Sukupuolen sotkijat

This beguiling pictorial work focuses our gaze on the history of gender from a surprizing angle. Even if the visual culture of the start of the 20th century bolstered ideas of timeless womanhood and proper men, the postcards and photographs of the day also embraced some astonishing curiosities. Smooching male couples, lesbian kisses, boys posing in skirts - this volume gives the queer world its own pictorial Kalevala. A hundred years ago, gender was not just a straitjacket, but also a carnival of possibilities and a playground of impossibilities. The researcher Harri Kalha's insightful pictorial archaeology jubilantly brings a breath of fresh air to both gender norms and our conceptions of the world of the beginning of the last century. This cultural history is common to all of us - who among us is not touched by gender? Exhibition: HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Finland (01.11.2019-27.9.2020).