oh, so this is what we're doing! fuck you.
30/7/2025
i was going to make a long post about the last 2 weeks but im going to split them up. im gonna talk about last week saturday (the 26th)
so, i wanted to see someone i went to school with, and when i say went to school with i mean we have gone to the same schools from primary/elementary to sixth form/high school. (almost 18 years!!) but we were never close, we just knew each other.
i see her alot around my town but can never say hello, so i decided to ask her to meet up on instagram and we decided to go to this curiosities museum. it did not go well.
the actual time spent with her was good!! it was the museum.
the museum, The Viktor Wynd Museum Of Curiosities, Fine Art & UnNatural History wasn't as nice as i thought it would be.
now usually i do loads of research into a place before going, especially museums, but for some reason i skimmed the website and thought it would be fine.
I've had a brief interest in oddities but lost interest after maybe a month? i thought going in the museum would mostly be taxidermy and other quirky, cheeky and maybe gross things, but half the exhibit was just fetishisation and decontextualisation of african cultures.
upon arriving i noticed something was off. I tried greeting the bartender because i wasnt sure if we were supposed to wait in line or speak to the bartender about the museum. the bartender ignores me until my friend walks in, then she decides to acknowledge my friend and still ignore me. i just thought that maybe she couldnt hear me so i tried to not let it bother me.
we were directed to a stand where someone else is dealing with entry tickets and once again i try talking to the staff member there but she seems to want to only talk to my friend, i think it was because of her outfit. which i will get to in a bit. but i will say the staff member handling our tickets was the nicest person i had to deal with there.
we were told entry is cheaper if we got a drink with our ticket rather than paying the full price. (£8 instead of £12). It is quite literally not cheaper unless you get a tiny glass of coke with your "discounted" ticket so you end up paying £10 instead of £12. if I didn't know any better I would've forced myself to get a £13 drink and would've spent £21.
once we get our drinks i notice there is one more staff member who keeps looking at my friend and i with grimace in their face, and everytime they had to walk past our table, would scream the lyrics to whatever song was playing, almost like they were shouting at us because it was so targeted and they would only do it by our table - this was definetly an indication that they were clearly uncomfortable with our presence - im used to people randomly/suddenly making loud noises when i go near them or they have to walk past me because theyre probably irritated that im near them or are uncomfortable. its a debilitating feeling but i have to remain strong
anyways, we finally go down to the museum. i wont show many of the photos, and im going to put the photos of the taxidermy under a cut incase people arent up for seeing that.
TAXIDERMY PHOTOS
the same shit happened when we were leaving. the bartender ignored me when i was saying thank you - she looked at me as i said thank you and then just looked away but made sure to say thank you to my friend. and the clearly racist staff member just looked away from me completely when i tried to say thank you.
this will make alot more sense as you read on but i feel like we were treated this way (apart from blatant racism) because in this like... curiosities space, white people feel ownership over black bodies and our cultures and the staff probably knew we would get offended at the stuff being displayed so they were visibily uncomfortable with our presence.
but yea, literally one of the first things i saw was a yoruba mask in the display case... i knew i was in for a very annoying ride.
this has been a problem in alternative spaces for a really long time - that cultures belonging to non white people are seen as inherently backwards, nasty, gross, freaky and weird because white people arent apart of them and they get this fetishy outlook from alternative white people who just want to gawk and laugh at our cultures.
like of course there was a voodoo section, tons of statues and artifacts from papua new guinea that are sacred, especially the voodoo stuff. i dont know how many times we have to tell people that voodoo is CLOSED PRACTICE and isnt just open to anybody, and it felt disrespectful to see this in a museum thats whole purpose is for you to gawk and gag at the quirky weird shit in the cases.
apart from that it is a interesting museum, loads of morbid and gross things in there but that stuff cant override the, and im going to put it blankly, racism.
ok im going to get back to the outfit thing. so i am not surprised when i expierence racism in alternative spaces, its ingrained into alot of people. but i think what i expierenced that day was a combination of racism and elitism.
the bartender i was talking about? i think she thought i was a poser because i wasnt wearing name brands like new rocks and my outfit wasnt as loud as my friend's. keep in mind, this woman was wearing a black tank top, a black maxi skirt and had terf bangs so i dont think she is even in the right place to start judging on who looks alternative enough....
this is what i was wearing compared to my friend. I know i have nothing to prove as i know what i like and know i belong in these scenes.
blurred out my friend's face for now.
but like... idk i feel like we both looked "alternative" enough? i thought that maybe it was because my hair was kept its natural colour, and i was clearly making a outfit out of items i already own - due to me making it a goal of mine to not buy new clothes for a year and use the items i already have and also because i cant be bothered to buy back all the clothes and accessories i have lost over the years.
but my friend who is obviously alot louder with her outfit i guess passed whatever test elitists have for people of colour in alternative scenes to prove we belong in "their" spaces because she was wearing loads of chains and new rocks on - and i love her outfit!!!
my problem is the dehumanisation. i know thats a big word to use for this but not making the effort to respond back because you clearly have something against me does feel dehumanising. like im not worth common decency for you to say hello back or acknowledge me. like you dont care that im thankful for the work you're putting in because im seemingly not dressed in a way that you deem enough.
i will probably make a different post but there are 2 videos that touch on this topic and how non white people have to put in so much effort to be considered truly goth, punk, emo etc but our white counterparts can just wear all black and have a tattoo and be accepted right away/not disrepected.
*EDIT: the post can be found HERE
anyways both my friend and i were disappointed so we went to the southbank centre to cool off. we went to the Freudian Typo installation. i found it incredibely insightful. the first one isnt my photo but this is what the piece looks like.
