Margaret Middleton

@magmidd.bsky.social

3904 Followers 1961 Following

They/them. Manchester, England. Freelance designer of playful learning experiences. Museums - Exhibit Design - Social Justice - Queer Possibility - Power of Play - Children's Museums margaretmiddleton.com

Promo image of Suranne Jones as a woman called "Bert" - giving attitude with a DIY bleach bob, orange tinted aviator sunglasses and an oversized sunset themed camp shirt, worn open to expose one of the many fake tattoos they daubed her with
A photo of Margaret's foot- jeans hiked yo expose an orange Welsh tapestry patterned sock in a brown dress shoe
Screenshot of a form email that begins: "Hello Prefer not to say Margaret Middleton,"
A view over the heads of an engrossed tour group learning from tour guide Jaime Starr about the large banner on display that reads "Lesbians & Gays Support the Miners"
My sweet tabby Pixel in his red striped hoodie sleeping in a red wire inbox on top of a set of drawers in front of the window in my office
A rusty pickup parked in Whitby flying a Jolly Roger and a Union Jack
An LED neon artwork in red, orange and purple that reads "Disobey- their power comes from our obedience"
A cardboard cutout of Colin Firth as Mr Darcy at Bankfield Museum in Halifax. An accompanying sign reads "no swooning" and is paired with an icon of a slipping person in a red circle with a line through it
The greeting screen for PAWS: a pixelated blue outline of a keyboard with labeled letters and the star of the game Paws, an orange cat
Another view of the same elaborate model railway layout featuring a locomotive emerging from a tunnel, several rock climbers on the adjacent cliff face, and a church complete with cemetery and tiny mourner above.
An elaborate o gauge model railway layout with multiple trains, a little village, a viaduct and waterfall
A display of Glasgow subway themed items in the gift shop at the Riverside Museum- all products feature either the word Inner or the word Outer, in reference to the local subway system
White jar with two sauropods in black
"Dinosaur Storage Jar", a black vase shaped pot decorated with sauropods in white
Margaret holds their migration is beautiful sign next to a reenactor dressed as a Patriot revolutionary war soldier and carrying an American flag
Margaret stands next to a big Slush Puppie ad and holds a sign that says "I like my ICE crushed" with a picture of a margarita
Sandwich board on the street reads First Amendment Activity over the NPS logo. People with pro democracy signs and American flags in the background
Margaret and their father in Seneca Falls at the No Kings rally. Margaret's sign is sky blue and says Migration is Beautiful with a ribbon that says No Kings, No borders. There are two paper monarch butterflies attached to the sign. Dad has a sign that says I Heart Academic Freedom Hands Off.
Sign on toilet door with four symbols: a woman, a man, a half woman/man, and a wheelchair user. I sometimes refer to the half and half figure as "a woman in a stiff breeze". The text reads "All gender restroom: anyone can use this restroom, regardless of gender identity or expression"
A view inside the nave of the LEGO Durham Cathedral
LEGO replica of Durham Cathedral
Visitors watch a Lego documentary about Lego Durham Cathedral
Lego Durham Cathedral
A minimal recreation of a book binder's studio in a museum exhibit in Durham
A tabby cat crouches on a paper on a clipboard with a red pen
A photo of an ethereal faun playing pan flute with the words "Book Talk at Queer Lit Calling the Shots a Queer History of Photography Author Zorian Clayton and Photographer Holly Revell 27 May 7pm"
The gold, cream, and dusty rose colored cover of an online toolkit "How to Queer your historic house: a practical guide by Indigo Dunphy-Smith"
Jaime Starr speaks in front of a seated crowd at a podium with the Museums + Heritage Show logo alongside a BSL interpreter and a slide presentation on a monitor
A life size sign in a model railway layout reads "Please pardon our appearance while we're gettin' diggy with it - this expanded section of the Maine Central railroad is currently in the development phase"
A stone statue of 17th century slaver Sir Robert Geffrye standing outside the Museum of the Home. His contributions built the Almshouse building that the Museum now occupies. Though he did not found it, the museum was formerly called The Geffrye Museum until it was changed in 2019.
The new facade of the Museum of the Home featuring a long bench with no elements of hostile architecture that are intended to prevent people from sleeping on public city furniture.
Two people embrace at Manchester Museum- an indigenous Australian woman and the daughter of a British archaeologist who collected the objects being returned.
Black and white photomural in the Holly Johnson exhibit at National Museum of Liverpool - Five white leather men posing sexily- one has his naked back to the viewer and wears a leather jockstrap showing off his bare buns. A knife hangs from his strap down the center of his cheeks. Next to the image is. Display of the leather outfit Holly wore- tank top, strap, and cuffs. Above is the quote "Love Frankie or hate it- that's what we want - a strong reaction." Holly Johnson, Jackie magazine 1984
The single (and therefore necessarily all gender) toilet at the Wharton Esherick house visitor center in Pennsylvania with remnants of the old outhouse (wooden door and seat) hung as decor on the walls
Bathroom mirror selfie, Margaret peeking into an orange tiled single user toilet with basin and a man/woman symbol on the door.
Margaret at the Manchester Trans Rights rally holding a sign reading "Abolish Legal Gender"
Protest in Manchester outside the library on a rainy day, lots of people with umbrellas. A handwritten sign reads "This Ruling is Bullshit" illustrated with a pink middle finger and a poop in trans flag colors.
A white fabric banner hanging on a brick wall in front of my house with the words TRANS IS GOOD in pale blue with two pink hearts.
A tea bag wrapper with writing in Chinese and English. The English reads "Fragrant aroma mellow taste homely refresher valuabl gift"
Graphic with white background and block lettering that reads "If you defund museums & libraries" followed by "I May Lose my Shit" in an acrostic spelling IMLS in hot pink bold letters
A bearded Zac Efron looking a lot like white Jesus from his funeral pamphlet
A folded pamphlet with an illustration of a handsome white Jesus with cropped hair and extended hand. The text reads "you are invited Memorial of Jesus' Death Saturday April 12, 2025
Margaret and Jamie from above: Margaret wears a "Ya wee fruit" hat with a watermelon pin, a green boiled suit and a green badge that says bds in the style of brat, and a Wolfe tones pin. Jamie wears a beanie from Alliance for choice abortion rights and a beautiful pink keffiyeh
1917 photo of suffragist Lucy Burns in a cell at Occoquan Workhouse.
A black van with the words "NB BATHROOMS" on the side
Studio portrait of Paul Ryan looking like somebody you'd not want to meet in a gym. He's wearing a backwards red cap, earbuds, and gray tee, doing a bicep curl with a barbell, raising his eyebrows and making a douchey lipless grimace.
Claire Mead's drag alter ego Eugene Delacroissant, making eyes at his admirers during a performance at the Royal Armouries
A view from above of Kit Heyam leading queer history talk in the gallery at Royal Armouries, with tens of rapt audience members in attendance
A view from my perspective sitting in a hammock chair, with my hoodie-wearing cat curled on my lap
Photo of page 3 from Faderman's "To Believe in Women". The copy reads "I believe that such arguments have merit and serve as an important corrective to a simplistic temptation to name the "lesbians" in history. As the postmodernists claim, it is impossible - especially when dealing with historical figures to make safe statements about identities, which are so slippery in their subjectivity and mutability. However, if enough material that reveals what people do and say is available, we can surely make apt observations about their behavior. That is what I have attempted to do in this book. I use the term "lesbian" as an adjective that describes intense woman-to-woman relating and commitment. Thus, I will admit at the outset that my subtitle is somewhat misleading. If there had been more space on the title page, and if the phrase had not been so aesthetically dismal, I might have subtitled this book, with greater accuracy, "What Women of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Whose Chief Sexual and/or Affectional and Domestic Behaviors Would Have Been Called 'Lesbian' If They Had Been Observed in the Years after 1920, Have Done for America." When I slip into the shorthand of referring to these women as "lesbians," readers might keep my alternate subtitle in mind.
A collage of black and white photos, two phallic sculptures in the background and a trio of bare buns resembling those of Botticelli muses.
John Walter's 2015 "From Sodomy to Intimacy" a huge work on paper combining drawing and printmaking- part of a series called "Alien Sex Club" about gay life and HIV/AIDS
A sea of mannequin heads on steel rods. Each head is stitched on a patchwork of colorful African Dutch Wax and batik cloth. Each head represents one of 132 enslaved African men women and children who enslavers threw from their ship the Zong when they realized there was not enough water for everyone. The white British enslavers knew they could claim the people they killed as "lost property" on their insurance.
Joy Yamusangie's "Remember Me | Rodeo King" a loose canvas hanging by loops at the top, with a red ground and a symmetrical, geometric, stylized figure of a masculine person, viewed head on, wearing a stetson, lavender shirt, jeans, and chaps, riding a bull. The outlines of breasts are visible through the figure's shirt.
"Black Trans Archive" a video game in a red painted constructed alcove in the centre of the gallery. There is a big black gaming chair for visitors to sit in and use three buttons to navigate the game. The game is projected on the wall and the screen reads "Pro Black Pro Trans Space" with instructions to start the experience.
A sunny day photo of the columned facade of the neo classical Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool with two long banners for the exhibition "conversations" framing the entrance
Screenshot from article available to download in the link. The title is "The myth of 'link collaring': blaming women for pay inequity in art museums" by Laura Lessing, published online: 12 Dec 2024
A two part illustration of Aesop's story of the fox and the stork. In the first panel the fox serves soup from a wide shallow dish which he can lap at easily but the stork can only put his toe in. In the second panel the stork serves soup from a long neck urn which he can easily dip his bill into but the fox can't get to at all.
An old postcard of a man holding a woman in pond. The captain reads "the language of vegetables" and "Beans: sustaining 'have no fear; I will support you"
Brown and white tabby cat, Pixel, wearing a red and white striped hoodie curled up on the rug under the radiator, asleep