Women-only exhibit turns into ladies’ lavatory to keep men out

An Australian museum that was ordered by a court to admit men to its women-only exhibit plans to get around the ruling by turning it into a ladies’ lavatory.

The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania was told by a court last month that it must allow men into the exhibit, called the Ladies Lounge, after a male visitor filed a complaint alleging gender discrimination.

The exhibit has been closed to the public ever since, with its female curators considering what action to take.

Now they are debating circumventing the court order by transforming the exhibit, which consists of a sleek cocktail lounge decorated with artworks by Picasso, Sir Sidney Nolan and other artists, into a women’s lavatory.

Kirsha Kaechele, the artist and curator behind the exhibit, said: “There is a fabulous toilet coming to the Ladies Lounge, and so in that sense, the Ladies Lounge will operate as a ladies’ room. It’s a toilet that is celebrated the world round. It is the greatest toilet and men won’t be allowed to see it.”

The lavatory is currently on its way to the museum and will be installed in the next 45 days, she said.

Male waiters will serve flutes of Champagne as women visitors sit on the lavatory, she suggested.

“Why not? There is a real precedent for people imbibing in the toilet. People enjoy all kinds of substances in there. I once visited a colonial-era mansion in Manila that had two toilets, side by side, with a chessboard in the centre. So there is a real precedent for engaging in a variety of activities in the toilet.”

Its installation will mean that curators can declare the exhibit a women-only space without falling foul of anti-discrimination laws.

Men will be allowed into the exhibit by special permission but only on Sundays – when they will be taught how to iron and fold clothes.

“Women can bring in all their clean laundry and the men can go through a series of graceful movements (…refined by tai chi masters) to fold them,” she said.

The Ladies Lounge, which opened in 2020, was furnished with green silk drapes and elegant divans.

It took the concept of an old-fashioned Australian pub – a blokey, chauvinistic environment from which women were largely excluded until the 1960s – and turned it on its head, reversing themes of entitlement and gender discrimination.

Along with installing a toilet in the exhibit in an attempt to preserve it as a female-only domain, the curators launched an appeal on Tuesday to challenge the court’s ruling.

They argue that it took “too narrow a view on women’s historical and ongoing societal disadvantage”.

The court handed down its ruling in April after a sex discrimination complaint was filed by a male visitor from New South Wales.

Jason Lau argued that the museum had violated Tasmania’s anti-discrimination laws by failing to provide “a fair provision of goods and services in line with the law” to him and other men.