Manchester University Press
5 What Are You For?
Abstract
Twins have been used in many times and places for intellectual purposes, as tools to think with. In art and myth, they’re employed as symbols of duality, wholeness, trickiness, creativity, social conflict, and perfect or pathological love, and as ways to explore distinctions between self and other, mind and body, male and female, and similarity and difference, period. In science, twins are central to behavioral genetics and clinical medical trials. Singletons also use twins, or at least the idea of twins, for more emotional purposes. Twins are also objects of desire within the entertainment industry and the consumer market more broadly. Across Britain, Europe, and America, conjoined twins were exhibited at fairs, circuses, theaters, and museums as “living curiosities,” alongside mutant animals, fat women, non-Westerners, intersex people, and those with unusual heights, prominent breasts and asses, or simply a lot of hair.
Abstract
Twins have been used in many times and places for intellectual purposes, as tools to think with. In art and myth, they’re employed as symbols of duality, wholeness, trickiness, creativity, social conflict, and perfect or pathological love, and as ways to explore distinctions between self and other, mind and body, male and female, and similarity and difference, period. In science, twins are central to behavioral genetics and clinical medical trials. Singletons also use twins, or at least the idea of twins, for more emotional purposes. Twins are also objects of desire within the entertainment industry and the consumer market more broadly. Across Britain, Europe, and America, conjoined twins were exhibited at fairs, circuses, theaters, and museums as “living curiosities,” alongside mutant animals, fat women, non-Westerners, intersex people, and those with unusual heights, prominent breasts and asses, or simply a lot of hair.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Frontispiece ix
- Twins in Wonderland 1
- 1 Which One Are You? 27
- 2 How Many of You Are There? 71
- 3 Are You Two in Love? 113
- 4 How Free Are You? 153
- 5 What Are You For? 187
- Coda 229
- Author’s Note 233
- Acknowledgments 235
- Notes 239
- A note on the author and illustrator 262
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Frontispiece ix
- Twins in Wonderland 1
- 1 Which One Are You? 27
- 2 How Many of You Are There? 71
- 3 Are You Two in Love? 113
- 4 How Free Are You? 153
- 5 What Are You For? 187
- Coda 229
- Author’s Note 233
- Acknowledgments 235
- Notes 239
- A note on the author and illustrator 262
