‘God gives life and creates, and as a woman you can connect with that’ It’s affected me more profoundly than I thought it could. I think a lot of young women accept that sort of behaviour, because our attitudes to consent are blurred. We were both horrendously drunk, which doesn’t help. That was a guy I thought I had a good relationship with. I said, “I know it’s happened before, but I don’t want to.” He basically forced me to give him head. At the end of a night recently, I was kissing a male friend, whom I have slept with a couple of times, but I told him I just wanted to go home. I do want one, but I wouldn’t have achieved the things I’ve achieved if I’d had a relationship. In my first year I was part of a very laddish sports club, and there was a lot of pressure to conform. It was almost as if I felt grateful that people found me attractive, which is ridiculous. At uni, I found myself having more casual sex than I ever thought I would. I did notice that men looked at me differently after my breasts grew. I don’t look like this therefore I can’t be attractive to men.” It affects our perception of beauty, and makes young women think they are valued for their sexuality, and not for their thoughts and actions. It’s like: “This is the benchmark this is what men find attractive. I think what does is very damaging to young women. She just thinks if I looked after my weight more, I would look better. If she thinks I have potential, she will push me, and I respect that. She says she has struggled with her weight and the way she looks all her life, and she doesn’t want me to go through that. Some of my biggest arguments with my mum have been about my weight. If I am with my Muslim grandparents, I do think about what I am wearing. I’m an atheist, but I have this weird ethnic mix.

My dad is Turkish and Muslim, and my mum is Jewish. They’re not the best pair I have ever seen, or the worst.

I like my breasts they’re quite big and not too saggy. ‘I did notice that men looked at me differently after my breasts grew’ ‘Conversations with my mum about weight started at a very early age’ His first words were, “But they just don’t look like the magazines.” For Dodsworth, that underlined the impact of her work: “I feel that just looking at the pictures alone will change how people feel about breasts.” Ruth Lewy Age: 21. Indeed, when she showed her husband he was struck dumb. The impact of all 100 images together is quite mesmerising. But both arguments were about the men in my life, and I thought they weren’t reason enough to stop me as an artist, a woman and a feminist.” “One male friend said that I couldn’t do it because my husband’s business partners would see, and one asked how my sons would feel when they grow up. I felt more in touch with them and they became more erogenous.”ĭodsworth also took part, but will not be anonymous, which she found difficult.

Dodsworth herself experienced catharsis: “One thing that surprised me was that the way I felt about my breasts changed. The absolute anonymity she granted her subjects elicited honest interviews, ranging from the beautiful through the mundane to the painful. Her subjects range in age from 19 to 101, and include a priest, a lapdancer, cancer survivors and women who have had surgery.

Natural breast shapes