What Does It Mean to Be Girly in Manly?
There’s something ironic about calling an exhibition Girly in Manly.
It’s a playful title, but behind it is a much bigger conversation about Manly, femininity and the stories of women that have largely been left out of its history.
Opening at Manly Art Gallery & Museum on September 25, Girly in Manly brings together four contemporary Australian artists - Kate Bohunnis, Anne Ferran, Maddison Gibbs and Ebony Russell - to explore femininity, strength, memory, motherhood, ageing and the things women pass from one generation to the next.
And it all began with the name Manly itself.
When Governor Arthur Phillip arrived at Manly Cove in 1788, he reportedly named the area after the “confidence and manly behaviour” of the Aboriginal men he encountered.
For exhibition curator Josephine Skinner, that familiar piece of local history raised another question.
“But that description tells only a very small part of the story of the place,” she says.
“It leaves out the women whose knowledge, labour and cultural authority were essential to life on Country.”
It also got her thinking about two words that sound remarkably similar but have traditionally carried very different meanings.
“‘Manly’ has traditionally suggested strength, courage and authority, while ‘girly’ has often been used to diminish things associated with femininity,” Josephine says.
“So, Girly in Manly is partly about turning that idea around and asking what we value, whose strength we recognise, and whose stories and forms of knowledge have been overlooked.”
The women who were always here
There’s another layer to the exhibition that feels particularly relevant in Manly.
Before retiring, Karen Smith from the Aboriginal Heritage Office spoke about Manly Cove as a place strongly associated with Aboriginal women and children, where women would gather and fish.
Josephine says that stayed with her.
“The story of Manly Cove is also the story of Aboriginal women who held an incredibly sophisticated knowledge of the waterways, seasons, food systems and Country,” she says.
“They were expert fisherwomen, navigating the harbour in bark canoes, often carrying children and even small fires.”
It’s a very different picture of Manly from the colonial story most of us grew up hearing, and one the exhibition asks us to consider rather than treating Manly simply as a pretty backdrop.
So, what is ‘girly’ anyway?
The exhibition isn't trying to come up with one neat definition of femininity. Quite the opposite.
Its four artists approach the idea from very different places.
Kate Bohunnis uses sculpture to explore the body and the ways it can be altered and reconfigured, while Anne Ferran looks at history, memory and the mature female body.
Maddison Gibbs brings together Aboriginal women’s knowledge, motherhood, Country, spirituality and our relationship with the natural world, while Ebony Russell takes decorative traditions often associated with femininity and transforms them through porcelain into works exploring memory, ritual and care.
What connects them is the idea of inheritance not simply what we receive from those who came before us, but what we choose to keep, question, change or leave behind.
“There isn’t one way of being feminine,” Josephine says.
“The works don’t try to define femininity, but instead open it up to different experiences, perspectives and ways of being.”
It’s an idea that feels particularly relevant now, when younger women are increasingly comfortable deciding for themselves what femininity looks like.
“You can be strong and caring, serious and playful, powerful and vulnerable,” Josephine says.
One work might stop you in your tracks
Among the new works in the exhibition is one by Maddison Gibbs that Josephine suspects visitors won't forget quickly.
Maddison photographs herself holding her baby while wearing a cloak made from plastic fish-shaped bottles, with the sculptural cloak displayed alongside the image.
At first glance it’s striking. Then the layers begin to reveal themselves.
There are references to motherhood and the Madonna and Child, but also to Aboriginal relationships with waterways and food, and the changing story of Manly Cove - from a place that sustained people to one increasingly shaped by consumption and environmental pressures.
“It’s a beautiful work, but there’s also something quite confronting underneath it,”Josephine says. “It asks us to think about what future generations will inherit from us.”
That question of inheritance runs throughout Girly in Manly. What have women inherited? What have they carried? What have they changed? And what are we passing on now?
Josephine hopes people might leave the gallery looking at both femininity and Manly itself a little differently.
“What we inherit isn’t fixed,” she says. “We can remake it, question it and give it new meaning.”
And as for what being “girly in Manly” means to the woman behind the exhibition?
For Josephine, it's about being comfortable with all the contradictions that come with femininity and having some fun with a word that has often been used to diminish it.
“Putting ‘girly’ alongside ‘Manly’ makes you think about what those words have come to mean, and what might sit underneath them,” she says.
“So, for me, being ‘girly in Manly’ is about embracing femininity in all its expressions, keeping a sense of humour and being mindful that this point in time is just one iteration of a much longer story.”
The exhibition program also includes Her Spin on Things on October 22, combining a vinyl DJ workshop with a wine tasting featuring Samantha May Wines.
Girly in Manly opens at Manly Art Gallery & Museum on Friday, September 25 and runs until November 29. Entry is free.
Exhibition details -
Girly in Manly Manly Art Gallery & Museum25 September to 29 November 2026
Events Members’ and Volunteers’ Preview - Friday 25 September, 10 to 11am
Exhibition Launch Friday 25 September, 6 to 8pm
Vinyl DJ workshop and wine tasting: Her Spin on Things ft. Samantha May WinesThursday 22 October, 6 to 8.30pm
Gallery details / public information
Manly Art Gallery & Museum West Esplanade Reserve, Manly NSW 2095
Open Tue – Sun, 10 am – 5 pm (closed Mondays & Public Holidays)
Free entry
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