The Times has an almost unbelievable story of a supposedly-serious Museum’s efforts to appeal to the 2SLGBTQIA+ “community” who are now styled under the more mouth-friendly moniker of “queers”. As The Times reports, the museum have decided to provide a view of Henry VIII’s doomed flagship through a queer eye for facts rather than fashion. They defend the move thus:
“Queering the collection is an approach used by museums around the world. We are proud to support all of our dedicated employees, volunteers and interns as they offer their own personal reflections through our blog.”
Here are two examples of this “queering” of history.
It seems very lazy.
It is also deeply homophobic. What crank looks at a comb and a mirror and thinks “you know who likes grooming themselves… queers!”?
It is a bit like a unworldly white person who hears that a black person will be attending their dinner party, so they decide to serve fried chicken and watermelon. In other words, perhaps well-intentioned, but still essentially racist. And this is what this nonsense is too.
On the other hand, we have to accept that this is the world we now live in and one has to learn to go with the flow and contribute as one can. In view of this, on behalf of Harry’s Place, I’d like to offer the following additions I suspect the Queering Team overlooked. The Mary Rose Museum is welcome to use these to enhance its collection:
There they are, website-ready and queering to go!
