Vagina museum set to open in London — and it will be super trans-inclusive
Photo: Nicole Rixon/Vagina Museum
The world’s first vagina museum is set to open its doors in north London in November 2019.
The Vagina Museum will showcase vaginas and vulvas artworks in an attempt to reduce the stigma and shame surrounding gynecological anatomy.
In case you’re wondering, yes, a penis museum — the Icelandic Phallological Museum — does exist. The gallery has been welcoming visitors in Reykjavík ever since 1997.
Everything from period to pregnancy
More than twenty years after the penis museum was launched, a brand new equivalent is here to fill the hole for a vagina-dedicated gallery.
‘The museum is going to be about the entire gynaecological anatomy and its place in our culture and history,’ their website reads.
Displays will also explore period, PCOS, cervical cancer, contraception and pregnancy. The aim is to educate everyone with a vagina about the health risks that come with it.
As the museum is getting closer to being permanently housed in the borough of Camden, its founders are making sure its collection will be as intersectional and trans-inclusive as possible.
How can the museum be inclusive?
‘Being trans-inclusive is one of our core values and is very important to us,’ director and founder of the museum, Florence Schechter, told GSN.
‘To achieve these aims, we have an advisory board which includes Juno Roche, and a non-binary person. We are currently looking for someone who can represent the needs of trans men. And we will also be actively including trans and non-binary stories in our exhibitions.’
She furthermore added: ‘The other parts of the museum are also important. For example, using gender-inclusive language in our print and marketing materials,’ Schechter said.
Schechter then explained volunteers will learn to use appropriate language and pronouns.
The Vagina Museum welcomes suggestions about how to be inclusive and do better.
Its founders have also started a crowdfunding campaign to help the museum come to life. If they don’t reach the crowdfunding target, however, the museum might not become a reality.
History of the Vagina Museum
The project started back in 2017 with travelling exhibitions, before working to set a permanent home in 2019.
The Vagina Museum is now the first registered charity in the UK with ‘vagina’ in its title. Once open, it will be the sole permanent physical space about the female anatomy.
At the moment, there is an art gallery in Tasmania including a vagina-dedicated artwork, C*nt and conversations.
Moreover, Austrian artist Kerstin Rajnar is running the virtual project Vaginamuseum, born in 2014.
Originally published at https://www.gaystarnews.com on April 2, 2019.
