ABOUT THIS BOOK

Bullet bras, bazookas, bombshells, bikinis. In Atomic Bombshells, Isabelle Held challenges the usual narratives of how war technologies enter domestic use by following plastics on their journey into women’s bodies. Held explores the effects of military-industrial science and the emergence of nylon, silicone, and plastic foams on embodied and expressive configurations of gender, sexuality, and race. She focuses on the United States between the late 1930s with the launch of nylon—whose potential was widely celebrated as the world’s first fully synthetic fiber and the ideal replacement for silk stockings—and the late 1970s, when policies began addressing the dangerous health consequences of implantable plastics. Held untangles the complex relationships between chemical companies, the US military, the Federal Drug Administration, plastic surgeons, advertising agencies, the Hollywood star system, go-go dancers, drag queens, and fashion and industrial designers. Using feminist, queer, and trans lenses, she shows that there was never just one bombshell identity. In so doing, Held complicates typical understandings of the shaping and reshaping of gender.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Isabelle Held is the Mellon Foundation Gender and LGBTQ+ History Postdoctoral Fellow at The Center for Women’s History at the New York Historical.

REVIEWS

“Like a spool of nylon thread, Isabelle Held’s exciting new book elegantly weaves together strands of industrial science, consumer culture, and queer understandings of the gendered body in the mid-twentieth century. Held demonstrates how inventions like nylon, silicone, and plastic foams did not preclude non-scientists from using them in unexpected ways.”
-- David Serlin, University of California, San Diego

“Tracing the relationship between plastics, the military, and the female body, Isabelle Held shows how chemists, surgeons, and sex workers brought plastics to bear on (and in) female bodies. As Held demonstrates, women’s bodies became embodied, corporeal, and material through plastics. Reexamining the complex history of the many versions of the American ‘bombshell’ both that existed within and beyond the normative cisgender, white feminine ideal, Held’s excellent book will make a major impact.”
-- Elspeth H. Brown, author of Work! A Queer History of Modeling

"Atomic Bombshells is a great read and makes significant contributions to better understanding the American plastics industry in the postwar period. . . . Held has crafted a book that is both brimming with fascinating content and incredibly readable."
-- Kaileigh Dunker H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews

"In this fascinating account, Held examines how plastics developed for military purposes shaped and reshaped women’s bodies in the post–World War II era. . . . Drawing on a wide range of historical sources, Held shows surprising connections among chemical company representatives, medical personnel, government officials, sex workers, and drag queens. . . . Highly recommended. All readership levels."

-- L. M. Puaca Choice

"As a researcher, Held has a knack for discovering fascinating characters and events in unlikely places. As a writer, she develops impressive set pieces by collaging arrays of seemingly unrelated bits of information. Atomic Bombshells will reward historians . . . and . . . general readers."
-- Jeffrey L. Meikle Technology and Culture

"A fresh contribution to the study of plastic and female bodies."
-- Annebella Pollen Journal of Design History

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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