Notice Board

Department of History Colloquium

Co-Sponsored by the Institute for Child & Youth Studies (I-CYS)

Presented by Dr. Mary-Ann Shantz

FRIDAY, November 21, 2014

3:00 p.m. – C640

Everyone is welcome

"Children of Nature? Nudity, Socialization and Sex Education in the Postwar Canadian Nudist Movement"

The nudist movement emerged in industrializing Germany with the goal of cultivating “a healthy mind in a healthy body.” Appealing to youth, workers and families alike, the early German movement had a strong focus on physical health, evident in the popularity of nude gymnastics regimens and hiking. In the midst of the post-war baby-boom, however, the nuclear family became the cornerstone of the fledgling Canadian nudist movement. Drawing on established notions of childhood innocence the authority of psychology, Canadian nudists used children to provide a philosophical basis and a functional purpose for the movement. They invoked children’s bodies to present nudity as a free and natural state of being, and simultaneously promoted nudism as a means of teaching children to be self-regulating members of society. Underlying the relationship between children and nudism in postwar Canada, therefore, was a dichotomy between the idealization of childhood as more closely aligned with nature, and the marketing of nudism as an effective means of disciplining children to conform with social norms.

Mary-Ann Shantz has a PhD in history from Carleton University, where her doctoral dissertation explored the cultural history of nudism in postwar Canada. Her current research project is a history of children and public space in early twentieth century Vancouver. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta.

Presented by Dr. Mary-Ann Shantz