1971 anatomy book uses pornographic photos

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Street Anatomy reports on a 1971 textbook called The Anatomical Basis of Medical Practice, which uses pornographic photos of women as illustrations. You can snap up a used copy on Amazon for $479.99

The professors, Becker, James S. W. Wilson, and John A. Gehweiler, set out to write a textbook in an “easy-going, literary style so that any student could read ahead on his own without difficulty.” Furthermore, they go on to state their inspiration to use seductive female nudes to display surface anatomy,

“In our own student days we discovered that studying surface anatomy with a wife or girl friend proved to be not only instructive, but highly entertaining. Since the majority of medical students still tend to be males, we have liberalized this text by making use of the female form. But, more to the point, we have done so because a large portion of your future patients will be women and few texts have pointed out surface landmarks on the female.”

They were quite liberal in their use of female nudes of the pin-up girl variety as you can see in the images above. And the “easy-going, literary style,” often lent itself to cheeky comments about women. In the discussion about the effects of UV light on skin, the authors state, “the contrast between exposed and unexposed parts of the epidermis is quite stark when the bathing suit is removed.”

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The OBJECTIFICATION of Female Surface Anatomy

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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febryle

Wow, I have a copy of this that a friend gave me in medical school. The “best” (worst?) picture is one of a topless woman emerging from a swimming pool, with an arrow pointing to her neck with anatomy labeled.

I had no idea it was worth so much!
- Mister44
  
  Well – that’s how much someone is selling if for. No word on if anyone is buying at that price.
http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis

Some of the photos were bought from Peter Gowland
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19174685
http://www.petergowland.com/
ChicagoD

I saw some posed nudes, but not any pornography. I guess I don’t know it when I see it.

Now we’ll see who the lawyers on here are.
- Boundegar
  
  That 70′s art-not-porn is so lovable!
theSamLowry

Naked does not equal porn.
- retepslluerb
  
  It does in America. I think the Pilgrims wrote it in the constitution.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Naked does not equal porn.
  
  Tattooed flames around the working parts do, though.
  - John Smith
    
    no
Quiche de Resistance

DAT INGUINAL LIGAMENT
- Preston Sturges
  
  The inguinal ligament is far more prominent in men (Brad Pitt for instance) as well as ancient Greek statues of male heroes. I guess they invented pilates.
  
  I’d like to see more of the proximal attachment of the adductor longus.
  - Torrance Doucheton
    
    Gotta love the gracilis tendon also.
    - cdh1971
      
      …and the Karl Hungus.
      - Quiche de Resistance
        
        Hard to keep em down on the farm once they’ve seen Karl Hungus.
http://www.gyrofrog.com/ Gyrofrog

This is similar to what ‘National Lampoon’ called “mnudemonics.”
sisyphus321

Huh.
_Please_ tell me they didn’t write a book for pediatric care.
- jerwin
  
  Someone did
  - toadboy65
    
    I learned the birds and bees from that book. ( the McBride book ). It teaches in a frank and compassionate way.
    - jerwin
      
      Indeed. I also had that book as a child.
    - pjcamp
      
      Isn’t that just the birds? I don’t see no gay pinups.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    If only medical texts have pictures of nude children, then….no that doesn’t work.
    
    If only pedophiles….no that doesn’t work either.
    
    You know, we should just make children illegal, because they are clearly fueling this hysteria.
    - jerwin
      
      No Sex For you!
http://www.disoriented.net/ angusm

“What am I doing? What does it look like I’m doing? I’m studying for my anatomy class, obviously.”
timquinn

I once tried to explain to my girlfriend how Playboy had served to help the liberation of women. I never tried that again.
davnel

And to think I once passed up studying medicine. Rats!
robdobbs

What they atta do is change the title to “Anatomy for Artists” and republish it.
Preston Sturges

There was a whole genre of “photography” books that were mild porn.
- http://www.facebook.com/ben.tmoore Ben Thomas-Moore
  
  Was? As a bookstore employee, I can assure you that this genre still is a going concern. We don’t _sell_ a lot of them, mind you, but I reshelve them at least three or four times a week.
  - SummerFang
    
    Not to mention the ones you find left in the restroom.
  - http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
    
    Concern?
toadboy65

someone should do a story explaining the strange economy of books and other items which sell at seemingly crazy inflated prices on Amazon and Ebay. here is a link to one of the thousands of examples:

http://www.amazon.com/Radio-Jockeying-Anchoring-Aruna-Zachariah/dp/8184571682/ref=sr_1_52?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348008017&sr=1-52
- morkl
  
  The Internet delivers: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2384102,00.asp
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Amazon should terminate those sellers for junking up the site.
  - http://twitter.com/amordecosmos amordecosmos
    
    I think I read that story here first:
    
    http://boingboing.net/2011/04/23/algorithmic-pricing.html
    - jerwin
      
      Right you are. But we shouldn’t be so hard on the n00bs
- http://www.facebook.com/elliottback Elliott C. Bäck
  
  It’s just really bad HFT coming from electronic markets to meatspace.
- Preston Sturges
  
  Also, when I was just learning to use Amazon I offered for sale a childrens sleeping bag for $10,000 just so I could see how the APC codes were displayed. I took it down in five minutes.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Kay Linaker, who was a supporting actress (in things like the Charlie Chan pictures) in the 30s and 40s (and also wrote The Blob), agreed to help her friend do a screen test. The studio wouldn’t let her do it unless she signed a studio contract that paid $50 per week if they picked her up. She explained that she was just doing a favor and didn’t want to work in film, so they told her to cross out the $50 and put in some outrageous amount. She switched it to $500. A week later she was under contract and making star salary for her first picture.
http://www.kmoser.com kmoser

Ewww, their epidermis is showing.
- Douglas Stuart
  
  Ha ha! It’s funny cause epidermis means “hair”
rationalthought

Ah the 70′s when women had normal body fat distribution and pubic hair, oh how times have changed. Why did they not have art nudes in my chemistry books? I guess it was hard enough to get women in the hard sciences.
- Quiche de Resistance
  
  hard…he heh
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/PLW23MKEUJK7E464MOK3YWGUCI William Kiernan

Ooh, Marli Renfro! She’s the woman sitting sideways on that chair.