Pakistani "transvestite" quilt
Online exhibition: LGBT tour of the British Museum
"What a lovely backside you have" ranks as one of the cheapest chat up lines there is. According to The British Museum, who have launched a new online tour of the nation’s historical collections, it is also one of the oldest.
The tour is in conjunction with the writing competition, Write Queer London, which encourages visitors and writers to mine their cultural heritage for hidden evidence of same sex desire.
To kickstart the creative juices, Untold London, who are running the competition in partnership with gay literary magazine Chroma Journal, are organising an LGBT tour of The British Museum on Friday, followed by a Joe Orton workshop on Saturday.
Ancient plaque of The Queen of the Night
Until now it has been notoriously difficult for your average museum visitor to identify homoeroticism in our museums. Love and desire, after all, do not leave any archaeological traces.
Stumbling through a dizzying array of artefacts, it takes a trained eye to pinpoint sexual dissidence – not least because where it is found it is often ambiguous, fragmentary and culturally constructed in a variety of different ways.
Museums have also been slow to highlight the significance of their holdings, leading many of us to assume that gay history in collections begins with Oscar Wilde.
"Richard Parker, curator of The British Museum told me a story about the bisexual writer Marguerite Yourcenar," says Sara Wajid, Manager of Untold London.
"She had been walking amongst the imposing displays of the Emperor Hadrian and his lover Antinous, but she found nothing there about their passionate relationship.
"It was the silences in the museum version of their life that sparked her imagination to fill in the gaps about one of the greatest untold love stories.
"The result was the modern classic Memoires d'Hadrien, a fictionalised account of Hadrian's life and love for Antinous. This was the inspiration for the competition."
Stone scuplture of the earth goddess Tlazolteotl, who represented filth and carnal sin
Those who cannot attend are able to download the tour from the museum's website.
Offering a comprehensive guide to the often-blurred boundaries between homosocial and homosexual desire, it examines gender representations, erotica and changing attitudes towards homosexuality.
As you would expect, all of the exhibits from ancient Greece and Rome are there. Cups reveal men drinking with boys, a copper alloy coin celebrates Sappho and a terracotta lamp hints at the hidden story of prostitution between women. Amid all this, Gods pose in explicit states of excitement.
The real surprises, however, are the artefacts from cultures that we would not so readily associate with gay discourses. Gender ambiguities are summoned up by a half-male, half-female Hindu deity, a Pakistani "transvestite" quilt and even a Maori treasure box.
The overall impression, that the past is much "queerer" than we thought, is bound to inspire writers everywhere. Amongst the silences, gaps and censorship, there is a rich heritage crying out to have its story told, proving that same-sex desire is certainly not merely a western invention.
Guided tour is on Friday (December 4), 2pm. Admission free, meet inside Museum front entrance by statue of Hadrian.
Joe Orton Workshop takes place at the Islington Museum on Saturday (December 5), 2pm. Admission free, email untoldLondon@museumoflondon.org.uk to attend.
Visit Untold London for details on competition entry.
All images courtesy British Museum.
