✨ Check out this must-read post from BBC Culture 📖 📂 Category: ✅ Key idea: In Ingres's novel La Grande Odalisque, 1814, the absurdly elongated lumbar part of a relaxed woman was derided by critics for its anatomical illogicality. The artist Tavy had his subject's spine so severely stretched, that medical scientists have since estimated that she was given at least five extra vertebrae—a deformity that would, in fact, lead to profound physical paralysis. Rather than enhancing sexuality, these interventions distort the bodies of their subjects. In Man Ray's picture, the placement of the holes theoretically impairs Kiki's ability to…
