Skipper was a doll made by Mattel. "Growing Up Skipper" was one version of this doll, with a twist. From wikipedia:
In 1975 Growing Up Skipper was released. The gimmick of the doll, which led to much controversy in the newspapers, was that if Skipper's arm was rotated, the doll would become an inch taller and small breasts would appear on her rubber torso.
If you want to buy one, Growing Up Skipper dolls are available on eBay. Prices range from $8 to $135.
This woman has perfected a process to plasticize breast milk and enclose it in "pendants, special keepsakes, and more." You're probably thinking, "but surely the milk will discolor, turn yellow or spotty." This may happen to other breast-milk pendants, but not hers. She guarantees it!
An ad in the News and Courier, July 10, 1910. Nowadays many women pay quite a bit of money to add fat where it's showing most conspicuously on the woman shown.
The product being hawked was Marmola, whose history is described over at quackwatch.com. The main ingredient was dessicated thryoid (on the theory that obesity is caused by an under-active thyroid) and various laxatives. The federal government eventually banned the sale of Marmola, insisting that it was useless and potentially dangerous. But this only happened in the 1940s, because the maker of Marmola kept managing to win the court cases brought against it in the 20s and 30s.
About ten years ago several ancient, mummified bodies were found in an Irish peat bog. An unusual detail of the bodies was that their nipples had been pinched and cut off. This led the archaeologist Eamonn Kelly to speculate that the bodies were those of failed kings. He explains:
I believe these men were failed kings or failed candidates for kingship who were killed and placed in bogs that formed important tribal boundaries.. Sucking a king’s nipples was a gesture of submission in ancient Ireland. Cutting them would have made him incapable of kingship.
According to the Celt Eros blog, homosocial nipple sucking was widely practiced in ancient Pagan Ireland. It was called "sughaim sine."
This typically male act stood for many things in the pagan culture of the times. In one aspect, it was used as a way to pledge loyalty, devotion and submission for a king. Among common men, it was an expression of friendship, greeting, reconciliation, affection, fealty, protection and not surprisingly, as some sources suggest, sexual stimulation and pleasure.
Back in 1971, a Belgian designer, Malrait, unveiled a vibrating bra at the 20th International Show of Inventions in Brussels. Malrait claimed that the vibrations would develop and strengthen the bust. Women were supposed to wear the bra while they worked -- which I'm sure wouldn't have attracted any attention at the office at all.
Fast forward to 2011, when adultsextoys.com issued a press release announcing that they were selling "the world's first vibrating bra." Clearly they hadn't done their research. The video clip below shows Jennifer Aniston testing the vibrating bra on the Ellen show.
But was the 1971 vibrating bra the world's first? I'm not sure. I bet that if someone were willing to do the necessary archival research, they'd find examples of vibrating bras even before 1971.
I'm having some trouble decoding the euphemisms in this ad. Is this bra really that rarest of American products, a garment designed to make the wearer's bustline appear smaller than it actually is? "Changes C and D cups"--big breasts--"into young lines"--virginal adolescent breasts.
And where is the surprise? It can only come when the wearer's boyfriend removes the bra, expecting Audrey Hepburn, and finds Jayne Mansfield.
Category: Toys, 1970's, Breasts