Ontario Boys: Masculinity and the Idea of Boyhood in Postwar Ontario, 1945–1960 by Christopher J. Greig (review)

Recently, more scholarly attention has been paid to the significance of age as an important category of historical analysis. Once treated as a sub-sect of broader categorizations, age is now the focus of a number of key works helping to broaden our understanding of childhood throughout Canadian history. Christopher J. Greig’s recent book, Ontario Boys: Masculinity and the Idea of Boyhood in Postwar Ontario, 1945–1960, contributes to this burgeoning historiography on Canadian children.

Greig examines the immediate postwar years, which he dubs a “new age” because of its focus on children as Canada’s best “hope” for the future (ix). Due to the social upheavals caused by the Great Depression and World War II, these events prompted a re-examination of the importance of proper physical and psychological development during boyhood (defined as ages six to fourteen). As postwar Ontario struggled with the sense that traditional, heteronormative ideas about masculinity were at risk, a host of childhood “experts” emerged, claiming that institutions charged with shaping boys’ development, mainly home, church, and school, had failed to stem the so-called crisis in masculinity. Fatherlessness during World War II, and the influence of overbearing mothers, was producing a generation of “sissies” (19). Fears about the future were projected onto male children, resulting in, as Greig shows, a host of new definitions of boyhood, constructed in an effort to reinstate masculine ideals and patriarchal norms.

The book is organized into five thematic chapters, the first examining stable homes as key sites for the raising of proper boys. Class played a significant role here, with well-adjusted boys allegedly coming from comfortable, middle-class families, while poorer, working-class neighbourhoods produced troublesome boys. Greig acknowledges the changing role of the postwar father and pressures to develop a unique father-son relationship that was kind yet authoritative. Though central to boyhood, overprotective female figures like mothers and teachers were criticized for hindering masculine development and contributing to the “social feminization of boys” (10). Greig neglects to mention here, though, how much other female figures, like sisters and classmates, also shaped boyhood.

Chapter two discusses how male-bonding was intrinsic to narratives of survival in the postwar era. Male collectives, like sports teams and social clubs, were thought to act as training grounds for masculine behaviours. In popular discourse, sport, and hockey especially, were deemed “natural” vocations for boys because they taught character-building traits like strength and competitiveness. If, through boyhood fraternizing, ideal masculine characteristics could be achieved, boys would go on to become the leaders of the corporate world.

Greig’s third chapter examines the self-sacrificing “boy hero,” a smaller, younger version of the successful, corporate entrepreneur. Here Greig focuses on rugged individualism, as it was being taught to boys, through the Scouting movement, and even the ownership of pets. Greig shows how some of the old adages about Canada’s great outdoors were employed in discourses about boyhood, such as the belief that spending time outdoors built stronger and better citizens.

The fourth chapter examines socially constructed idioms about “good” and “bad” boys. Though gender-neutral, Greig points out the term “juvenile delinquent” was often tied to the exploits of the working-class, immigrant boy. In the postwar period, psychologists debated whether “badness” was inherent or learned, but agreed that a delinquent boyhood resulted in adult degeneracy. Organizations like boys’ clubs emerged to mould boys in their formative years, and also to teach immigrant youth good, “Canadian” values.

The final chapter departs from Greig’s historical narrative, examining the current state of boyhood in Ontario, also allegedly undergoing a crisis in masculinity. Greig attempts to make connections between historical and current trends, noting similarities such as the desire for strong male role models. However, he neglects to include the impact of the fifty or so years in between his two studies, leaving a...