Close Menu
Surgical Times
    X (Twitter) Instagram TikTok
    Surgical Times
    • The Pulse
    • Under the Knife
    • Daily Chart
    • Cutting Edge
    • Doc Talk
    Wednesday • May 28, 2025
    Surgical Times
    Home»The Pulse

    Book Examines World of Breasts and Breast Surgery

    By Staff ReportsApril 30, 2024

    A new book by sociologist and author Sarah Thornton, “Tits Up: What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, and Witches Tell Us about Breasts,” is set to be released May 7, published by W.W. Norton & Company.

    A pre-release essay adapted from Tits Up appeared Saturday in The Wall Street Journal titled, “I Used to Judge Women Who Got Boob Jobs. Then I Got One.”

    The Wall Street Journal, Saturday/Sunday, April 27-28, 2024. “I Used to Judge Women Who Got Boob Jobs. Then I Got One,” by Sarah Thornton, sociologist and author, whose new book, Tits Up, is available for preorder now.

    “During training we were told that if women wanted to go flat, it was a sign of poor mental health. It was assumed that she didn’t care about her body,” said [Austin, Tx., plastic surgeon Elizabeth] Potter. “The male faculty at UT Southwestern focused on what they found sexy and appealing. Natural breasts were criticized. Artificially inflated ones were glorified. They commended the surgeon who asked the husband about sizing up the implants while the wife was asleep.”

    The Wall Street Journal, essay by sociologist and author Sarah Thornton, whose book Tits Up gets released May 7.

    “I used to associate boob jobs with insecurity, vanity and a slavish desire to appeal to men,” Thornton writes. “But after years of stressful biopsies and the continued discovery of potentially cancerous cells, I had a prophylactic double mastectomy in 2018….”

    “My experience inspired a multiyear quest to understand the many meanings and uses of breasts. That’s why I’m here, in an operating room, watching [Dr. Carolyn] Chang slice through the crease under the patient’s right breast….”

    Elsewhere in that essay, Thornton quotes statistics—like billions in annual breast surgery revenue—and interview excerpts that promise an in-depth and intriguing read.

    “During training we were told that if a woman wanted to go flat, it was a sign of poor mental health,” plastic surgeon Elisabeth Potter, MD, who works mostly with breast cancer survivors, tells author Sarah Thornton.

    Tits Up is available now for pre-order on Amazon.com and other outlets. It officially releases on May 7.

    Available in hardcover and Kindle editions, the 336-page book includes 50 illustrations.

    Tits Up: What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, and Witches Tell Us about Breasts, by Sarah Thornton

    “I hope the book sheds light on breasts in ways that elevate their value, not just because I believe in some happy, shiny body positivity, but because these organs are emblematic of womanhood,” the author says in pre-release statements.

    Riotous and galvanizing, Tits Up excavates the diverse truths of mammary glands from the strip club to the operating room, from the nation’s oldest human milk bank to the fit rooms of bra designers. Thornton draws insights from plastic surgeons, lactation consultants, body-positive witches, lingerie models, and “free the nipple” activists to explore the status of breasts as emblems of femininity. She examines how women’s chests have become a billion-dollar business, as well as a stage for debates about race, class, gender, and desire. Everywhere she turns, Thornton encounters chauvinist myths about this elemental body part that quietly justify deficits in women’s bodily autonomy and endorse shortfalls in their political status. Blending sociology, reportage, and personal narrative with refreshing optimism and wit, Thornton has one overriding ambition―to liberate breasts from centuries of patriarchal prejudice.

    Release Material for “Tits Up: What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, and Witches Tell Us about Breasts,” by Sarah Thornton
    Top News

    America’s Best Plastic Surgeons Announced

    Superior Court Strikes SLAPP Suit Brought by Surgery Center

    Breast Implant Statistics

    Do I Need to Replace My Implants Every 10 Years?

    Top Exclusives

    Death Prompts Public Dig Into Surgeon’s Past: Jessica Jones’s ‘Justice for Hillary’

    Infrared Saunas a ‘Catalyst’ for ‘Breast Implant Illness’ Healthcare CEO Says

    FDA Analysis: Top 10 Symptoms of BII, Reported Rate of Improvement Post Explant

    Surgeon Counters Claims he Botched Woman’s Nose, Deletes Bad Reviews

    Objective. Independent. Informative. Public interest reporting on the practice of plastic surgery not affiliated with or funded by any surgeon, device manufacturer, or practice.

    Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok Facebook YouTube Pinterest
    • Terms
    • Contact
    • Privacy

    © 2025 Surgical Times. All Rights Reserved.

    • Best Of
    • Brazilian Butt Lift Surgery
    • Breast Implants
    • Breast Implant Illness
    • Celebrities
    • Death
    • Ethics
    • Exclusive
    • Florida
    • Uplifting
    • Legal
    • Marketing
    • Mold
    • Money
    • Podcasts
    • Safety
    • Social
    • Statistics
    • Studies
    • Türkiye
    • U.S.
    • U.S. FDA
    • World
    • Press Releases

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.