Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Atomic Bombshells: How Plastics Shaped Postwar Bodies

Atomic Bombshells: How Plastics Shaped Postwar Bodies

Held, Isabelle

Paperback

Sports GeneralFashion & AccessoriesGeneral Gender Studies

Publisher Price: $30.95

ISBN10: 147803310X
ISBN13: 9781478033103
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: Feb 17 2026
Pages: 384
Weight: 1.15
Height: 1.20 Width: 5.90 Depth: 8.90
Language: English
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.

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General Gender Studies

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