For middle-class nineteenth-century men of European extraction, a rotund belly and a beard were signs of prosperity, success and authority. If the beard were topped with a commanding moustache, so much the better. The look was even made compulsory in the British military for the latter half of the nineteenth century, and wax locked in [...]

The Barbie Campervan definitely reminds me of my childhood. But then, so does the Holden Sandman. Not because such a beast ever roamed the streets of Connecticut. Although this photo depicts a full-size vehicle, it reminds me of the Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars I collected as a kid. Yes, I had both a Barbie [...]

Those whose identities are considered non-normative have for centuries created sub-cultures to survive, and to belong. Peter Nardi explains that participation in spaces occupied by others with similar experiences of stigmatised identities, and similar forms of personal and social marginalisation is “a socio-political connection, perhaps one of brotherhood …” (1999:3). Among many queer sub-cultures are [...]

I hate Barbie. I’ve always hated Barbie. As a girl, she was everything I didn’t want to be. I didn’t have any Barbies of my own, but my friend Georgia did. They always made me uncomfortable. When I became a parent, I agonised over gender and toys, railing against the pink and blue aisles in [...]

Sports queen?!  Ha! That’s the immediate thought I had when I looked at this object, for a sports queen I am not. Born to a sports-mad family I learned fairly quickly that I was the ‘black sheep’. Basketball, tennis, netball and softball, I wasn’t the worst player but average at best, often lacking coordination and [...]

This object was part of my childhood. I would play with this Barbie with my cousin secretly loving every moment and would be so excited to visit and play with it. Of course this was frowned upon by my family so we played secretly in her bedroom. 

I’m in the store rooms of the Jewish Museum in London, and the collections manager shows me and a few other volunteers a cup just like this one. “Can you guess why the top is shaped like that?” she asks. Nobody knows the answer. The collections manager transports us back to a time of moustached [...]

From 1860 to 1916 the British military required soldiers to sport a moustache for the authority it was believed to impart. It is 1983. I am 15. I am a girl. I have a moustache.   Apparently: this is wrong. I am the wrong kind of girl. I require fixing. Adjustment. Fine tuning. Overhaul.   [...]

This isn’t a dress I would have chosen but from my teens, I loved to dress up. In the 1970s and 80s op- shops had the most fabulous clothes and I would regularly fossick for treasures. Cotton grandpa shirts, 50’s dresses, velvet coats, fine lace bolero jackets and all manner of accessories. A girlfriend of [...]

I didn’t know the meaning of the word “queen” in the way I now do but in my own teenage world of sporting prowess I thought I deserved a crown. I ran, jumped, hit, pitched and threw on tracks, courts and fields. There was nothing I didn’t play but I had my favourites. I practiced [...]