Editor’s note: Warning, this article contains sexual descriptions that some readers might find disturbing.
A women’s rights campaigner is deriding a museum’s claim that Legos are heteronormative and therefore anti-LGBT because the pieces fit together, similar to mating between men and women.
The Science Museum in London, which previously attracted controversy over a display that promoted so-called “gender-affirming care,” has made headlines once again over a self-guided tour titled “Seeing Things Queerly” that claims Lego toys are viewed by some as anti-gay.
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Fiona McAnena, the director of advocacy for the nonprofit Sex Matters, which supports the right for women to have female-exclusive spaces, told The Telegraph that the guide for “Seeing Things Queerly” is “completely bonkers.”
“The idea that Lego is ‘heteronormative’ because the blocks are described as ‘male’ and ‘female’ is ridiculous,” McAnena told The Telegraph. “Children who play with Lego don’t need to be told that some people say fitting Lego blocks together is ‘mating.’”
“People expect to be informed, educated and inspired when visiting the Science Museum, not to have dubious claims rooted in gender ideology forced on them,” she added.
The “Seeing Things Queerly” tour was created by the museum’s gender and sexuality network for people to explore “stories of queer communities, experiences and identities,” according to its website.
One of the features of the self-guided tour is a bucket of Lego bricks, with the museum guide explaining that the children’s toy is often described in a “gendered way.”
According to the museum guide, people sometimes refer to the top of the brick with the pins sticking out as male and the bottom of the brick with holes to receive the pins as female, and the process of putting the pieces together is known as “mating.”
“This is an example of applying heteronormative language to topics unrelated to gender, sex and reproduction,” the guide states. “It illustrates how heteronormativity (the idea that heterosexuality and the male/female gender binary are the norm and everything that falls outside is unusual) shapes the way we speak about science, technology, and the world in general.”
In response to an inquiry from The Christian Post, a spokesperson highlighted the length of time between the publication of the blog describing the tour and the media’s articles about it.
“This blog post was published online in 2022 to highlight a small number of objects on display at the museum that relate to LGBTQ+ individuals, experiences and communities,” the spokesperson stated.
Other highlights on the museum’s self-guided tour include an 18th century glass female urinal, which is featured as part of a display called Technology in Everyday Life c.1750-1820. The guide claims that wealthy females used the device to relieve themselves during long coach journeys.
Due to the device’s resemblance to male genitalia, although the museum acknowledges that perhaps the shape was less explicit in its day, the guide asserts that the item highlights the “playful attitudes to sexuality that many had during the 18th century.”
“Today, objects similar to these are used by some trans men to alleviate gender dysphoria (a strange or negative feeling people may experience about their body and/or gender),” The Science Museum website states.
A separate item in the “Seeing Things Queerly” tour is a Billy doll at the Technology and Everyday Life c. 1968-2000 display. As The Science Museum guide explains, artists John McKitterick and Juan Andres designed the doll in 1992 for homosexual men, specifically adult men.
The Billy doll, later mass-produced in 1997, was meant to help create “positive visibility” for homosexuals amid the AIDS epidemic in the United States that spanned from the early 1980s to the 1990s.
This self-guided tour exploring gender identity and queerness is not the first time the Science Museum in London has attracted controversy for pushing LGBT ideology.
As The Telegraph reported in January 2023, the museum removed a display following complaints that a cabinet titled “Boy Or Girl?” promoted propaganda instead of science. The display featured chest-binding equipment and described gender as something “difficult to define,” claiming that it “may not match your biological sex.”
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
