The intersections of thought laid bare by postwar nudism in Canada

Witness to Yesterday (The Champlain Society Podcast on Canadian History)

In this podcast episode, Simon Nantais talks to Mary-Ann Shantz about her book What Nudism Exposes: An Unconventional History of Postwar Canada published by The University of British Columbia Press in 2022. As nudism took root after World War II, its Canadian adherents advanced the idea that going nude and looking at other’s bodies satisfied natural curiosity, loosened social taboos, and encouraged mental health. By the 1970s, nudists switched focus to promoting 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 childrearing, pornography, and public nudity. What Nudism Exposes explains the movement’s perspectives while questioning its assumptions, arguing that what nudism ultimately exposes is how the body sits at the intersection of nature and culture, the individual and the social, the private and the public. Mary-Ann completed her PhD in History from Carleton University and taught at McEwen University in Edmonton before becoming a researcher and a project coordinator with Covenant Health in Edmonton. She has contributed to the edited volume Contesting Bodies and Nation in Canadian History published by the University of Toronto Press. She has also published in Histoire Sociale/Social History and the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth. This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt. Image Credit: Freikörperkultur - Freisonnland Nudist camp, Motzenmuhle Berlin 1930s postcard, Flickr – Posted by Sludge G If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.