Gender at the Museum: An overview and discussion of gender diversity representation in museums

Intolerance and hate towards transgender, non-binary and otherwise gender-nonconforming people in (western) society has increased in recent years. The spread of misinformation about the transgender community and censorship of LGBTQIA+ topics in schools are two examples of how the political far-right promotes this trend, but they are also examples of things where museums can have a positive societal impact by engaging with the public about gender diversity. The aim of this thesis is to compile an overview of exhibitions which engage with the topic of gender diversity and discuss if museums are contributing enough to the ongoing societal debates about gender and transgender rights from the perspective of the wishes and needs of the LGBTQIA+ community. To compile the overview and to learn about how museums approach the topic of gender diversity web-based and literature research was used. To compare the findings of this research to how the LGBTQIA+ community actually wants to see...Show moreIntolerance and hate towards transgender, non-binary and otherwise gender-nonconforming people in (western) society has increased in recent years. The spread of misinformation about the transgender community and censorship of LGBTQIA+ topics in schools are two examples of how the political far-right promotes this trend, but they are also examples of things where museums can have a positive societal impact by engaging with the public about gender diversity. The aim of this thesis is to compile an overview of exhibitions which engage with the topic of gender diversity and discuss if museums are contributing enough to the ongoing societal debates about gender and transgender rights from the perspective of the wishes and needs of the LGBTQIA+ community. To compile the overview and to learn about how museums approach the topic of gender diversity web-based and literature research was used. To compare the findings of this research to how the LGBTQIA+ community actually wants to see museums engage with gender diversity a survey was constructed in Qualtrics and distributed through social media. The theoretical study of sexuality and gender (queer theory) is applied in a museum context to challenge established cis-gendered and heterosexual norms in a process known as queering. This queering can be performed in various ways, but the favored strategy in the exhibitions compiled and discussed in this thesis is temporary queer exhibition making with varying degrees of community engagement. The degree of community engagement seemed to be increasing over time, especially in art exhibitions, and there was also a difference between art and cultural/historical exhibitions in how they balance the representation/validation of transgender identities with educating the wider public on gender diversity, with art exhibitions focusing more on representation and cultural/historical exhibitions on education. However, there were few examples of cultural/historical exhibitions which engaged with the topic of gender diversity. The LGBTQIA+ community and its allies are clearly dissatisfied with the amount and quality of positive representation of transgender identities and experiences in museum, but there is a significant interest in seeing representation of diverse gender identities and historical aspects of gender covered in museums. While there are indeed examples of exhibitions which meet the needs and wishes of the LGBTQIA+ community, they are still relatively few and most of them are only temporary exhibitions. However, there does appear to be an increasing awareness among museum professionals of the need for the queering of museums at a fundamental level and these temporary exhibitions could be the start of this.Show less

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Gender at the Museum: An overview and discussion of gender diversity representation in museums