The Big Book of Legs

The female leg is a sexual oddity. Non-genital, and nearly identical in structure to the corresponding male body part, there is no obvious reason why its eroticized. Yet, through much of history, across many cultures, the female leg was hidden from sight and treated as such a taboo topic that it became an object of intense sexual obsession. In the Victorian era the word leg was so forbidden that it couldnt be uttered in polite society, lest men be driven wild with lust. Even now, 100 years after womens legs came out of hiding, their allure remains strong. In this third book of Dian Hansons wildly successful body parts series she explores how freeing the female leg became central to womens liberation, beginning with the post-French Revolution cancan and ending with the 1960s Sexual Revolution miniskirt. Over 400 photos document the first burlesque leg shows of the 1800s, the silk-stockinged flappers of the 1920s, the nylon-mania of the 1940s, the dawn of the stiletto heel in the 1950s, all leading to the golden age of leg magazines in the 1960s. Learn who wore the first high heels, how nylons became a weapon of war, why Betty Grables were the million dollar legs, where Elmer Batters got his start, and just what the deal is with feet, while enjoying great vintage photos by Irving Klaw, Batters and other masters of leg art.