We are pleased to report that the Science Museum has removed its display “The Boy or Girl?” gallery, featuring a fake penis and chest binders, after complaints that it was not scientific.
The exhibit displayed quotes describing the transition from the “wrong body” as a “hero’s journey”, and labels characterising gender as something “difficult to define” which “may not match your biological sex”.
The display was in the Who Am I? gallery, which covers various aspects of biological identity from genetics to facial expressions.
The cabinet displayed a fake penis to be worn under clothing as a “packer” to provide a male appearance, as well as a compression vest to flatten the chest. Testosterone patches worn to induce bodily changes through hormone treatment were also displayed alongside an information panel which stated that “sex usually refers to someone’s biological characteristics”, whereas “gender is more difficult to define”, adding that: “Your gender identity is our sense of yourself as male or female, or, for some people neither or both. It may not match your biological sex.”
In December 2021 we sent the following letter to the Science Museum:
We are contacting you to express our grave concern regarding reports of changes being made to the Boy or Girl? Exhibition. The purpose of this exhibition is supposedly to educate on the biological differences between male and female. However the museum has now announced that it plans to cave in to pressure from the transgender lobby and make the exhibition ‘more inclusive’ with assistance from the ‘Museum of Transology’. As part of this ‘more inclusive’ approach it is further reported that part of the display includes items such as a fake penis to be worn under clothing to provide a male appearance, a compression vest to flatten the chest and testosterone patches worn to include bodily changes. An information panel for an under-review display states that “sex usually refers to someone’s biological characteristics”, whereas “gender is more difficult to define”. The panel continues: “Your gender identity is your sense of yourself as male or female, or, for some people neither or both. It may not match your biological sex.”
We find it deeply disturbing that a venerable and respected institution such as the Science Museum which is dedicated to the propagation of facts about biology and the other sciences would be willing to distort scientific reality at the behest of a lobby group. The museum appears to have adopted the position that the reality of a person’s sex is unimportant next to the ‘gender’ that they ‘feel’ they might be. Thus biology is rendered irrelevant to who a person is, while subjective feelings become paramount.
This view is profoundly unscientific. A study by two of the world’s most respected academics in this area, Dr Lawrence Mayer and Dr Paul McHugh of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, concluded that:
The hypothesis that gender identity is an innate, fixed property of human beings that is independent of biological sex— that a person might be ‘a man trapped in a woman’s body’ or ‘a woman trapped in a man’s body’—is not supported by scientific evidence. (Lawrence S. Mayer, Paul R. McHugh, ‘Sexuality and Gender: Findings from the Biological, Psychological, and Social Sciences’, The New Atlantis, 2016.)
In addition to ignoring the biological facts, the approach the museum has taken is irresponsible. Since many children come to the Science Museum on educational visits the exhibition will now give them a confusing message about sex and gender. In an age when there has been a massive increase in young people seeking gender treatment (with a 1500% increase among teenage girls in the last ten years) which in many cases they subsequently regret, it is important that they receive scientifically accurate messages about sex and gender.
We would urge the museum to abandon its misguided adoption of transgender ideology and return to the biological facts. This is in the interests of both scientific truth and the welfare and protection of children and young people.
We look forward to hearing from you.
The Science Museum has confirmed that the display has been taken down “as part of ongoing work to review displays across the museum to ensure they reflect current scientific research” telling the Telegraph that: “Regarding the content, our approach is always to be guided by the science, whilst ensuring we represent a diversity of stories. This is no different from other areas of the museum.”