"Objectivity is Male Subjectivity"

I am now a little over two weeks into my PhD. I am looking at spaces in museums in the city of Sheffield - not a topic that is explicitly about gender, but as I believe there is a gendered perspective to most things I'm sure I will be thinking about it over the next three years.

Last week I sat in my first lecture for a module I have to take as a refresher on quantitative methods for the social sciences - that is, mostly statistical analysis. A few slides into the presentation there are a few bullet points on categorical variables - those that can be divided into discrete categories. Option one was binary variables and surprise, surprise the example read e.g. Sex male/female. Now the lecturer clearly sensed the discomfort with what he was proposing as he was met with affronted and quizzical looks and whispered comments. At least a half dozen students in the room are doing specifically feminist research. He moved swiftly on. 

Whilst I acknowledge that there are varying interpretations of both sex and gender as a binary, trinity or continuous spectrum, it seems lazy and ill thought out to include it as an absolute in a lecture when it can easy be anticipated that the students will have varying positions. It's incidences like these that make me uneasy with the use of quantitative methods as supposedly objective research. To me it is clear that categorising any data is done on the basis on personal bias and subjectivity, just in a more hidden and sometimes socially accepted way than more qualitative methods of research. 

This morning I was reading an article by Grayson Perry in the New Statesman - about the "default man". You can read it at http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/10/grayson-perry-rise-and-fall-default-man. Perry identifies this as an identity group which dominates  politics and big business. He also uses the phrase "objectivity is male subjectivity" which I believe is extremely applicable to academia. 

Whilst there is a growing visible presence of research that seeks to break down patriachical norms that I've come across, I think there is still a fair way to go before the notion of objectivity and a white straight male bias no longer dominate research across all disciplines. 

Girls Matter - in the UK and Worldwide!

Earlier this month, Girlguiding launched an exciting new campaign in the run up to the General Election in 2015. 'Girls Matter' sets out eight key asks drawn from the research and consultation work that Girlguiding does with girls and young women. One of these is about ensuring girls' rights are a priority in the UK's approach to international development. I am delighted by this campaign, and all of the issues which it aims to highlight, but as part of the blogger network I will use this post to set out:

Why Should We Make Girls’ Rights a Priority in the UK’s Approach to International Development?

Girls around the world face the double disadvantage of being young and being female. A girl is less likely to receive an education and more likely to be subject to violence than her male peers. Girls are denied their rights all over the world.

The World We Want For Girls

That is why I am one of 18 ambassadors, chosen by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, to ensure that the future goals for improving our world aim to create ‘The World We Want For Girls’. Back in the year 2000, countries signed up to a series of targets called the Millennium Development Goals. These goals, known as the MDGs, set out how world leaders wanted the world to look by the year 2015. Since that time governments and other organisations (including Guides and Scouts) have been working to:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
• Achieve gender equality and empower women
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health
• Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
• Ensure environmental sustainability
• Build partnerships for development

A lot has been achieved in the last 14 years. 17,000 fewer children now die each day. 90% of children are now enrolled in primary school. The amount of people living in extreme poverty was halved by 2010. But there are dramatic differences between continents, between countries and between regions within those nations.

Many so-called ‘developed’ countries saw these goals as something to fund, rather than something to achieve. Did you know the UK hasn’t achieved one of the targets for achieving gender equality? The aim is to achieve gender equality in representation in Parliament – as other blog posts will testify we are a far cry from this in the UK. You will be surprised at the first nation to achieve this goal – it was Rwanda. We need to embed gender equality in our political system to truly prioritise girls’ rights everywhere.

Focusing on Girls’ Rights

Many of the issues facing girls around the world are interconnected and the current situation for many is shaped by the issues that weren’t considered in the Millennium Development Goals. Violence is a key factor – both the hostile conditions that impact of healthcare and education that exist in warzones, and the multitude of other forms of violence that infiltrate the lives of girls everywhere. From early marriage to domestic violence, from female genital mutilation to sexual violence. 1 in 3 women worldwide will be the victim of violence during their lifetime.

This is why our team of 18 ambassadors from the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts are calling on those involved in setting the next set of international goals to really consider the rights of girls. Their right to an education, their right to health, their right to live free from the threat of violence and their right to live long and fulfilling lives.

Get Involved

You can help to ensure that the issues that matter most to girls and young women are reflected in our next set of international goals. Visit the MyWorld Survey (http://vote.myworld2015.org/?partner=WAGGGS) and think about the issues facing girls all over the world as you place your vote. Then share the survey with girls and young women* that you know and work with so that they can cast their vote for their own future.

*Ballot papers are available to take voting offline and into the community.

So What's Wrong With Colour Changing Nail Varnish?

The story of the colour changing nail varnish (which tells you if your drink has been spiked) has been picked up by various media outlets over the past week as well as by organisations that tackle sexual violence. I've seen comments from many points of view across social media.

In some quarters the research of these four (male) scientists has been highly praised - quite often seemingly because they are male. Yes, I do agree that it is great that a group of men want to do something to address this issue of violence against women, but it is patronising to suggest that a man should be endlessly praised simply because the problem he is working on effects mostly women. 

Then there's the underpinning issue. Do we want to perpetuate this myth that some rapes happen because a woman drinks a spiked drink and is then vulnerable to this ever present risk of rape? A risk that is just floating out there in the ether waiting for an unsuspecting woman to attack? Or do we want to wake up to the actual problem which is the fact that there are people in the world (usually men) who see it as morally justifiable to spike another persons drink (usually a woman) in order to incapacitate them and perform sexual acts without their consent? 

The question we should be asking is not 'how do we stop women from drinking a spiked drink?', it should be 'how do we stop people from wanting to spike drinks?', 'how do we ensure that we respect the bodily integrity and rights of every human being?', 'how do we teach men that rape is wrong?'. 

I believe that this story also belies a wider social problem - the current climate which dictates that scientific advances are always good for humanity and the lack of corresponding coverage (and funding) which is given to more qualitative approaches. Domestic and sexual violence charities have had their budgets slashed thus ending their preventative programmes and forcing them to focus on reactive care. 

One programme I came across in the past was based at an art museum. A group of men who had faced charges for domestic abuse took part in sessions that aimed to help them to focus on their emotional reactions and to use looking at artworks as a way to understand that it's possible to see a situation in many different ways. These are the sort of initiatives that I believe we should be finding if we really want to tackle sexual violence in the UK.

Having been part of the 'stop the violence' campaign from the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts which seeks to end violence against girls, it pains me to say that the resources they provide, I believe, will not achieve lasting change until they are adopted and used by organisations that work with men and boys too. We can teach girls to be confident about their bodies, to be mentally resilient, but we cannot let them, even for a moment, think that being the target of sexual violence is their fault. 

Yes we can show them how to make themseleves less vulnerable, we can teach them to be conscious of their own actions, but they have the right to wear what they want and be in public spaces if they want. Until we address the underlying causes of violent behaviour we will not fulfill every humans right to live a life free from sexual violence.

Art as a Tool of Inclusion or Exclusion: The Subway Example

 I came across a statement of exclusion from a piece of public art scrawled on the walls of an underpass in Peterborough city centre. 

I had stopped to admire/investigate this piece of street art in progress - a repainting of the underpass with depictions of famous scenes from the history of the city. I took in a rebellion against the Romans and the locally well known figure of old Scarlett adopting his pose that supposedly inspired Shakespeare. I read the sign declaring the piece a work in progress, stencilled on the wall complete with the logos of organisations involved in its commission, design and implementation. 

Next to these on a bare section of undercoat were the words "let the kids paint please!". It wasn't even painted on. These words were the passionate outcry of somebody who had had a connection to the previous mural and who had taken whichever writing implement they had to hand and made their feelings known to the world. 

Before this new heritage inspired mural was started, this underpass had been decorated with drawings and illustrations created by children from a local school. It was probably getting on for nearly a decade old, looking a little tired around the edges and was obviously the freehand work of school children rather than an artists collective, but it clearly meant something to at least somebody in Peterborough. 

I am a firm believer in the positive value of art in public places - especially high quality art that supports the local creative economy. But I am also a believer in consulting the stakeholders before undertaking any public project and in ensuring the built heritage of today is recorded before it's destruction to preserve it for future generations to see. 

- was the previous mural documented to be filed as a resource for the future to be held at the city museum or art gallery?

- was any attempt made to contact those who had a hand in the last mural, to give them a last chance to record their own work, or be involved in this project?

- are there any workshops planned so that local people can understand and learn the creative methods used in the new design? Or even contribute to the work? 

It will definitely be a stunning work of art for the people of Peterborough to enjoy, but I do hope they can be included in the process. 

An Inspirational Case from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

This blog was first published at: http://camunivmuseums.wordpress.com/2014/08/28/an-inspirational-case-from-the-museum-of-archaeology-and-anthropology/

Every object in a museum can tell many stories. The story of how it looks. The story of what it was used for. The story of how it was made. But very often museums may overlook the need to tell the crucial story of how an object was collected – a story that is fundamental to how an object ended up in a museum. On the top floor of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology I discovered a case full of objects with just such a story; one that I found particularly inspiring.

The Clarke Hall, on the top floor of the building, presents the museum’s international archaeological collections. A panel as you enter the gallery proclaims it a ‘work in progress’ with the displays being part of a collaborative project with visitors in order to further develop them in the future. Having studied an undergraduate degree in Archaeology and Geography I was curious about the objects in the ‘open storage’ cases with row upon row laid out for comparison. However, the case that particularly stands out in my memory of that initial visit is the one dedicated to the archaeologist, Dorothy Garrod.

The case contains a number of prehistoric objects from the excavations she oversaw, as well as a selection of cigarette tins that were used as find containers as they were readily to hand. Elsewhere in the gallery there are cases and panels detailing the influence of other eminent archaeologists on the collections and the profession as a whole, but it was the feminist story of Dorothy Garrod that stood out to me.

You can find much more detail about Garrod’s career online, but I shall quote from the case label for a summary:

Dorothy Garrod worked with a field crew, largely of women, recruited from the Palestinian villages. At home in Cambridge, her work was recognized by her election to the Disney Chair of Archaeology in 1939 – the University’s first woman professor. Small and shy, she was a feminine anomaly in a man’s world. Today she is recognised as a feminist pioneer within a university now better balanced between women and men.

When we give objects labels that describe their materials, their origin, their function and their age we often resort to trying to tell the ‘original’ story, the narrative that we think the object was created to be part of. But objects don’t stop existing when they are lost and found, sold and bought, excavated and collected and these processes add to the stories connected to the object. I found it refreshing to view prehistoric objects being used to tell a story of advancement towards gender equality that is under a century old, one that more people could perhaps relate to, alongside the usual information on its type, origin and age. I was inspired and reassured by Garrod’s story and I believe this case has incredible potential to demonstrate that Archaeology is a profession where you can succeed regardless of gender.

As you leave The Clarke Hall, there are questionnaires asking for your feedback on the gallery contents and what archaeology means to you. I am full of praise for the attempts to show the influence of archaeologists over archaeology, yet I would have loved to be able to search through the collection catalogue whilst in the gallery to uncover some of the hidden tales of the hundreds of objects in ‘open storage’. Being on display is a fantastic start over being hidden in a dark storeroom away from public view, but access to the data held about each object would enable visitors to delve into the invisible aspects and craft stories based on their own curiosity – far more than could ever be told on the walls of this one gallery.

I joined the University of Cambridge Museums in July on a temporary assignment as a Marketing Assistant for the summer months spending most of my time working with The Polar Museum and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. In October, I will be starting a PhD at the University of Sheffield where I will be looking into how museums can create spaces to encourage curiosity and innovation. Spending time exploring and thinking about the University of Cambridge Museums as part of my role here has inspired several possible trains of thought that I will have to investigate further!

Pippa Gardner, Marketing Assistant, University of Cambridge Museums

Getting Digital - The First #TeamDigital Meeting

On Saturday 28th July, I set out to London for the inaugral meeting of #TeamDigital - a panel of about 15 young women from Girlguiding with an enthusiasm for all things digital. The team is just one of the many ways that members and non-members can get involved in the development of Girlguiding's digital strategy. If you'd like to get involved too you can find out more on the microsite and blog at digital.girlguiding.org.uk.

The day started out with the inevitable mix of ice breakers then, having discovered we had a pilot, several cat owners and a number of people with bizarre connections to famous comedians, we could start work proper. We took a whistlestop tour of the digital strategy for Girlguiding so far with its three pillars of Involve, Enable and Champion, and were so eager to contribute we were coming up with ideas and suggestions even before the questions had been asked.


Next we were handed over to the team from YooMee to take on the website personas in an ultracompact version of the workshops they've been running up and down the country. Advice is available here is you want to run one of these workshops with your own group too! The five different personas we considered each had a different level of engagement with Girlguiding from the no-nothing to the passionately involved young woman. I think it is perhaps testament to the complex nature of how members aged 16-24 are engaged with Girlguiding that we found our comments of what was needed from the website didn't fit neatly into the categories of 'girl member' or 'adult leader' - what more could you expect from an age group that is technically invovled as both?


At the end of this session we had to pick out the suggestions we wanted to highlight and I choose to explain my reasoning and thoughts around providing an acitvities database that isn't locked away within a members area. My personal feeling is that at its core Girlguiding is an organisation that exists to provide activities that empower girls and young women. As such the aim of the website should be to provide those opportunities, not to have the sole purpose of converting interest into another record on our database - the website should be the start of the journey in the movement, the place where the first acitivities are discovered and completed. So to achieve this I advocated a database of activities, which could be added to, commented upon, rated and tagged into categories by visitors to the website. It should have a section of related activities (in the style of Amazon's 'customers also purchased' feature) that could be personalised to be age specific and linked to awards and badges if the user was logged in. That way we could also facilitate members moving easily between the activities of one section and another e.g. Brownies to Guides, rather than the compartmentalised section websites that exist at the moment.

From there it was time for lunch and onwards to the 'Inspirational Speaker' slot. Kajal Odedra from Change.org spoke to us about her job, how she got there and her motivations. It was interesting to note the higher percentage of women winning petitions on Change.org than men (even though men start more petitions) and I'd be really interested to see further research as to how platforms like this can help women and minority genders to become more successful advocates and campaigners. It was disheartening a little to hear about the route into the sector being via internships and london-centric, but I am optimistic for the role of digital tech in taking campaigning to the regions and beyond.

Then it was time to tackle social media. We brain stormed and quickly polled the networks that we used amongst us with familiar big names coming out on top. Discussion started on how Girlguiding could better use the various platforms and I was struck by the different interpretations of this statement. Some (myself included) took 'Girlguiding' in the question to mean the office staff who manage the national accounts, whereas others included how unit leaders and girls themselves could use the platforms. I guess pragmatically it was the social media manager who would read our flipcharts, but then programme resources and articles in Guiding magazine could begin to reflect our digital age and give volunteers these case studies of how they can facilitate their involvement in Guiding with social media technologies.

For the last session of the day we gave some digital inputs into an exciting forthcoming new THING in Girlguiding. It's top secret for now so I can't say more but it's going to be AMAZING!

We rounded off the day with a summary of what we want the group to do going forward and concluded to use a Doodle poll to set the date of our meeting in the Autumn - oh how digital of us...

I'm excited at the shape and scope of the project going forward and much of what I thought about during the day will feed into the redevelopment of the Girlguiding Anglia regional website that I am currently working on - particularly taking an agile approach to make sure what we end up with is just right! If you want to get involved in the Girlguiding digital strategy, head over to http://digital.girlguiding.org.uk and sign up to become a digital champion!

The Importance of Culture for Communities

When we talk about culture in relation to development and social issues, we often get fixated on the negatives. We have so many discussions about harmful traditions practices and social norms, culture becomes this obstacle to creating a more just world. In my opinion, the idea of access to cultural resources as a strategy for empowering vulnerable and marginalised groups has a lot more scope for achieving positive results for people that has currently been explored.  

This is why I want to work in museums and in the arts - the potential is there to make life changing differences to communities if culture is harnessed in the right way. 

One such project I read about recently is the Vale Cultura, a $20 a month allowance for the lowest income citizens to spend on something cultural. This article in the Washington Post gives a case study of a recipient who will use the money to buy a book to read on her daily commute. The idea behind it? That incorporating books, films, dance, theatre etc into your daily life can improve your well being, is a form of education, and can ultimately help people out of poverty. It will be interesting to see an evaluation of its impact after it has been in place for a while. My concern with this is how it encourages a consumer culture and places a monetary value on the good it can deliver. I don't know the cultural policies of Brazil in detail, but I would place importance on delivering opportunities and activities without monetary association to ensure sustainable cultural institutions.

Arts and culture avital to communities the world over and I am excited by projects in the UK, like The Arts Councils "Creative People and Places" programme trying to increase arts engagement in some of the least engaged areas for the country. My partner works on one of these projects and whilst she faces many challenges in bringing the arts to these rural communities, I keep my fingers crossed for a way to make the project sustainable and for its impact and implementation to outlive the relatively short three years of funding the project has.

A few miles further south, in my home town of Peterborough, I have growing concern at the provision of arts and culture, though with a small hope for the future. A few years ago the city council handed over the responsibility for running their mandated culture and leisure services to an independent charitable trust Vivacity. The trust is given a stipend/grant/budget from the council to go towards the services they have to provide and the idea is that as a charitable trust they are more securely positioned to obtain additional funding to delivery beyond this necessary provision. In their creation they picked up the running of other heritage facilities in the city - Flag Fen which was previous run by its own charitable trust and was facing major financial difficulties, and Longthorpe Tower from English Heritage. Vivacity now run these heritage sites plus the city museum, all the libraries, two theatres, half a dozen gym and sport facilities and a programme of festivals throughout the year. This provision sounds extensive, but it is the monopoly that scares me - particularly the libraries. 

Having not lived in the city for a year, I came back and decided to head to the city's central library to pick out some books for my upcoming holiday. 12.30pmon a Thursday and I walked up to the doors and nearly walked right into them as they didn't open. I looked around perplexed at the five or so other people milling around and one guy perched on the bicycle rack said "you're about the 10th person who has done that, it's not open till 1". Oh so they close for lunch now? I asked. But no, on a Thursday they don't open until 1pm. I was miffed at the inconvenience and also disappointed that a resource I've been able to use at my convenience since before I could read wasn't as accessible as I was used to. 

I took to Twitter when I got home and the Vivacity libraries account informed me that it was due to government cuts and they did a consultation. What jarred with me particularly about this is that by becoming an independant charitable trust, that was meant to be a buffer to the government cuts. They're not a council - yes that's their major funder, but why not think creatively, use library spaces for other services to and keep the resource open the hours expected. On Monday I returned to get my books and discovered they'd closed a whole floor of the building. I'd like to know where the books have gone as they're definitely wasn't a full two floors now crammed into one. 

Yes I may be blowing this out of proportion based on the extremely lack of cultural services elsewhere, but I think it is a slippery slope. If they can cut the opening times by 10-20% and only give government cuts as a reason, if we swallow this answer at face value, we may lose our libraries little by little. As a small child, I would go on trips to our local library in Dogsthorpe, or special big trips to the Central Library in the city centre to pick out books. As a teenager I would cycle into town to go to the library. It was where I first scanned through Naomi Klein's 'No Logo' after a geography project on sweatshops. It played an integral part in shaping my love of learning.

The problem here is two fold. We cannot stand for cuts to services that are so vital to the well being of communities. Libraries, museums and the arts aren't something you can solely rely on a capitalist market or the voluntary 'big society' to create and provide. We also can remain silent when our institutions that were established to provide these community services without the risks being solely run by local government are tokenistic in consulting with the communities they serve. It's not about being open at the least inconvenient hours for the community, it needs to be about finding the means to fund themselves to be as accessible as possible - there are programmes out there, there is funding out there. Don't just roll over and accept governement cuts to culture - else our communities will suffer. 

ScOUT of the Closet - or rather a Guide with Pride!

When the participants lists came out for the World Conference on Youth, ahead of my trip to Sri Lanka last month, there was some detective work done to identify the other Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. Safe to say there's always plenty in common and lots to talk about simply by being involved in an international youth movement, let alone the same one, but it is always particularly exciting/reassuring when you reaslise your not the only participant from the LGBTI/Queer community. One of the other Girl Scout facilitators runs a blog entitled ScOUT of the Closet giving the stories of Girl Scouts with diverse sexual orientations and gender expressions, you can read about it here (http://scoutofthecloset.blogspot.co.uk) and asked me to contribute an entry after the conference. Here are my answers to her questions.

•  How do you self-identify?

Queer. I find it difficult to separate out my gender identity and my sexual orientation as I believe they are interlinked and relational. Queer is the word I feel like I can claim to mean what I want it to. I don't believe in any binary system and other labels would just be too restrictive in their accepted definitions. 

•  Your involvement and role in Girl Guiding? 

I have been a member since I was 5 years old, making that nearly 19 years in total now. In the UK you move through the sections of Rainbow, Brownie, Guide and Senior Section, the last of which I will remain a member of until my 26th birthday. I have been volunteering to help run sessions for younger members since I was 12 and I organised games and activities for the Rainbows and Brownies who met in the same Church hall. Since I was 14 I've enjoyed the international scope of guiding and scouting and I'm proud to say it has taken me on travels across four continents and enabled me to see the diversity of the world around me. I've taken on roles at a regional (the UK equivalent of state) and national levels as well as with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. A lot of my roles and activities have focused on getting young peoples views heard in decision making. 

•  Describe your first and/or pivotal romantic or intimate experiences, your crushes, your moments of longing or confusion.

The most pivotal relationship would have to be the one with my wife - and ironically Guiding was more of a hindrance than a help in this case! Come the end of my Bachelors degree I was volunteering the majority of weekends and took on a full time internship for three months in our Regional Girlguiding Office. It was for the duration of the summer just outside the city where I would start my Masters the following September. It's safe to say that summer I lived and breathed girlguiding, I guess it's perhaps the closest thing I could have done in the UK to the US Girl Scout summer camps where it fills almost every moment of every day. Come September I literally went straight from the office to my university and my weekends were a return to the guiding world that I couldn't just put down. 

Little did I know it at the time but my future partner, an American, and I were paired up in one of our first sessions to interview each other and subsequently do introductions to the rest of the class. Mango will forever have to be my favourite food as the first thing that came to my mind during that session. Apparently after the session she tried to catch up with me, but I was oblivious as I hurried off to the sports fair to sign up for  the ladies rugby team (a decision I did regret later I the year). We were then partnered for a group project, I pulled my weight in getting the work done but was unavailable for the Sunday Lunch work session where friendships were forged as I was off on another guiding weekend. 

Between Guiding and the fellowship that was paying for my studies, I had very little time to socialise with my course mates really until May of the following year - the end of the rugby season. I had joined the rugby team thinking that was where I would make good friends - that is what had happened during my undergraduate years. But I should have realised that they were not friends that would last earlier on. 

In the November of my MA year a friend I had known for just a couple of months (not from uni) killed himself. He was trans and bisexual and we had met at a leadership course for LGBT young people. He was fiercely intelligent, studying for a doctorate in chemistry at Cambridge, and should have had a bright future ahead. It hit me hard. I should have known then that I was not relying on the right people for friendship and support. In fact it wasn't until I mentioned the loss of my friend in a seminar, where I was speaking about personal baggage being brought to an exhibition, that anybody asked if I was ok. Only one particular person did. After this I began talking to her more, but it was a few more months until she grew so impatient with me she asked me out for a drink and I finally took a hint. 

We had dinner as a group of course mates, drank a lot of wine and I walked her home. We talked until sunrise and I think it's safe to say that we've been almost inseparable ever since. In the little over two years of our relationship so far we've negotiated a transatlantic relationship, tried to understand the US and UK visa systems, lived in the US, brought our dog to live with us in the UK, held a civil partnership ceremony and are currently planning a wedding in the US next year. 

I think the lesson from this for me has to be one that is a quote from Baden Powell - "Look wide. And when you are looking wide, look wider still!" Restricting our view to just one thing, to one area, even when that thing is guiding or scouting itself, will mean we miss things, that we don't embrace the full diversity of the world around us. In my case it was nearly missing out on meeting the singly most positive influence in my life. I thought my past experience taught me the right course to follow to build friendships and find support, but situations change and the only way we continue to learn and develop ourselves as a person is by trying new things, going to new places and meeting new people. 

•  Describe any transformations that occurred in a Girl Scout/Girl Guide context.

I have always been told I was a quiet, shy child, and guiding was the key influence that turned me from that to the leader I am today. It was a background activity that introduced me to new things during my childhood until, at the age of 13, I dropped out of school to be home educated after becoming suicidal due to bullying. I swapped the formal curricula of school for the non-formal frameworks of guiding as I structured my learning through earning badges and getting more involved. This wasn't an overnight transformation, but being a young leader with younger girls helped to build up my confidence. I started going to a senior section group too and discovered international opportunities.

In 2004 I went to Switzerland, the youngest amongst a county group and just a matter of months after I had left school behind me. In late 2005 I was selected to go to the Netherlands with a region (state) group the following summer. Then in late 2006 I set up a conservation project at a local heritage site for my fellow guides and senior section members - having been inspired by an activity at a county camp. In early 2007 I trained to be a peer educator, learning how to deal with my emotions around bullying at the same time as learning how to run activities to help others. I completed awards, went to local, county, regional and national camps and residential events, and in 2008, at the age of 17, volunteered myself to chair the region's youth forum.

That was a role that I held for 4 and a half years. Being presented with an award for commitment to youth participation at one of the large scale events I organised was one of the proudest moments of my guiding career. (My other proudest moments include speaking at the United Nations). 

Without guiding I do not know where I would be or what may have happened in my life. But I know I wouldn't be here: planning my future with my incredible wife, preparing to embark on a PhD studying museums, hoping to bring education outside of schools (guiding, scouting, museums, arts and heritage) to more people. 

•  Any musings on how Girl Scouting/Girl Guiding has impacted your personal identity and the importance of Girl Scouting/Girl Guiding for LGBTQA youth.

I have spent many an hour contemplating how I can rectify my gender identity with my membership of a movement which (at least at the UK level) seemingly reinforces a binary of gender identities, trying to see how I can honestly in the depths of my heart be part of something which at its core says we are only for girls. It's a largely linguistic internal argument - only sometimes do I come across the situation where I feel like I don't fit in the same gender category as those around me in a guiding situation. And that's because there's still a fair amount of homophobia about - I feel like an outsider as people freely speak about boyfriends and husbands helping with events or preparations for activities because I have the experience that talking about my girlfriend/partner/wife makes some (usually older) fellow volunteers back away from me slowly - as though my queerness is somehow contagious. I've seen horrified looks, I've had people refuse to sit near me for meals, it's the small acts of unkindness that are almost unconscious to those who perform them. 

I am particularly excited this summer as for the first time we're taking promotional activities to pride events. For years there's been this collective fear hanging over the organisation that somehow, by admitting that some members are LGBTQI etc, that we all are. It's the Victorian notion that single sex institutions somehow create homosexuality. Several of my friends will by donning their uniforms and walking in parades this summer, and it's about time too! 

My dream is that one day we will have a society with true gender equality, where the binary is no longer hegemonic, and the notion of GIRL guides and GIRL Scouts will no longer seem necessary. I know, particularly as a teenager, I needed a space where I wasn't required to behave 'like a girl should' and so I value what the movement creates for girls, young women and especially queer young people who are still exploring where they belong. I just hope that one day soon we can make ourselves redundant. 

The Benefits of Strategic Essentialism

Since my last blog, there's been a lot going on. I've moved house (again), I've finished my full time job and am about to start a part-time one for the summer, and I have been accepted to take on the challenge of a PhD project at the University of Sheffield from October. My project will be entitled 'Making space for curiosity and innovation: reshaping Sheffield museums' and I have been awarded AHRC funding for three years to work with Museums Sheffield to understand how spaces in museums can foster curiosity and innovation in the communities that they serve. Safe to say, I am super excited about this!

So with a little more free time to play with I have been reading around the subjects and started with some theory books that have been hanging around since I briefly referred to them during my MA two years ago. I picked up 'Feminism is Queer' by Mimi Marinucci and have read it cover to cover in the last couple of weeks (which is fast if you consider I also moved house etc etc - my reading speed and concentration span will pick up!). It was in the final chapter that this quote jumped out at me:

"Despite this apparent contradiction, I have chosen the problematic label 'queer feminism' intentionally, in full knowledge of the irony it exhibits. For one thing, I have learned enough from poststructuralism, and especially from Derrida, to understand that, while meaning cannot be fixed permanently, it can be, indeed it must be, constantly negotiated for reference in particular contexts. This is how sexism, racism and many other forms of oppression are able to function. Expectations and ideals are constantly revisited and revised, and this is part of what makes them so hard to achieve. Nevertheless, these expectations and ideals for the standards against which we are judged. In the response to sexism and racism, it is also necessary to recognise how the relevant meanings have been fixed to the oppressive contexts in which they are deployed. This is reminiscent of what Gayatri Spivak referred to in 1985 as 'strategic essentialism' (Spivak, 1996). Strategic essentialism is a strategy whereby groups with mutual goals and interests temporarily present themselves publicly as essentially the same for the sake of expediency and presenting a united front, while simultaneously engaging in ongoing and less public disagreement and debate."
- Mimi Marinucci, 2010, "Feminism is Queer".

Having blogged previously about diverse sexual orientations and gender identities and he recognition of these within development circles (particularly the UN), the concept of strategic essentialism made perfect sense as how I understand the process at the moment. By throwing the concept of a spectrum of gender identities into the mix, it could be possible to completely derail progress towards gender equality. Yes, ultimately in order to achieve true gender equality, I believe we will have to recognise identities beyond a binary system, but for now we need to sometimes play to the binary conception to take the next step. We need to stand united behind the concept of women's access to human rights and not get lost in the conversations and fragmentation that come with trying to extend these beyond the binary in the same breath.

I have yet to find a government official in UN negotiations or wider advocacy platforms that would tell me that girls and women do not exist - some might not yet accept that women should have equal rights, but nobody actually denies their very existence. That does happen with other gender identities. It's much harder to campaign for rights for a group that some people do not believe exist in society. It's much easier to say there are men, there are women, they are both human and so should have equal human rights. By logic if we can get to the point that we can say that women and men have equal rights because they are both human beings, we can begin to talk about recognising other groups of human beings who also should be granted those rights.

I will not be surprised when the Post 2015 development agenda appears without any concrete mentions of diverse gender identities. However, at this point in time, it is critical that it effectively mainstreams the notion of gender equality between men and women and highlights its importance as a goal in its own right. It is the steps forward that continue the journey, not the length of the stride.

Engaging with Heritage on Roman Point

3 years ago I handed in my Undergraduate dissertation examining the construction of gender, family and sexuality through a roman heritage site in Nene Park on the western side of Peterborough. I went back recently, walking our dog around the lakes, and stumbled across a new exhibition drawing visitors to 'Roman Point' - the site I had examined. 

I had seen adverts in the local press and online for a Roman themed activity day that had taken place the week before and that I had unfortunately been able to attend. It sounded like a great way to introduce more people to the otherwise largely unnoticed roman heritage of the area. One of the main activities it advertised was 'make a roman pot' and I'm definitely all for the idea of hands on activities that bring the past to life. It takes a certain kind of person to want to go out to look at a static display of pottery, but the act of making, designing and making a physical connection with the past is much more appealing. And pottery is the key feature of roman archaeology in this area. 

I was dissappointed however, that as I walked past, the one interpretation panel for the roman foundations laid out on the peninsula is unchanged. Not just since I wrote my dissertation three years ago but, from the style, I would guess since the park opened 25 years ago. My findings in my studies were that the information on this panel was confusing, in places misleading and simply not interesting to the average visitor. Yes, the bird poo had been cleaned off the sign and it looked a little more inviting for that reason alone, but I still think there is more that can be done for reasonably little cost to make the roman heritage accessible and engaging all year round - not just on one day.

However, what had drawn me to the peninsula on this particular day was a new exhibition running the length of the path largely unconnected to the roman period. The '25 Years On' exhibition celebrates the silver anniversary of the Nene Park Trust who run the whole park with a photography exhibition. The photographs were taken by well known local photographer Christ Porsz and explored the activities of visitors to the park throughout all four seasons. 

During my dissertation I examined the reports and marketing materials (particularly the images they contained) from the early 1990s, the first five years of Nene Park Trust. What I found in those were images that largely conformed to gender stereotypes and the heteronormative nuclear family. With my understanding of where the image of the park had been during those latter years of 'the Peterborough Effect', this exhibition 25 years later really did demonstrate to me perhaps how the people of Peterborough have changed, but more likely how we are now much more comfortable giving a more realistic representation of the diverse make up of our communities. 

As well as the foresight to show the park as a year round destination (as opposed to the summer sunshine pictures used almost exclusively in the much earlier materials) the exhibition included people with a diverse range of ethnicities, genders, ages, abilities, family structures and activities they were taking part in. The exhibition succeeded in making me feel like I was welcome in the park regardless of my identity.