What Nudism Exposes: An Unconventional History of Postwar Canada

Nudism in Canada emerged after the Second World War as a social movement that advocated for going nude and examining other people's bodies to satisfy natural curiosity, break social taboos, and promote mental health. By the 1970s, nudists emphasized the pleasurable aspects of their practice and sought social approval on contemporary issues such as child-rearing, sexuality, public nudity, and the natural environment. This book explores the perspectives of the movement while questioning its assumptions, revealing how the body intersects nature, culture, individual, and social identities.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 268 pages
Publication date: 01 June 2023
Publisher: University of British Columbia Press

What Nudism Exposes offers an original perspective on postwar Canada by situating the nudist movement within the broader social and cultural context and considering how nudist clubs navigated changing times.

As the nudist movement took root in Canada after the Second World War, its members advanced the idea that going nude and looking at the bodies of others satisfied natural curiosity, loosened the hold of social taboos, and encouraged mental health. By the 1970s, nudists increasingly emphasized the pleasurable aspects of their practice. Mary-Ann Shantz contends that throughout the postwar decades, nudists sought social approval as they engaged with contemporary concerns about child-rearing, sexuality, public nudity, and the natural environment.

This perceptive, eminently readable book explains the perspectives of the movement while questioning its assumptions. What nudism ultimately exposes is how the body figures at the intersection of nature and culture, the individual and the social, the private and the public.

Weight: 420g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780774867214