ABSTRACT

Museums, Sexuality, and Gender Activism examines the role of exhibitionary institutions in representing LGBTQ+ people, cisgender women, and nonbinary individuals. Considering recent gender and sexuality-related developments through a critical lens, the volume contributes significantly to the growing body of activist writing on this topic.

Building on Gender, Sexuality and Museums and featuring work from established voices, as well as newcomers, this volume offers risky and exciting articles from around the world. Chapters cover diverse topics, including transgender representation, erasure, and activism; two-spirit people, indigeneity, and museums; third genders; gender and sexuality in heritage sites and historic homes; temporary exhibitions on gender and sexuality; museum representations of HIV/AIDS; interventions to increase queer visibility and inclusion in galleries; LGBTQ+ staff alliances; and museums, gender ambiguity, and the disruption of binaries. Several chapters focus on areas outside the US and Europe, while others explore central topics through the perspectives of racial and ethnic minorities.

Containing contributions that engage in sustained critique of current policies, theory, and practice, Museums, Sexuality, and Gender Activism is essential reading for those studying museums, women and gender, sexuality, culture, history, heritage, art, media, and anthropology. The book will also spark interest among museum practitioners, public archivists, and scholars researching related topics.

part I|38 pages

Frameworks

chapter 1|16 pages

Introduction

Museums, Sexuality, and Gender Activism

chapter 3|8 pages

Warning! Heteronormativity

A Question of Ethics

part II|87 pages

Dismantling the Master’s House?

section A|36 pages

Major Institutions

chapter 4|12 pages

Sex and Sensitivities

Exhibiting and Interpreting Shunga at the British Museum

chapter 5|12 pages

Activists on the Inside

The Victoria and Albert Museum LGBTQ Working Group

chapter 6|10 pages

Remolding the Museum

In Residence at the V&A

section B|47 pages

Alternate Spaces

chapter 8|11 pages

Emptied, Displaced, Assimilated

Spatial Politics of Gender in Ankara Ulucanlar Prison Museum

chapter 10|13 pages

Lost Objects and Missing Histories

HIV/AIDS in the Netherlands

part III|53 pages

Bodies in the Museum?

section A|23 pages

Indigenous Bodies

chapter 11|12 pages

Kent Monkman’s Shame and Prejudice

Artist Curation as Queer Decolonial Museum Practice

chapter 12|9 pages

All that Moves Us

Bodies in Land

section B|25 pages

Bodies of Ambiguity

chapter 13|10 pages

The Future of Museological Display

Chitra Ganesh’s Speculative Encounters

chapter 14|13 pages

Nonbinary Difference:

Dionysus, Arianna , and the Fictive Arts of Museum Photography

part IV|71 pages

Acts of Resistance

section A|31 pages

Unruly Women

chapter 16|10 pages

From Handmade Underwear to the Labor Movement

Women’s History at Digital Museum

chapter 17|9 pages

Recording Change

Collecting the Irish Abortion Rights Referendum, 2018

section B|35 pages

Problematic Narratives