‘Safe place’: Australian Museum defends allowing man in lingerie play with Lego at children’s event

The Australian Museum has defended allowing a man in women’s lingerie to play with Lego next to children, after one woman slammed it as “disgusting”.

The Australian Museum in Sydney has defended offering a “safe place where everyone feels welcome” after a man wearing women’s lingerie was photographed playing with Lego next to children.

The photos were taken at a “Nights at the Museum” event in April and were shared to Twitter by a user with the handle @SydneyRadfem earlier this month.

They show a man wearing black fishnet stockings, pink boots and women’s underwear, sitting with another person wearing a top hat, playing with Lego blocks surrounded by young children.

“You let a male in fetish gear play in the kids Lego pit during the school holidays,” the woman said. “When I spoke to security they said they could do nothing and pointed me to the organiser. He’s sitting there with his full package out. Disgusting!”

The woman’s account appears to have since been deleted.

One Twitter user wrote, “Man in fetish clothes wants to play with children and the museum are too chicken to remove him. I’m shocked that the parents didn’t pick him up by the hair and kick him into next week. He was poking the hornet’s nest.”

Another said, “Back in the day I worked on an adventure playground, and this herbert would have been ejected from it in double quick time.”

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The photos were taken at a ‘Nights at the Museum’ event in April. Picture: @SydneyRadfem/Twitter via 2GB

The woman who took the photos called it ‘disgusting’. Picture: @SydneyRadfem/Twitter via 2GB

‘The Australian Museum is committed to being a safe place.’ Picture: @SydneyRadfem/Twitter

2GB host Ben Fordham called out the Australian Museum in his show on Monday.

“I’m not sure what to make of this, I encourage you to go and have a look [at the photos] — it looks creepy to me,” he said.

“It shows a group of children building with Lego, and sitting with the kids is a man in ladies underwear. The woman who took the photos complained to staff, but says nothing was done.”

In a statement shared with news.com.au, a spokesman said the Australian Museum “is committed to being a safe place where everyone feels welcome”.

“The safety of our visitors and staff is our top priority and we have policies, procedures, security and Australian Museum staff in place to ensure this,” he said.

“The images shared by the ‘Sydney Radfem’ Twitter account on Tuesday 3 May 2022 were taken nearly three weeks earlier at approximately 8pm during a Nights at the Museum event held on Thursday 14 April 2022.

“Multiple members of our security and programming teams spoke with her on the evening following the concerns she raised regarding two people wearing fancy dress.

“The teams investigated and confirmed that the individuals in fancy dress were keeping to themselves and had not interacted with anyone else in the area that was open to all. The Australian Museum teams confirmed this with ‘Sydney Radfem’, who stayed until the end of the evening with her own child.

“Other children in the area were supervised by their own parents and we received no complaints other than the one raised by ‘Sydney Radfem’ on the night. The Australian Museum fully addressed ‘Sydney Radfem’s’ complaint on the night of the event.

“To ensure all visitors feel comfortable at future Nights at the Museum events, the brick play pit will be designated as a children’s only area.”

Fordham was critical of the museum’s response.

“I think they might need to think about how this works next time around,” he said.

“It’s the school holidays, you’ve got a Lego area, and you’ve got a man sitting alongside the kids leaving very little to the imagination, if I can put it that way.”

He added, “I don’t know how the museum knows that it’s fancy dress either, it might just be his or her look.”

The Australian Museum, located on William Street in the CBD, was founded in 1827, making it the country’s oldest.

The heritage-listed institution specialises in natural history and anthropology.

Originally published as ‘Safe place’: Australian Museum defends allowing man in lingerie play with Lego at children’s event