Fur Nation: From the Beaver to Brigitte Bardot

Fur Nationtraces 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 calledMy 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 sexualized around female reproduction and fur, which is both a crucial factor in economic development, and a powerful symbolthrough which the nation itself is conceived and commodified.Fur Nationdemonstrates that, for Canada, fur really is the fabric of a nation.

Chantal Nadeau is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Concordia University, Montreal.