral
contraceptive it had such high estrogen
levels that sales of c-cut bras jumped
fifty percent but fortunately women who
didn’t have ample cleavage or take birth
control could still live up to the ideal
thanks to innovations like the
inflatable bullet bra on the right which
needs no further comment we saw some of
the bodily ideals from the 50s in the
eighties but with bigger hair a booming
economy created a market for all things
access and the new feminine ideal became
spelt toned and large breasted thanks in
part to the rise of supermodels aerobics
and breast implants headlines heralded
the triumphant return of breasts we’re
still not sure where they went and with
that came ads for breast enhancers like
these in the pages of popular women’s
magazines again that is not a toilet
plunger so where does this leave us now
I think the two headlines I’m about to
show you illustrate how quickly American
Beauty ideals shift in the 21st century
last year the New York Post ran this
headline boobs are back still no word on
not two months later they ran this small
boobs are back sometimes it feels like
there’s no winning when it comes to
women’s media and breasts at its worst
natural breasts get criticized for
looking saggy surgically enhanced
breasts are called out for appearing
unnatural and visible cleavage somehow
translates to a cry for attention 242
years worth of history demonstrates how
often breasts have been treated as a
commodity able trend instead of a body
part so it seems absurd to hate your
breasts for how they look when we can’t
even agree on what a good pair of
breasts look like in the first place
now I’m not condemning women who augment
their breasts nor am i suggesting that
we abstain from wearing whatever becomes
the equivalent of the bullet bra in 30
years my hope is that we continue to
move towards a more expansive notion of
beauty that doesn’t revolve around taut
skin that defies gravity I’ve looked at
this picture for so long trying to
figure out how to describe the
expression on my face and I realize now
what it is it’s pride when we’re kids we
don’t shoulder any of the body shame
that comes later
most of us barely notice our bodies
unless we scrape the knees couldn’t even
name most body parts let alone tell you
how they should look if I’m lucky enough
to have a daughter I’d want her to know
that having a body can be a challenge
regardless of what you look like I’d
want her to know that body acceptance
like progress itself isn’t linear and
I’d wanted to know that not all women
have large perfect breasts and that
you’re a woman whether you have large
breasts or small breasts or one breast
or no breasts and truthfully I still
don’t know how you go about making your
body into a temple but I’d suggest this
instead treat your body as you would a
historic building you don’t have to love
every inch of it but you have to respect
it protect it maintain it and understand
its importance we’re living with all of
the privileges women have fought for
centuries to get and are still fighting
for and we can’t control what the ideal
body is today or what it will look like
tomorrow so why would we accept societal
notions of what’s beautiful and what’s
valuable this is a call to not only us
but our friends our sisters our wives
our daughters standards of beauty are
forever changing let’s stop chasing them
thank you [Applause]
researching the history of tits in the
United States you heard that correctly
TI TS or whichever of these hundred
euphemisms you’d prefer instead tits is
my euphemism of choice because it’s the
most disarming of the group but I would
also vote for the calculator spelling of
boobs which is eight zero zero eight
five for those of you who missed that
portion of seventh-grade math so all
that begs the question why breasts
clearly given our vernacular we live in
a culture that harbors a deep
fascination breasts represent so many
powerful things fertility maternity
maturity femininity sexuality yet
statistically 75 percent of the women in
this room would admit to being
dissatisfied with that particular body
part and if I’m being perfectly honest
until I started this project I was among
that 75 percent as well here’s why it
seems like that shouldn’t have happened
to me though when I was around three
years old I decided that when I grew up
I wanted two things
well technically three I wanted to
become a writer and I wanted to have
really huge boobs which is why
throughout most of the 90s if there was
a pair of round objects in front of me
they went right up my shirt it’s true
I’m a millennial I’ve always been told
to follow my dreams I’d also been told
that my body was a temple and yet
fast-forward to 10 years later and my
body felt more like a prison I hated
having breasts first of all they were
heavy and they fell into my armpits when
I slept which I did not sign up for
but also I was ashamed of having breasts
because of the attention that it called
to my body and because it seemed to me
that there was only one acceptable
breast shape and you know what I’m
talking about large round perfectly
symmetrical breasts I didn’t have which
is why throughout so many New Year’s
resolutions I continually promised that
body acceptance for me was only a dream
and here’s the thing that they don’t
tell you about dreams it’s not enough to
follow them you have to chase them it
wasn’t until I got to graduate school
and fell down this rabbit hole of
information-gathering that I finally
started to acquire the body acceptance
that I’d so wanted and a large part of
that came from gaining a historical
perspective on the body so I’d like to
give you the highlights of 242 years
worth of American breasts I’ve been
calling at it straight needless to say
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time
in various Columbia libraries looking at
it and one of the richest insights I
found was this in her book the beauty
myth Naomi Wolf wrote how the qualities
that a given period calls beautiful and
women are merely symbols of the female
behavior that period considers desirable
in other words ideal standards of beauty
are less prescriptive of how a woman
should look than how she should behave
and in that sense breasts are a portal
into a much broader set of questions
about American conceptions of feminine
beauty and behavior in viewing these
images I’d like you to notice how
limiting middle and upper-middle class
body ideals especially in women’s
magazines where the bulk of these images
come from really were there very few
women of color represented and very
quickly we start to see the same body
types emerging over and over again and
while this is by no means a
comprehensive history
it does chart how frequently the ideal
breasts change and the links we’ve gone
to conform to them since the beginnings
of American history our breasts have
been flattened with corsets bound with
gauze cinched in to bust developers and
surgically altered with materials from
glass balls – bees – bees wax goat’s
milk and Teflon these moments in
American history prove it the way we
shape our breasts and bodies is
constantly in flux and for the sake of
everyone’s attention span I’m going to
guide us through the tits tree in
30-year increments in the earliest years
of American history the ideal body was
young and virginal for more youthful
looking breasts a popular medical book
advise older women which probably meant
women around my age to make a plaster
from hemlock which is a poisonous plant
we already knew with deadly because it
was what killed Socrates 2,000 years
before and it gets worse in the
mid-1800s Victorian ideals came to the
fore which equated small features with
virtue so a gaunt pale body with small
breasts implied a higher moral standing
for paler skin women use body lotion
laced with arsenic which in the next
century would be reclaimed by women as a
convenient means of killing one’s
husband towards the end of the 1800s
voluptuously Illustrated Gibson girls
epitomized the rise of the educated
independent women who took a more
visible role in public life but even an
icon is seemingly liberated as she
wasn’t immune to conforming to the ideal
body on the right you’ll notice is a
series ad of a bus developer and I know
what you’re thinking it’s not a toilet
plunger it was actually used to enlarge
the breasts and I’m not sure that it
worked but by the 1920s no one were on
it anyways a new feminine idea
took hold with a flapper and while she
could now vote and was liberated from
the corsets her mother and grandmother
wore she bound her breasts in keeping
with the era’s flat-chested androgynous
ideal and that accordion looking
contraption on the right is a bandeau
after world war ii the population
swelled the economy swells and guess
what else welt technological innovations
led to a new circular sewing stitch
which created the cone-shaped bullet bra
breast mania in the 50s and 60s was
bolstered by another landmark in women’s
health the first fda-approved oral
contraceptive it had such high estrogen
levels that sales of c-cut bras jumped
fifty percent but fortunately women who
didn’t have ample cleavage or take birth
control could still live up to the ideal
thanks to innovations like the
inflatable bullet bra on the right which
needs no further comment we saw some of
the bodily ideals from the 50s in the
eighties but with bigger hair a booming
economy created a market for all things
access and the new feminine ideal became
spelt toned and large breasted thanks in
part to the rise of supermodels aerobics
and breast implants headlines heralded
the triumphant return of breasts we’re
still not sure where they went and with
that came ads for breast enhancers like
these in the pages of popular women’s
magazines again that is not a toilet
plunger so where does this leave us now
I think the two headlines I’m about to
show you illustrate how quickly American
Beauty ideals shift in the 21st century
last year the New York Post ran this
headline boobs are back still no word on
not two months later they ran this small
boobs are back sometimes it feels like
there’s no winning when it comes to
women’s media and breasts at its worst
natural breasts get criticized for
looking saggy surgically enhanced
breasts are called out for appearing
unnatural and visible cleavage somehow
translates to a cry for attention 242
years worth of history demonstrates how
often breasts have been treated as a
commodity able trend instead of a body
part so it seems absurd to hate your
breasts for how they look when we can’t
even agree on what a good pair of
breasts look like in the first place
now I’m not condemning women who augment
their breasts nor am i suggesting that
we abstain from wearing whatever becomes
the equivalent of the bullet bra in 30
years my hope is that we continue to
move towards a more expansive notion of
beauty that doesn’t revolve around taut
skin that defies gravity I’ve looked at
this picture for so long trying to
figure out how to describe the
expression on my face and I realize now
what it is it’s pride when we’re kids we
don’t shoulder any of the body shame
that comes later
most of us barely notice our bodies
unless we scrape the knees couldn’t even
name most body parts let alone tell you
how they should look if I’m lucky enough
to have a daughter I’d want her to know
that having a body can be a challenge
regardless of what you look like I’d
want her to know that body acceptance
like progress itself isn’t linear and
I’d wanted to know that not all women
have large perfect breasts and that
you’re a woman whether you have large
breasts or small breasts or one breast
or no breasts and truthfully I still
don’t know how you go about making your
body into a temple but I’d suggest this
instead treat your body as you would a
historic building you don’t have to love
every inch of it but you have to respect
it protect it maintain it and understand
its importance we’re living with all of
the privileges women have fought for
centuries to get and are still fighting
for and we can’t control what the ideal
body is today or what it will look like
tomorrow so why would we accept societal
notions of what’s beautiful and what’s
valuable this is a call to not only us
but our friends our sisters our wives
our daughters standards of beauty are
forever changing let’s stop chasing them
thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: