Brighton Museum & Art gallery | 20 July 2017 to 3 June 2018 Hand embroidered sampler, 2017 Hand embroidered sampler, MUSEUM OF TRANSOLOGY We are proud to present Museum of Transology. This exhibition is part of Be Bold, a programme created and developed together with our LGBTQ communities. Be Bold reflects the ways they would like to work with Royal Pavilion & Museums, bringing their voices, experiences and histories into the museum in their own words. Museum of Transology is curated by E-J Scott. It will take you on a journey with trans community individuals who share their honest, unedited experiences. The display deals with themes of the body, gender and identity. Please be aware that some objects are of a sensitive nature. Visitors may The UK’s trans communities are The Museum of Transology is have a personal response which connects to increasingly vibrant, visible dedicated to giving a voice to the their own experience and lives; there are links and confident about sharing reality of trans lives and halting for support and contact groups for issues our stories. Trans people are the erasure of transcestry. The raised within the display, and this can be found coming out, finding each other collection is as diverse as the in the gallery folders. and organising Pride events, and trans experience itself, yet shares Brighton & Hove continues to themes of hope, despair, ambition, Parents and carers are responsible for pave the way in the fight for trans confidence and desire. It began by supervising children’s visit to this exhibition. acceptance and equality. Trans gathering objects and stories from people’s gender identities are self- the local trans community at the defined. Expressing our gender trans-friendly Marlborough Pub & identities can be challenging Theatre. It now includes more than because we experience transphobia 150 items from around the UK and in the form of hate crime, violence, aims to keep growing to include discrimination and bigotry. trans lives from around the world. Sadly, no matter how bold and The Museum of Transology needs a brave we are, we cannot change permanent home in a UK museum, the fact that trans lives have where it can be preserved for future traditionally been missing in generations. museums, because they have often been hidden, ignored, misunderstood, forgotten and, in many cases, lost. This makes it difficult to tell trans stories of the past with confidence and accuracy. GENDER IDENTITY CISGENDERED JUST BE YOU This is personal, internal and cultural, Non trans people whose gender and not necessarily visible to others identity happens to align with their From crinolines to corsets, throughout dress biological sex history people of all genders have gone to TRANS TRANSOLOGY great lengths to shape their body to create a An umbrella term used to indicate a fashionable silhouette. From bras to boxers and wide variety of people whose gender The practice of collecting trans binders to boobs, all kinds of inventive non- identities are not aligned with their objects and narratives biological sex surgical solutions are also used to shape the TRANCESTORY trans silhouette. QTIPOC Evidence of trans lives lived before us For some trans people, the use of hormones and Queer, trans and intersex person/ surgical procedures remains critical to their people of colour THEIRSTORY wellbeing. Navigating the pathway to treatment The study of past events beyond the INTERSEX can be complex and fraught with emotional cisgender binary anxiety. The Transgender Equality Inquiry Someone born with sexual anatomy 2016 stated that ‘the NHS is letting down trans that does not fit typical medical TRANS EMBODIMENT definitions of female or male people: it is failing in its legal duty under the Celebrating trans people’s abilities to Equality Act’. fully appreciate and inhabit their NON-BINARY bodies. For some this can be beyond Other trans people choose not have any surgical To be on the gender spectrum and a female/male binary or medical intervention, and some create bodies not bound by the constructs of male that stretch beyond the binary divide between or female TRANSITION female and male. The social and/or physical journey GENDERQUEER some take to enact a gender identity To ‘queer’ gender, often by taking a different from the one assigned at birth visual and political stance against gender conformity CIS-GAZE The way trans people are seen as objects of titillation or fascination At no point can these definitions limit, label or govern us. Bathroom Personal and intimate items used to shape the body and complete a beauty regime Concealer Jay’s weave Serge photo ‘This was the first piece of makeup ‘I was born with undescended Photo of monster bodycast Seven inch packer Lynx deodorant Strapping tape used I bought: it all comes back to this. testicles and had to go to three Photographer Sara Davidmann ‘When I wore this it just ‘This was the first ‘boy’ product for chest binding I learnt about it from YouTube different hospitals before Plaster bodycast held against body. made my dysphoria come I bought. It was for a drag king ‘I found that my binder didn’t and still use it today. I finally built determining my gender. It was out more. I hated it.’ night, and it was such a life- make me flat at all and instead up the confidence to go into a only at the age of 12 that I had The ‘Worn Out’ collection changing event, it felt so good just gave me a ‘boob shelf’, so shop and buy makeup without fully developed genitals. I came Max Factor lipstick dressing as a boy and broke I started using duct tape to feeling judged, and now that I’ve out to my mum and I was not Prosthetic breasts ‘This lipstick, although not my down some invisible barrier.’ separate out my breasts and kind started I’ve not looked back once.’ accepted. My family disowned me. These Amoena breast forms first, was the first colour I ever of hid them under my arms. I I lost everything, but no matter purchased c1992 replaced my got. I was looking for a ‘melt Prosthetic breasts was trying to be stealth at the Polka dot packing sock what I had to move on with my home-produced bra stuffers. The in the background’ look and ‘What Mother Nature time which did not work at ‘The first sock I packed with. I transition. I felt that I would not weight, feel and jiggle of these this colour did it for me.’ didn’t give me.’ all pre-hormones. My breasts think it’s great because its vivid pass with short hair so I went gave me a heady experience gave me so much dysphoria I colour carries my flamboyant non- for full head weave extensions. I would imagine on par with No 7 lipstick Pack and pee was doing anything to flatten binary identity to my underwear!’ These extensions marked the the experience some trans ‘Homemade pack and pee! them. Eventually one time beginning of my journey of men experience when packing Silent Movie red lipstick Soft packer with ‘she-wee’: when I took my tape off I also self-acceptance and love.’ the first few times. The life ‘This lipstick was from my great idea in theory but took off a layer of skin. Then I expectancy of these Amoena wonderful sister who was the impractical due to stiff plastic.’ moved to using the sports tape Victoria’s Secret ‘shaping inserts’ forms is approximately two to first family member to accept here as it is made for humans.’ ‘I used these ‘chicken fillets’ before three years, so my 25 years usage and support my transition.’ Prosthetic breasts and I started hormones. It was a attests to their excellence. The packing pants Wax strips convenient way of shapeshifting replacements cost about the same Female strapping ‘Big pair of tucking pants and a ‘Veet ready to use hair quickly when I needed to!’ today and are equally pleasing. ‘Body tape to create pair of boobs (rarely worn!).’ removal wax strips.’ the right curves.’ [hotpencil> press collection Prosthetic penis Eyelashes curlers I wore this and slept with this ‘Battery powered eyelash Knitted moorhen packer every day for more than ten years. curlers for hot curls!’ c2003-2006 ‘Started off plumper but got squished with use!’ Expressing identity through dress; ‘Pre & Post’ Sian’s Collection Cabinet significant items from the trans community Sanitary towel ‘Became a part of the fabric Born Risky dress and boots Floral bra RAF newspaper article of my transition post op, ‘I wore this Vivienne Westwood ‘My uniform for spreading the while I was healing.’ Anglomania dress on Grayson potent love; part of being a Portrait of Munroe Bergdorf at Perry’s Born Risky series to female tranny warrior, giving Sutton House by Sarah Moore Lipstick challenge my own perpetuation the message of embracing love ‘…All of the portraits were of ‘This was my first lipstick. It of binary masculinity.’ for every gender and spreading Munroe in and around a National took me ages to find the right acceptance. A celebration of Trust Tudor house in Hackney. colour. I now have boxes of Black dress Travis sensuality & the inner beauty of We were proud to feature a trans makeup and am still addicted.’ ‘…this wasn’t the first dress I ever the self + female form. Created woman of colour captured by a wore but it was the first dress that for ‘PSYCHEDELIC QUEERS’’. non-binary hard femme as the Pants I put on and thought…. “oh my god, face of our year-long ‘Sutton ‘These are from my first set I look good.