Fur Nation : From the Beaver to Brigitte Bardot

Fur Nation traces the interwoven relationships between sexuality, national identity, and colonialism, and the centrality of fur through a series of intriguing case studies, from the Fur Industry to Brigitte Bardot.

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.