The Brontes have been 'queered'

Ellis is a unisex name.

Currer is a surname, not a given name, and is unisex.

I know, which is why I said it's a stretch to shoehorn it into Pride week.

Despite what the OP claims though, the museum is not "rewriting history" or claiming that the Brontë sisters were queer.

@Flickersy ‘Androgynous ‘ means equally male or female. There is no way that a girl born in 1816 would have been christened Ellis or Currer, these are male names ( usually given to reflect the surname of a relative or potential benefactor).

if you want to conceal your sex, why would you choose an androgynous name anyway? ( if such a thing existed in the early Victorian age , which I doubt) .

Next week, why George Eliot was really a man… ( in drag, natch)

I don't actually see what's wrong with this.

It's a museum devoted to 3 women who were unable to go to university because of their sex, whose options for income were severely limited because of their sex, who weren't able to publish initially under their own names because of their sex, and one of whom died in pregnancy because of her sex.

The modern middle class luxury belief of gender identity has literally zero relevance to their lives and works.

Why not"queer" the history of steam trains at the National Rail Museum in York? Include the thoughts of drag queens on the Sea Henge display in Kings Lynn? Fly Pride flags from the polar ship Discovery in Dundee in honour of the TQ?!& inhabitants of Antarctica?

..it's true that the sisters used androgynous publishing names because of expectations around mens and women's roles in society at the time.

Which is sexism.

Nothing to do with modern-day gender ideology.

I'm posting screenshots for those who don't have FB. Apart from the idea that Lucy (a character) played a gender queer role, everything else here is historically accurate and although I think it's a stretch to shoehorn it into Pride week, it's true that the sisters used androgynous publishing names because of expectations around mens and women's roles in society at the time.

They didn't use the androgynous names in any other situation other than getting their work published because of the overwhelming prejudice against women writers.

No it isn't. There is no implication in any of the posts that they were queer.

The museum is - quite rightly - talking about how female authors were perceived at the time and how taking on these pseudonyms allowed the Brontë sisters to break down barriers.

The only part that I eyerolled at is the comment on a character in a Brontë novel playing a gender queer role in a play, but that's a small part of a larger thread.

The rest of the thread is completely accurate.

They did publish under androgynous names though.

Currer Bell.
Acton Bell.

Neither Currer nor Acton are given names.

The only one which is more traditionally male is Ellis Bell, but Ellis is often used for girls as well, so it's a unisex name.

It's true that there was a lot of speculation about the authors identity and commentary on how the novels couldn't have been written by women.

I don't actually see what's wrong with this.

Wow! And their response is to ask commenters to stop 'bullying staff'. No member of staff was bullied. I happen to know someone who works there and I really hope this wasn't their idea...