Publisher: TASCHEN America
Following up from ‘The Big Book of Breasts’ and The Big Penis Book
Available from amazon:
link » The Big Book of Legs
From the publisher:
Lady Legs: Hip To Toe And Haunch To Heel
Running the gamut of gorgeous gams
The female leg is an erotic oddity: non-genital, and nearly identical in structure to the male limb, there is no obvious reason why it should be eroticized. Yet through much of history, across many cultures, the female leg was kept covered and treated as taboo, until it became an object of sexual obsession. In Victorian times, the word ‘leg’ was forbidden in polite society, lest gentlemen be driven wild with lust. Even now, 80 years after women’s legs finally came out of hiding, their allure remains mysterious and powerful.
The third in Dian Hanson’s wildly successful series on erotic body parts explores how the female leg became central to women’s emacipation, from the French Revolution to the sexual revolution. Over 400 photos document the first burlesque shows of the 1800s, the silk-stockinged flappers of the 20s, the nylon-mania of the 40s, the dawn of the stiletto in the 50s, and the golden age of leg magazines in the 60s. Who wore the first high heels, how nylons became a weapon of war, why Betty Grable’s were the “million dollar legs,” where Elmer Batters got his start and just what the deal is with feet, the answers are all here, along with vintage photos by Irving Klaw, Batters, and other great masters of leg art.
Photographs shown:
Unknown by Elmer Batters, circa 1968
Gayle Glenn by Elmer Batters, circa 1964
Anja, circa 1968
Unknown, circa 1959
Bettie Page by Bunny Yeager, 1954
