Young V&A removes trans poster and LGBTQ+ books

[IwantToRetire]

The poster was produced by charity Stonewall and read: ‘Some people are trans, get over it!’. The books removed from the YVA bookshop - Seeing Gender and Here and Queer - are illustrated books, the first on expressing and understanding the complexities of gender and the second a guide aimed at girls to educate on aspects of queer life, such as coming out and Pride.

A spokesperson from the V&A told Arts Professional the museum “made the complex decision to remove several objects from this gallery – not just the Stonewall poster – as having reflected on the interpretation, the senior team felt more consultation was necessary with young people and teachers on how to present these topics, to ensure their perspectives were more fulsomely represented” .

Full story here https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/exclusive-young-va-removes-trans-poster-and-lgbtq-books

I don't think they understand what the word fulsome means.

Or maybe they do 🤔

as having reflected on the interpretation, the senior team felt more consultation was necessary with young people and teachers on how to present these topics, to ensure their perspectives were more fulsomely represented

Why would those topics be presented by the V&A to young people at all? It seems pretty irrelevant to their mission. As a parent, why would I think they had any knowledge on that kind of topic?

Interesting that two trade unions - PCS and Prospect - have decided that dictating what a museum’s retail outlet should sell to children is a campaigning issue for them.

Rather than the traditional core business of safeguarding their members’ employment rights and terms & conditions of employment.

Presumably a group of activists have got themselves into positions of influence in their branch.

Good but I expect there to be a huge backlash in 3, 2, 1.

That is wise of them.
Gender or any other indoctrination needn’t have any part to play in their provision of art education.

If by any chance something related to transgender beliefs, religion or politics etc is specifically relevant to a particular exhibit that would be different and might warrant a brief explanation.

OK, haven't read the article. I find myself mainly marvelling that there was any of this material there in the first place. Young V&A is the new name for the Museum of Childhood, which I first visited as a parent helper on a school trip with my son's year 1 class (5 and 6 year-old children). We re-visited as a family in the holidays. I could never see that what was there would be of interest to older children. Maybe they've done a massive re-jig to put in exhibits of interest to teenagers as part of the refurb/rebrand that's just come to an end.

The unified message from all attendees was that we do not support the decision to remove the object, that this decision undermines the V&A’s ability to expand our audiences, that the decision is not in line with the V&A’s values, it is not in the public interest, the decision undermines the editorial independence of curators, which may very well lead to self-censorship, is of a disservice to the visitors we serve, and a direct affront to trans visitors and staff,” the letter states.

PCS has told its union members it is continuing to work alongside the LGBTQ working group, MASS action group, Prospect representatives and branch members to explore options to further pursue the issue.

So it has been infiltrated and captured by people promoting ideas that have nothing to do with showing the V & A’s artifacts to the public including children.

What possible place has the Stonewall poster or those books?

People had better write to support Tristam Hunt.

I wondered if the management of the V&A have been listening to what is going on in schools and that they shouldn't just present "one side" of the arguement. ie if they are going to have Stonewall propoganda they need some GC proganda to balance it.

I was going to say must be because Tristram Hunt is a Tory, but in fact he is long standing Labour (its just he's so posh). So lets hope this indicates that some in the Labour Party are thinking we shouldn't be Stonewalled.

(In checking who he was I was intrigued by this: He wrote an article in the New Statesman comparing Cromwell's Republic to the Islamic fundamentalism dominant in Afghanistan at that time (2001). Not that good on history but thought Cromwell and the New Model Army were socialist heros! )

“Young V&A’s mission is to foster children’s creativity, and our new galleries include displays that illustrate how design is used as a creative tool to campaign for social issues,” the spokesperson added.

How would the staff feel about displaying AHF or a campaign poster for single sex toilets in schools (a young girls Change uk petition has just been taken down).

Maybe they've done a massive re-jig to put in exhibits of interest to teenagers as part of the refurb/rebrand that's just come to an end.

Based on tv news reports the 3 year re-branding of the Museum of Childhood they seem to have turned it into one vast soft play area, so I was also surprised to see that this type of material had been included.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/gw0D84l66WE/summer-festival

Lets just hope it doesn't swing to far and not only restore the Stonewall info but end up having a saturday show where Drag Queen's explain toys through time to toddlers.

@IwantToRetire I've been there yesterday, and can confirm its now not a museum but a garish play centre with tiny bits of random stuff exhibited there and there. All looked nice as brand new but I can imagine it will be getting quite shabby soon as everyhting is "interactive". Exhibition is really mixed and difficult to digest, weirdly showing "posters" (reproductions) of some famous artwork - like Van Gough portrait - and a lot of stuff previously on display is not there. Signage for artwork is awful and hard to locate, and all descriptions are seriously dumbed down.
I doubt the teenagers will be interested. There is literally nothing there of interest to anyone over 5 year old.

It used to be just a museum with old childhood toys on display for a bit of nostalgia, a fun train set and a couple of rocking horses, a dress up box and a place you could play draughts and Chinese chequers with a nice cafe and a sweet little gift shop selling trinkets.
now it’s for activism and ideology.
what a shame!

OMG - do they still have the dolls houses on display. Please say they do...

They have a Rachael Whiteread installation of dolls house.

The adverts I've been getting about the reopening suggests suitable up to 14 but my teenagers are now at the 'read everything in a museum' stage and it didn't look like there was much of that.

@Stillcountingbeans they do! One of the few things they kept

Some sense there. Last time I was in the states I was gobsmacked to see science museums - science! - touting Jazz books and displays.

It seems trans activism and gender ideology pops up everywhere that children are. Hence the expression leave the kids alone. Let kids be kids

I read something about an exhibition on gaming being the bit that’s meant to appeal to teenagers. For lots of teens that’ll have zero appeal; & unless they have a staff member overseeing things, getting a turn, should actual gameplay feature, it’ll be worse than the rocking horses when parents couldn’t see why their child should have to wait for a turn &/or shouldn’t have an unlimited go when there are queues stretching both ways 🤦‍♀️

This month is annual being-persecuted month for Catholics in NI & parts of Scotland, with the Orange Order for some reason trying to push into yet more places it has feck all business being - notably the Garvaghy Road. The loyalist line is it’s a total coincidence the wee Quinn boys were (please note, linked article contains graphic description by boys’ uncle of IDing their bodies) murdered during the violent intimidation campaign surrounding Drumcree & certainly that could be true. If you believe it, please step this way to my bridge showroom. My point here - I promise I have one - is that the UK actually has a minority population that’s subjected to death threats on the regular (on top of the endless casual sectarianism); & noisy celebrations of our being murdered (I’m not going to link it, but there are TikToks up of LOLs [it’s their own abbreviation 🤷‍♀️] stewarding what look like great crowds of football hooligans through Catholic areas, with them segueing from bellowing “this is OUR country!” at the residents into the “Bouncy Bouncy Song”). Yet Catholics remain able to visit Museums without expecting a big mention we exist & are valid. I mean, I’d be a bit worried if the Vatican were sotto voce on Catholicism, but otherwise? If everyone has to have something in a museum that is “for them”, museums will be fecked.

(Speaking of brutal murders of Catholics - lots of people understand Cromwell, specifically in the context of his actions in Ireland as a would-be genocidal war criminal @IwantToRetire. Obviously war criminal is a modern term, but it can legitimately be applied when considering periods before it was used; just as, for example, one can talk about the emergence & formation of a middle class rather than using “middling sort”; or talk about the old-fashioned sort of gender with reference to periods before the word had said meaning or indeed before it even existed. Of course, some Socialists revere Stalin, so they might indeed go for that understanding of Cromwell 🤷‍♀️).

The whole “will nobody think of this community” thing rings a bit hollow when you consider the Museum is in Bethnal Green. About 50% of the residents of Bethnal Green are Muslim - encouraging the local community to use the museum & feel safe & welcome there (eg by having single sex toilets) should be a priority.

I wonder how much of this is about accessing grants and funding?

I think they do. I think they've had feedback that those items are dumb, crass and one sided discussions of a complex area and don't represent the views of teachers and kids.

Accept my comment about Cromwell was flip, but more my experience of the so called left analysis being as deep as the next photo op - ie he beheaded the King, we are against the monarchy, therefore he is okay.

And even with my sketchy history education, I am unhappily aware of how the English (monarchy) dating back centuries before Cromwell, were intolerant of Ireland being a separate self governed country. And from the Tudors onwards, were only to happy to use Protestants to further sow division.

@Bubblyb00b @JaninaDuszejko I’d also like to know about the dolls’ houses please. Are all the lovely Victorian, Georgian and early 20th century houses and their contents still on display or is it just the Rachael Whiteread installation now?

I’ve loved visiting the dolls houses since I was six-years-old. The collection was world famous, and enjoyed by children as well as adults. A lot of people will be very disappointed if they’ve vanished into storage.

As for removing the Stonewall tripe, well at least they’re getting something right.

Sorry @IwantToRetire - I don’t always get tone in text (& am currently out of practice, because dull & irritating things [& also a bereavement, which I mention only as feels horribly unfair to the deceased to file under the above]) & there are a lot of people who genuinely - for a whole range of reasons - have no idea about Cromwell [in Ireland]. My school didn’t really get into the brutality of what he did when we covered the Civil War in Y9; & even when I did a paper in Y13 called “Perspectives on Cromwell” I discovered at a conference some schools skipped over Ireland. Mine didn’t (we also did a module of [Anglo-]Irish History at GCSE, which is lamentably still unusual) but I completely understand how people come to not know about it but have a knowledge of the man iyswim?

Elizabeth I’s Irish Primer has always struck me as very instructive (no pun intended) when it comes to her priorities with Ireland. (But I shan’t drag the thread any further OT!)

I know nothing about this particular exhibition, but it seems to be a trend now to cut down on labels - not just in kids' museums, but all museums. As an avid label reader, I'm not keen myself!

@NitroNine no need to apologise, because as I said I was being flippant in my post in wanting to make a point about the trendy ahistorical left in this country.

I was always bemused in history classed because the assumption seemed to be that somehow we would know about historical events and how it reflected ongoing divisions. So I can remember being taught about the "triangular trade" as though it was just thing that happened in a period of time, and puzzling over how it could just be spoken about as some trading deal that had been set up. Although there must have been some awareness, as when learning about Mary Tudor anyone who was Catholic was allowed to miss the lesson. Again none of this made sense to me.

I wonder if the Museum of Childhood has a section to collect childhood memories. Nearly all of mine would be about hearing things said or done and thinking this doesn't make sense, and nearly alwasy because at least one part of the puzzle was glossed over, or erased. ie like saying trans people need more people to be understanding, and adding as an afterthought, some women are very angry about it!