| THE NAKED WOMAN A Study of the Female Body Desmond Morris New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2004 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-312-33852-7 | ||||
| ISBN-10 0-312-33852-X | 276p. | HC/BWI | $25.95 | |
| Page 8: | "As with any other evolutionary trend, barriers had to be set up that would reduce interbreeding. The different races had to look as different from one another as possible. One of the quickest ways to achieve this was by varying the human hair pattern." |
| Morris doesn't make it clear why this was necessary. |
| Page 21: | "In defence of brunettes, a commentator in the late 1960s remarked: 'If a man is serious about a girl he wants her to be natural. Anything artificial does not appeal to a serious thinking man . . . Generally speaking he prefers a blond for a mistress and a brunette for a wife. Brunettes have more integrity.' " |
| Morris devotes a good deal of space to popular culture, especially Hollywood. Therefore it is puzzling that he does not mention the well-known film convention that blonde women are the pure ones that make good wives, while brunettes are the immoral temptresses. One of his references (Guthrie 1976) makes this point convincingly. |
| Page 40: | "Because the ears were seen as female genitals in many different cultures, it is not surprising to discover that certain exceptional individuals were born through the ear." |
| I find this oddly phrased. It refers to mythical figures like Karna, son of the Hindu sun god. Certainly this is an exceptional individual, but he is not a real one. |
| Page 42: | "Among the Trobriand islanders, if a girl had dared to ignore this custom, or she would have been ridiculed as 'having the ears of a bush-pig.' " |
| Delete the extra word (or else there is a phrase missing.) |
| Page 46: | "The increased pupil dilation that occurs when we see something attractive is harder to explain. This must interfere with our vision by letting too much light flood on to the retina. The result must be a hazy glow rather than a sharp balanced image." |
| I wish Morris had given a reference for this "hazy glow." It seems unlikely, except in the metaphoric sense. |
| Page 48: | "The greasiness is cause by the secretions of rows of tiny glands..." |
| Wrong tense (probably a typo): S/B "caused". |
| Page 56: | "Chemical analysis of tears produced by distress and those produced by irritation of the surface of the eyes has revealed that the two liquids spilling down the face contain different proteins." |
| Missing word: S/B "produced by emotional distress". |
| Page 57: | " 'You and I are momentarily involved in a shared act which secretly excludes all others.' " |
| Word order: S/B "You and I are momentarily involved in a shared secret act which excludes all others." |
| Page 57: | "As one well-known television presenter frequently reminds us with her farewell gesture at the end of each programme, many women find it difficult to wink convincingly..." |
| Morris is sometimes coy with identities when I see no need to be. I think this "well-known television presenter" is Carol Burnett. |
| Page 57: | "Galena, an early type of kohl composed of lead ore, was employed to make black lines that exaggerated the shape of the eyelids." |
| From context, I gather that kohl means "eye shadow." But it is not defined in the text. |
| Page 115: | "Full of self-confidence and optimism, there are too few blows in their lives to make them duck in anticipation into a life-long hunch." |
| Dangling participle: S/B "they have". |
| Page 118: | "Muscle-building techniques make it possible to pump these arm muscles up to an amazing degree and the bulging arms of competitors in female body-building contests create an impression of immense strength. Many males report that they do not find such displays sexually attractive. The main reason appears to be that the amount of effort obviously involved in developing the arms to this extent implies a degree of self-obsession verging on the narcissistic." |
| This is undoubtedly true. But the same could be said for any champion-level training effort, from chess to gymnastics. For all his frankness, I think Morris here elides the essential points about men's reactions to female body-builders (FBBs). Those points are: 1) Seeing a muscular female threatens the male self-image of superior strength; and 2) The plain fact is that FBB training drains the body of its normal level of fat, often making the breasts virtually disappear. A "ripped" female body (one with extremely well-defined musculature) does not appear feminine. |
| Page 146: | "So important was this sexual element in breast development that it actually began to interfere with the primary parental function. The breasts became so bulgingly hemispherical in their efforts to mimic the buttocks that they made it difficult for a baby to get at the nipples." |
| Morris gives no citation for this. |
| Page 156: | "The New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob [...] insisted that is was she who had invented it..." |
| Typo: S/B "it was she". |
| Page 158: | "The introduction of implants to make even the completely naked breasts stand round and firm, started to take off in the 1960s." |
| Unneeded comma: S/B "round and firm started". |
| Page 161: | "A skinny fashion model, of the kind favoured by modern couturiers is more likely to measure 76-61-84 cm (30-24-33 inches)." |
| Unneeded comma: S/B "fashion model of the kind". |
| Page 161: | "The vast majority selected the one with curvaceous, waisted, balanced proportions." |
| Missing word: S/B "slim-waisted," or something similar. |
| Page 187: | "This consists of five vertebrae but they now act as one." |
| Missing comma: S/B "vertebrae, but". |
| Page 193: | "The hairiness of the spider is symbolic rather than real. What the fourteen-year-old girl is seeing, when a spider runs across the floor, is the movement of its long legs — legs that radiate from its soft, central body. It is these legs that are seen as 'hairs', and the whole spider is unconsciously viewed as some kind of 'mobile, hairy tuft'." |
| Another unsupported assertion. |
| Page 202: | "Merkins have a long history, stretching back hundreds of years and are still offered for sale today." |
| Missing comma: S/B "years, and". |
| Page 211: | "Several leading gynaecologists denied its existence when it was first discussed at their conferences, and a major controversy arose, but later, when it was specially demonstrated for their benefit, they changed their minds." |
| Um, how does one "demonstrate" the Grafenberg Spot? |
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