Mad Medicine

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Ribbed For His Pleasure

Debunked: Shock-rocker has ribs removed so he can perform autofellatio

A cosmetic surgeon offers this procedure (rib removal) for transsexuals, though there are no published accounts of it actually being performed. The story is more often told in the first two variants, neither of which has any documentation and both of which are almost certainly false: (1) A shock-rock performer (e.g. Marilyn Manson) has had ribs removed to allow him to perform autofellatio, (2) Victorian women (or Cher) had ribs removed to make their waists look smaller. The latter is a variant of the stories of internal organ deformation induced by corsets, which are themselves almost certainly false. Reference: Bull N Y Acad Med 1979 Jun;55(6):551-90

Debunked: 19th century women wore corsets so tight their internal organs were deformed.

Corsets have been accused of causing almost every ill imaginable, from tuberculosis to uterine deformity. One common story is that a woman once laced her coset so tight, her liver was cut right in half. This story may have originated from a normal anatomical variant - some livers have an accessory lobe.

In Dispute: People have had their ribs removed to make their waist look smaller.

Various celebrities, particularly Cher, are supposedly "known" to have had ribs removed to improve the appearance of their waists. No reliably documented cases exist. Rib resection is major surgery, and would be expected to involve significant scarring.

References:

• Texts About The Corset: "She Cut Her Liver Right in Half"