Prince, Marilyn Manson, and the Rib Removal Rumour

If you’re my age (mid-30s) then the chances are high that someone told you about the Marilyn Manson rib removal rumour. I heard about it in high school but can’t remember specifically where or from who. It seemed like everyone was talking about it. Apparently, at some point in the late-90s, Marilyn Manson had some of his ribs removed so that he could perform auto-fellatio. Okay, it was described rather more graphically in retellings, but the point was the same. The shock rocker and accused sex criminal whose image of button-pushing provocation terrified a generation of parents was apparently such a deviant that he underwent major surgery so that he could suck his own, well, you get the picture. I don’t know if I ever believed it, not even as my most naïve, but it was the kind of celebrity gossip that was designed to spread like wildfire. It would be years before I found out that this was an old rumour, one that had previously been told about another musician, and that it had roots in an even older Hollywood story.

Rib removal surgery is a thing. It's often done as a treatment for bone cancer, or to find a useable sample for bone grafts. Some patients of open heart surgery end up having a rib or two taken out so that surgeons can get access to their organs. But the idea of rib removals as a cosmetic procedure has a thornier history. The hourglass figure has long been prized among women, although corsetry was typically the method used to achieve it. Victorian fashion was especially keen to have a major waist-to-hip ratio, even if it meant permanent damage or breathing difficulties. Many stage and music hall stars were known for their extreme hourglass shapes. Images of the French actress Polaire were especially popular because of her rumoured 16-inch waist, although the photographs were most certainly doctored to help exaggerate her image.

Soon, the stories of these tiny waists evolved to include the rumours of rib removal. In 1931, corset-maker Rosa Binner alleged that Polaire had had her lowest pair of ribs removed in the 1890s. It became a curiously accepted fact that Victorian surgery, which was highly dangerous and came with a high fatality rate, was offering operations like this all the time. It’s weird how seldom debunked this claim was. If Victorian rib removal surgery was a thing, we’d have documentation of it, and probably reports of a ton of deaths. But the idea was too juicy to dismiss. And as the decades passed by, more and more women faced the claims that their bodies were the result of a shocking modification.