"Breasts are celebrated and scrutinised, fetishised and censored, worshipped and weaponised. As the saying goes: ‘Behind every great woman is a pair of boobs trying desperately to stay out of the conversation.’
For most of her life, unconcernedly flat-chested author and academic Dr Lisa Portolan had never really thought about her breasts, or boobs in general. But then she met Amanda Goff - aka former escort Samantha X - fellow author, journalist and owner of a huge pair of breasts. A friendship formed, then a working relationship ... and as the two women embarked on business dealings together, the monolithic power of mammary glands became glaringly apparent.
All too often, men would ogle Amanda's chest in meetings, text her romantic/perverse messages, and try to get into her pants. The same men would focus their attention on Lisa's face, send her professional emails, and otherwise ignore her. Lisa was left pondering whether she should have her breasts augmented in order to become more visible, while Amanda wondered whether she should have hers reduced.
But they both found themselves asking the same question: why all the fuss about boobs?
Lisa and Amanda don't pretend to have all the answers - they're not even sure how they feel about them most of the time. But that's precisely the point. Boobs is a smart, irreverent, wide-ranging and often hilarious conversation about the human and social-historical journey of breasts, richly illustrated with personal anecdotes and perspectives from coauthors at opposite ends of the bust spectrum.
With its eclectic mix of chest-related topics - from our fixation with symmetry to the judgy debates about breastfeeding - Boobs celebrates our messy, often ridiculous and always complex relationship with these culturally charged appendages."
"The Unravelling of Samantha X.
‘I wanted to go back to the real me, Amanda Goff. Yet there was just one problem. I had no idea who she was. I had no idea who I was. I hadn’t been Amanda for years, decades. Samantha wasn’t leaving just yet; she wasn’t going to make a quiet exit. She wasn’t that type of woman.’
Amanda Goff was a successful journalist in London and Sydney before ditching her nine-to-five job at the age of 38 to become Samantha X, Australia’s most famous escort. A bipolar diagnosis changed everything: she retired from sex work, walked away from Samantha X, and went in search of Amanda.
Misfit is her third memoir – but the first written as ‘herself’. Raw, honest, provocative, wise and often laugh-out-loud funny, this is an unflinching record of her journey along the bumpy path to healing and self-acceptance. Beyond confronting her bipolar disorder and addiction issues, Amanda must also contend with prejudice and judgement, lingering trauma from her earlier life, and her own crushing self-doubt. As she struggles with the realities of so-called normality, the persistent voice of Samantha X is there to remind her of a former life that offered power, money, fame – and protection from the challenges that Amanda has courageously chosen to tackle head-on.
‘Written with raw honesty, extraordinary courage and non-stop brio’ PROFESSOR GORDON PARKER, founder, the Black Dog Institute"
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