ISBN:
9780203995464
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource (250 pages)
Series Statement:
Writing Corporealities
Parallel Title:
Print version Nadeau, Chantal Fur Nation : From the Beaver to Brigitte Bardot
DDC:
391.2
Keywords:
Fur garments
;
Fur trade -- Canada
Abstract:
Fur Nation traces the interwoven relationships between sexuality, national identity, and colonialism. Chantal Nadeau shows how Canada, a white settler colony, bases its existence and its nationhood on a complex sexual economy based on women wrapped in fur. Nadeau traces the centrality of fur through a series of intriguing case studies, including: Hollywood's take on the 330 year history of the Hudson Bay Company, founded to exploit Canada's rich fur resources the life of a postwar fur fashion photographer a 1950s musical called Fur Lady the battle between Brigitte Bardot's anti-fur activists and the fur industry. Nadeau highlights the connection between 'fur ladies' - women wearing, exploiting or promoting furs - and the beaver, symbol of Canada and nature's master builder. She shows how, in postcolonial Canada, the nation is sexualised around female reproduction and fur, which is both a crucial factor in economic development, and a powerful symbol through which the nation itself is conceived and commodified. Fur Nation demonstrates that, for Canada, fur really is the fabric of a nation
Abstract:
Cover -- Half Title -- Full Title -- Copyright -- CONTENTS -- List of illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Prologue -- PART I Fur nation -- 1 My fur ladies (the fabric of a nation) -- 2 Princes, bear boys and beaver men (tales from the Beaver Clubs) -- PART II Beavers -- 3 The eyes of June Sauer (for a sexual economy of fur fashion photography) -- 4 My Fur Lady, or Canada's Liberty -- PART III Bardots -- 5 BB and her beasts -- 6 Venus forever (the next fur generation) -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
