Tierisch bürgerlich : Musealisierung von Natur und Geschlecht in Regionalmuseen

Abstract

Gender & Science Studies have shown that ideas of nature participate in the production of knowledge about gender. This paper combines the analysis of museums with Gender & Science Studies by looking into negotiations of nature and gender in four local museums in Germany. Although their representation of nature contains destabilizing elements and offers some critical potential, this article points to the museal reproduction of heteronormative structures in the museums. Gender codifications of nature in local museums are diverse and polyvalent, but nevertheless they support gender stereotypes. Unsettling elements are marginalized and discursively negated.