Museums

The Necessity of Trans Representation in Museums

The ways in which museums reference and interpret evidence of gender nonconformity within the lives [Page 546]of the people included in their collections affect how visitors and the museums’ local communities consider and understand the subjects on display, as well as trans people and their struggle for human rights more generally. On the positive side, museums can provide a space for accurate information about gender diversity to reach the public. The inclusion of trans people in museums can

• better inform cis visitors about trans lives and counterbalance media spectacularizing and the widespread dissemination of misinformation,
• disprove the myth that trans identities are detrimental to societies and a modern phenomenon by demonstrating that gender nonconformity has existed and been depicted throughout history, and
• increase the well-being of trans people and their allies, including family members, by acknowledging that they are worthy of visibility and respect and have contributed meaningfully to history.

On the negative side, museums become active agents of social exclusion when they marginalize or erase the history of gender diversity. Museological exclusion reinforces the “othering” of gender-diverse people in the broader society. In essence, the invisibility of trans lives in museums infers that they have no meaningful place in the historical development of ancient or modern societies, rendering them historically homeless.

Historical Mechanisms for Locating Gender-Diverse Lives in the Past

Historically, when trans people have appeared in museums and archives, there are typically three mechanisms by which their gender diversity has been disclosed. First, they appear in medical reports, where they are pathologized as extraordinary or unnatural. These can include postmortem medical records that feature illustrations of genitalia, as can be found in the archival records of the French diplomat and spy Chevalier d’Éon (1728–1810) in the British Museum. Second, trans people appear in titillating media coverage, which uses the tabloid journalistic mechanism of the “shock of the reveal.” For example, an article about the late English stage actor Eliza Edwards published in the Sussex Advertiser on January 28, 1833, under the title “Extraordinary Investigation” reported that when her body was autopsied, it was discovered, to “the surprise of everyone, [the] deceased was a perfect man” (emphasis added). Finally, as is frequently the case with locating evidence of gay men in the past, trans people can appear as criminals in legal records. For example, “Colonel” Victor Barker, an activist in a British fascist organization in the 1920s, was revealed to have been assigned female at birth when he was arrested for failing to appear in court as part of bankruptcy proceedings.

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