Venue

: The Wyncote NW Forum
: 1119 8th Ave (Entrance off Seneca St.)
Seattle, 98101 United States + Google Map

Note: Town Hall events are approximately 75 minutes long.

Headshots of Sarah Thornton and Diane Mapes

Arts & Culture

Breasts, boobs, bosoms — there’s no shortage of terminology on (or in) hand for one of our society’s biggest fascinations. And while billion-dollar industries continue to grow around our fascination with physical forms of femininity, how often are we stopping to ask questions of those who are really in the know? Not the marketing executives, but the people who’ve built their worlds around living with and understanding what’s going on underneath it all. In her new book Tits Up: What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, and Witches Tell Us About Breasts, Sarah Thornton gets up close and personal with the diverse stories of those most in the mix.

After years of biopsies, the difficult decision to pursue a double mastectomy, and subsequent reconstruction, author and sociologist Sarah Thornton started getting chest-curious in new ways. Reflecting on what she lost from a wider vantage point gained, Thornton sets out to explore the full breadth of the social and cultural significance of breasts. Tits Up takes readers from the strip club to the operating room, from the nation’s oldest human milk bank to activists’ spheres echoing with chants of “free the nipple.” Thornton applies an experienced eye for research and a hefty handful of humor to her investigation of how breasts excite discussions of patriarchal prejudice, status, race, gender, desire, and empowerment. With insights from lactation consultants, body-positive witches, plastic surgeons, and bra industry professionals, Tits Up aims to open some of the clasps that keep the larger conversations about breasts and their impact under wraps.

Sarah Thornton is an author, ethnographer, and sociologist with a focus on art, design, and people. She is The Economist’s former chief art market correspondent and has written for The Guardian, The New Yorker, The Sunday Times Magazine, and Artforum.com. Her previous books include Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital, 33 Artists in 3 Acts, and the international bestseller Seven Days in the Art World.

Former freelance journalist Diane Mapes writes about public health, scientific research and the cancer experience for Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle. A former humor columnist for the Seattle P-I and the author of hundreds of essays and articles for NBC News, CNN, MSN, Seattle Times, and other publications, she also writes fiction (and music!) and is currently shopping a satire about the cancer industrial complex.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle.