Not Your Average Cistory
  • Home
  • Portfolio
  • Blog
  • Reading List
  • Exhibitions
    • TRS Fight For Access

Trans Museum Studies Blog

All (Dime) Museums Are Sex Museums

15/6/2022

0 Comments

 
I have been obsessed with dime museums lately. I am currently in the process of adapting my previous post on them, Dime Museums and the Exhibitionary Complex, into a full book chapter for an upcoming collection, and my mind has been racing with thoughts. Dime museums are fascinating institutions that lie at the intersections between the museum and the circus. This was the realm of the humbug, where any manner of lie would be told to an adoring public. Wax dummies next to fake taxidermy. At the very heart, where the glitz and glamour of show business crossed with the curatorial, was the freak show. It was from the dime museum’s stage where the cabinets of human curiosities could be seen.
 
It was popular. Really popular. It was through his dime museum that PT Barnum became a household name. They would peak in popularity between the 1880s and 1890s, suffering a slow decline until their fateful death in the interwar period. But their memory lingers, even to today. My previous post looked to apply museum theory in the form of Tony Bennett to discuss dime museums, and in researching the book chapter, I found myself thinking on another facet of museum studies; Jennifer Tyburczy’s Sex Museums and her declaration that all museums are sex museums. 

Read More
0 Comments

Dime Museums and The Exhibitionary Complex

26/3/2021

0 Comments

 
​When I think about how I describe my current career trajectory and the aim of this blog, the phrase I frequently come back to is “bridging the gap between trans studies and museum studies.” I think this really highlights what I am trying to achieve. Museum studies alone is not at the point yet where I feel it can quarrel with the very broad idea of transness on its own (just recently I found an article published last year that used a definition that misgenders trans people) and so it is frequently within the sphere of trans writing that I find relevant material. This was the case with Clare Sears’ Arresting Dress: Cross-Dressing, Law, and Fascination in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco and one section in particular.

Read More
0 Comments

    Amelia smith

    Trying to bridge the gap between transgender studies and museum studies.

    Archives

    June 2025
    November 2024
    June 2024
    November 2023
    July 2023
    April 2023
    July 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021

    Categories

    All
    Admitting Uncertainty
    American Alliance Of Museums
    Asato Ikeda
    Audience
    Book Review
    Britain
    Canada
    Clare Sears
    Clarke Institute
    Coming Out
    Crossdressing
    Culture War
    Digital Exhibition
    Dime Museums
    Documentary
    Exhibition
    Gay History
    Historic Sites
    Jennifer Tyburczy
    John Singer Sargent
    John Summers
    Julia Serano
    Kit Heyam
    Leah DeVun
    LGBT
    Mapplethorpe
    Martin Duberman
    Mary Weismantel
    Middle Ages
    Museum Of Transology
    Museum Studies
    Narrative
    NEMA
    Nuts!
    Penny Lane
    Prejudice And Pride
    Queer History
    Reflection
    San Francisco
    Sex Museums
    Sexuality
    Shape Of Sex
    Stonewall
    Tenement Museum
    Theory
    Tony Bennett
    Toronto
    Transgender
    Transgender History
    Trans Health Care
    Transition Related Surgery

    RSS Feed

      Sign up to be notified of new posts

    Subscribe to Newsletter
    Tweets by NtUrAvrgCistory
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Portfolio
  • Blog
  • Reading List
  • Exhibitions
    • TRS Fight For Access