Mick Hartley

Very strange.

The Mary Rose Museum has published a blog analysing 4 items found on the ship 'through a queer lens'. The blog details little about each item but says, for example, that a mirror was found, and some people feel 'gender dysphoria when we look in a mirror'https://t.co/si4dbpgfm2 pic.twitter.com/007rMY37F7

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) August 8, 2023

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Queering The Mary Rose's Collection – How can we understand The Mary Rose’s collection of personal objects through a Queer lens?

Octagonal mirror

A circular, reflective surface would have sat within this beech frame. This mirror would have been considered a luxury item on the Mary Rose. Looking at your own reflection in a mirror can bring up lots of emotions for both straight and LGBTQ+ people. For Queer people, we may experience a strong feeling of gender dysphoria when we look into a mirror, a feeling of distress caused by our reflection conflicting with our own gender identities. On the other hand, we may experience gender euphoria when looking in a mirror, when how we feel on the inside matches our reflection.

Nit combs

The most common personal objects that we found on the Mary Rose were nit combs. There were 82 in total. These nit combs would have been mainly used by the men to remove nits from their hair, rather than using the comb to style their hair (which would have usually been covered up by a hat). However, for many Queer people today, how we wear our hair is a central pillar of our identity. Today, hairstyles are often heavily gendered, following the gender norm that men have short hair, and women have long hair. By ‘subverting’ and playing with gender norms, Queer people can find hairstyles that they feel comfortable wearing.

Um…

As we have seen, many objects can be viewed through a Queer lens and can indirectly tell LGBTQ+ stories. Next time you visit a museum, consider how you interpret the objects on display and which items resonate with you. 

Update: following the original tweet I originally identified "Hannah" as Hannah McCann, a lecturer at Melbourne University. However elsewhere – the Times, for instance – she's just identified, more plausibly, as "a collections and curatorial intern at the museum".