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

Book Review 

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

Genre: Non-Fiction, Social Issues, Women’s Issues 

Rating: 4.5 stars 

Sarah Thornton’s Tits Up is an ambitious and deeply researched cultural exploration of the breast—an object at once biological, erotic, symbolic, commercial, and often deeply political. Known for her ethnographic approach to contemporary cultural phenomena, Thornton here turns her investigative lens onto a topic that is both universal and intensely personal. The result is a work that is neither clinical nor sensational, but instead thoughtful, empathetic, and undeniably engaging. 

---

The power of Tits Up lies in the way Thornton refuses to treat breasts simply as anatomical features. Instead, she illuminates the breast as a site of meaning shaped by history, identity, gender expectations, and material realities. To accomplish this, Thornton draws on extensive interviews with a wildly diverse group of people—sex workers, plastic surgeons, dairy scientists, bra designers, witches, and more—each offering a distinct vantage point on how breasts are understood and valued. By foregrounding these voices, Thornton demonstrates that breasts are not merely body parts but cultural texts that can be read, interpreted, controlled, or reclaimed. 

One of the strengths of Thornton’s writing is her sensitivity to contradiction. She does not force the reader toward a singular conclusion or message. Instead, she highlights complexity. For example, the book addresses both the empowerment some individuals find in emphasizing their breasts and the burdens others experience when their bodies become public objects of scrutiny. Thornton explores how breasts can be celebrated as sensual or maternal, yet simultaneously judged, commodified, or medicalized. In her discussions with sex workers and dancers, she captures the agency and performance involved in using the breast as a tool for livelihood and self-expression. In contrast, her conversations with women who have undergone mastectomies or breast reductions reveal the emotional terrain of loss, identity, and relief. 

The sections involving the milk banking industry and breastfeeding culture add another layer of nuance. Here Thornton examines how breasts function within systems of nourishment and care, raising questions about who controls and defines “good motherhood.” She is particularly effective at unpacking the moral judgments that surround breastfeeding decisions, revealing how these judgments often reflect social class, race, and cultural norms more than biological necessity. 

Meanwhile, the chapters involving plastic surgery provide a critical look at a very different facet of breast culture: the desire to alter and optimize the body according to aesthetic standards. Thornton does not condemn or dismiss plastic surgery; rather, she interrogates the motivations, pressures, and emotional narratives behind it. This approach fosters empathy and resists simplistic binaries of “natural” versus “artificial.” 

Even the inclusion of witches and spiritual practitioners, a seemingly eccentric choice, is meaningful. These figures remind the reader that the breast’s symbolism reaches far beyond modern Western consumer culture. In these conversations, the breast becomes a site of magic, ritual, and female power—an echo of historical matrilineal societies and pre-Christian symbology.

What makes Tits Up particularly compelling is Thornton’s narrative tone. She writes with curiosity rather than judgment, and her prose is both accessible and intellectually rich. The book weaves sociology, history, economics, personal narrative, and feminist theory together without feeling academic or inaccessible. At times, the narrative meanders, but this meandering feels purposeful, mirroring the complexity of the subject itself. 

Ultimately, Tits Up encourages the reader to rethink assumptions about bodies and the stories we attach to them. It asks us to consider how cultural meaning shapes not only the way we see others but also how we understand and inhabit our own bodies. Thornton succeeds in revealing the breast as a site of lived experience—sensual, politicized, nurtured, exploited, celebrated, and transformed. 

In a world that often reduces bodies to simplistic symbols, Tits Up offers a reminder: every body part carries a history, and every person carries their own story. Thornton’s book is not just about breasts—it is about the complexities of being human.

Buy it here: 

Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk                     amazon.com  

Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk                          amazon.com