Embodied negotiations: Children's bodies and historical change in Canada, 1930 to 1960

Using adult memories of growing up in Canada, this study explores the role children's bodies and embodiment played in shaping private experience and h istorical change between 1930 and 1960. Attention is focussed on gender, ra ce and sexuality as primary forces in the embodiment of children. During th e period under study here, childhood was conceptualized as a time to inculc ate particular attitudes towards gender, sexuality, race and class that wou ld influence children's sense of self and, ultimately, serve the interests of the hegemonic social order--white, middle-class, patriarchal, heterosexu al. In adult memories of growing up, the body is remembered as the site tho ugh which acceptable self-identities and the priorities of the larger socia l order were mediated and negotiated. Although these two impulses were ofte n at odds in childhood, the former was often conflated with the latter.