Sexual Nature? (Re)presenting Sexuality and Science in the Museum

Abstract

The past 15 years have seen dramatic changes in social norms around sex and sexuality in the UK and worldwide. In 2011, the London Natural History Museum (NHM) contributed to these debates by opening the temporary exhibition Sexual Nature, which aimed to provide 'a candid exploration of sex in the natural world' whilst also drawing in an under-represented audience of young adults. Sexual Nature provides an opportunity to explore Macdonald's 'politics of display' in the mutual construction of (public) scientific knowledge, society and sexuality, at a time of intense contestation over sexual norms. Whilst Sexual Nature both reflected and contributed to major reframings of sexuality and what science can say about it, the assumption that it would be possible to present this topic as morally neutral, reliable and uncontested, in line with traditions of public science, proved to be problematic. The language of the exhibition moved back and forth between human/animal similarity and difference, and between scientific and cultural tropes as the NHM tried to maintain epistemic authority whilst also negotiating the moral boundaries of acceptable sexual behaviour. The topic of sex pushed the museum far beyond its usual expertise in the natural sciences towards the unfamiliar territory of the social and human, resulting in an ad hoc search for, and negotiation with, alternative sources of expertise. Boon et al.'s co-curation approach to exhibition building has the potential to extend the NHM's audience-driven strategy, whilst also producing a more coherent and nuanced exhibition about the science of sex.

Social justice and out‐of‐school science learning: Exploring equity in science television, science clubs and maker spaces

“…That is, exposing more people to science is de facto a good thing, whether they want it or not, an assumption Lee and Buxton describe as assimilationist (). While science certainly has many benefits, such perspectives belie the potential for damage caused by science and science learning practices that have been called out as colonialist, racist, misogynistic, heteronormative, or otherwise oppressive (see, for example, Cassidy, Lock, & Voss, ; Harding, ; Medin & Bang, ; Pollock & Subramaniam, ). How then can we think about equity in ways that goes beyond assimilation in science and science learning?…”

Equity, Exclusion and Everyday Science Learning

“…WE FUNDAMENTALLY MISUNDERSTAND HOW EXCLUSION W Exclusion was structured by racism, class discrimination, sexism and their intersections. Of course this is not an exhaustive list, different people will be affected by different structural inequalities (see for instance Cassidy, Lock, and Voss 2016, Levin 2010, Sandell, Dodd, and Garland-Thomson 2010, Middleton and Greene 2018, Achiam and Holmegaard 2017, Aguirre 2014. But structural inequalities, especially racism, class discrimination, sexism and their intersections were key problems for people in this research.…”

‘It really has made me think’: Exploring how informal STEM learning practitioners developed critical reflective practice for social justice using the Equity Compass tool

“…Research suggests that ISL settings, but particularly zoos, science centres and science museums, face considerable challenges in creating equitable STEM learning experiences. Studies highlight a range of practices that reproduce and exacerbate injustices through staff and visitor recruitment, representation in collections, interactives, text, way-finding, facilitation, and programming (Cassidy, Lock, and Voss 2016;Das and Lowe 2018;Garibay 2009). Careers in museums and similar organisations are notoriously difficult to enter, with staff typically coming from socially privileged backgrounds (Arts Council England 2021).…”