What Nudism Exposes situates the nudist movement within the social and cultural context of postwar Canada by considering how nudist practices and attitudes both departed from and reinforced mainstream values in changing times. In this perceptive, eminently readable book, Mary-Ann Shantz describes how nudists sought social approval as they participated in contemporary debates about childrearing, sexuality, and public nudity. Shantz explains the perspectives of the nudist movement while questioning its assumptions, particularly the defence of nudity as natural. 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.

What Nudism Exposes situates the nudist movement within the social and cultural context of postwar Canada by considering how nudist practices and attitudes both departed from and reinforced mainstream values in changing times. In this perceptive, eminently readable book, Mary-Ann Shantz describes how nudists sought social approval as they participated in contemporary debates about childrearing, sexuality, and public nudity. Shantz explains the perspectives of the nudist movement while questioning its assumptions, particularly the defence of nudity as natural. 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.