 Germaine Greer's second-wave feminist book "The Female Eunuch" gives the practice as an example of male-directed distortion of the female body.Valerie Steele's history of the corset finds no evidence of such a procedure, and with Lynne Kutsche argues the mortal danger of surgery of the era makes it extremely implausible.Barbara Mikkelson of Snopes.com suggests that Florenz Ziegfeld might have started such a rumor about his protegée Anna Held to publicize her career.