In the decade and a half immediately following World War II, the version of boyhood that became the ideal was one that stressed selflessness, togetherness, honesty, fearlessness, frank determination, and emotional toughness. It was thought that investing boys with this version of masculinity was essential if they were to grow into the kind of citizens capable of governing, protecting, and defending the nation, and, of course, maintaining and regulating the social order.
Drawing on a wide variety of sources, Ontario Boys demonstrates that, although girls were expected and encouraged to internalize a “special kind” of citizenship, as caregivers and educators of children and nurturers of men, the gendered content and language employed indicated that active public citizenship and democracy was intended for boys. An “appropriate” boyhood in the postwar period became, if nothing else, a metaphor for the survival of the nation.
Christopher J. Greig is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor. His research has been published in international refereed journals such as Educational Review, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, and the Alberta Journal of Educational Research. He is co-editor, with Wayne J. Martino, of Canadian Men and Masculinities: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (2012).