Friday at the museum

[mmcirvin]

On Friday, mezdeathhead, schwa242, and schwa242's sister Katie came through Boston on their way home from Ireland, and samantha2074, Jorie and I met them at the Museum of Science. It was Jorie's most involved outing since she was born, and she's more prone to sudden cranky moods than she was back in her sleepy newborn days, so the logistics were nontrivial; Sam spent a considerable amount of time feeding Jorie in the car. But Mez, Schwa and Katie were wonderful and charming despite the effects of jet lag and end-of-vacation exhaustion, and a good time was had by all.

In the process I made a somewhat truncated visit to the Body Worlds 2 exhibit at the MoS. I'm aware that there's been some controversy over this exhibit, which shows partially dissected human bodies artfully preserved through a process called plastination, but I was surprised at how interesting and generally non-exploitative the actual exhibit seemed. I noticed a lot of people with medical training having a grand time there, pointing out stuff to their friends.

There was a bit of pernicious silliness on the exhibit web FAQ, though:

Why are there not more women plastinates in the exhibits?

Sensitive to perceived community concerns, Dr. von Hagens did not want to appear voyeuristic in revealing too many female bodies. Further, he sees himself in the tradition of Renaissance anatomists, whose works traditionally included far more masculine than feminine bodies, since all but the reproductive systems are essentially the same. The musculature of male bodies is generally more pronounced and illustrates more aspects of the muscle system. The organs on display come primarily from the female body donors. However, since opening the exhibition, Dr. von Hagens has received numerous requests from women visitors to see more examples of female anatomy. Based on this, Dr. von Hagens has included more female plastinates in BODY WORLDS 2.

When feminist theorists talk about "privileging the male gaze", this sort of thing is what they're going on about. There's something odd about the idea that display of the female body is "voyeuristic" or inherently sexualized in a way that display of the male body (including male genitalia, which were very much on display) is not. It reminds me very much of the late Stanislaw Lem's stated reason why his novels had so few female characters, that introducing women would bring in a sexual element where he didn't want one. If your readers are all assumed to be straight men and they see women as the carriers of sex, I suppose that makes sense, but it doesn't otherwise. I'm glad that this version of the exhibit did include some female bodies.

Comments

[lots42.livejournal.com]

I just wish this exhibit didn't feel the need to slap pics of the bodies on their billboards. I want to choose to see them (and I would choose no).

[cpr94.livejournal.com]

I saw and enjoyed the exhibit too. Until my friend overheard someone there who said that the bodies were mostly "John Does from China". That's just rumor of course, but that may be the cause for concern about exploitation.

[mezdeathhead.livejournal.com]

I had the impression that every single body and body part was donated by the person who once owned the body. I hope I'm right.

True and False

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

"Body Worlds" is the original von Hagens plastinated-cadavers exhibit, produced by "The Institute of Plastination," which both creates and distributes/promotes the exhibits. There are now 3 Body Worlds-branded exhibits travelling the world, all of which have meticulously-sourced body parts-- I'm not sure about the original set, but certainly the last two exhibits feature cadavers that were donated with the intention of plastination and display, considering the popularity of the first one.

Von Hagens apparently had difficulty in acquiring bodies for his research and experimentation in Europe, where the press liked to compare him to Dr. Megele, despite the popularity of his exhibit. He won't show in Germany anymore because of continued legal harassment.

So he set up shops in Dalian, China and Kyrgyzstan to get a decent supply of bodies for research etc. teaching the plastination technique to loads of people on order to accomplish this. As a result, there are, per this NYTimes article (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/08/business/worldbusiness/08bodies.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=672da5787d998daf&ex=1312689600&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1162919180-JgyxriWr1x/RKmYibjnkJA), some 10 knock-factories, all of which use unsourced Chinese cadavers, supposedly unclaimed by relatives and therefore handed over by police. I gather von Hagens own' factory uses some unsourced cadavers, but none appear in the exhibit, is his main claim, and it's been checked out by the California Science Center (that is, the checked out the claim that the exhibit cadavers were sourced, and confirmed it).

These knock-off factories produce specimens for anatomical study as well as a knock-off traveling exhibit, "Bodies... The Exhibition," which was created and marketed by Premier Entertainment, which paid $25 for a good supply of plastinated cadavers for their exhibit, and does indeed feature the aforementioned unclaimed bodies. It's currently in Seattle (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/286689_bodies28.html), and I have mixed feelings about seeing it. I'm curious as hell, but if I had a car, I'd zip up to Vancouver and see Body Worlds. I want to see an exhibition of plastinated bodies, and yet the one that's a 30-minute walk from where I live does, I think, cross the line from artistic exhibition of the anatomies of consenting donors to some sort of nineteenth-century freakshow featuring "a chinaman's vascular system, smoking opium" and "a chinaman's musculature, laying track for the railroad."

Also, per that NYTimes article, both Premier and the Institute for Plastination are in several lawsuits against one another and both like to imply that the other uses cadavers from executed dissidents and whatnot, but there's no way to tell, because it's China.

Also, the museum I work for had an exhibit from Premier a few years ago, and IMO they're a bunch of expensive jerks, and I'm not inclined to give them money.

Re: True and False

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

See, excellent information like this is what I get for not antagonizing you too much about politics. It certainly makes me feel more dubious about von Hagens' operation, even if the bodies they've got on display are well-sourced.

Re: True and False

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

hehe.

I'm currently reading The Devil in the White City, which tells the chronologically parallel tales of the creation of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the story of Dr. H.H. Holmes, Chicago resident and (ultimately confessed) serial killer, one of the first people to whom the term psychopath was applied.

One of the things that makes it easy for Holmes to kill is the ease with which one disposes of bodies. He was a physician, so nobody asked him why the young ladies died, and bodies were in such demand for anatomical study by medical institutions, that they paid well for corpses and skeletons, asked no questions, looked the other way when faced with evidence of murder-for-profit, and even did the grave-robbing themselves (and when caught in the act, blustered that they intend to do it again).

I feel dubious about von Hagens distant foreign operation, and while some of it is surely just my western mores about how to treat the dead, I'm concerned that he and the knock-offs that he trained are created a giant market for dead people in places that might not value life the same as us. I'm glad that medical students can learn from the same plastinated cadavers year after year, and that schools can collect broader specimens that're experienced by many students instead of whichever 4 students get that person for their Gross Anatomy lab. But is the new market for plastinated parts going to magnify the market for the dead? Or is it that am I only cool with the dead being used for science when nobody has industrialized the process?

Without knowing just what sort of experimentation and research he's doing, I have that ill feeling about the guy. He did an illegal public autopsy in England once, for a 500-seat theater. Exploitation or Education? Not an easy call.

I encourage everyone to read Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach, which, while keeping the writing light enough that you'll be laughing, delves into the many uses of human cadavers that've been donated to science and used for everything from crimesolving to calibrating test dummies and mine-sweeping footware. Macabre, yes, slightly, until you realize that many people, possibly people you know, are alive today because of studies on the dead. Honestly I don't recall if it enters into plastination, though.

Re: True and False

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Whoops! Nice typo, or maybe the yuan doesn't go as far as it used to. Premier Entertainment paid US$25 Million, not $25. I apologize for accidently being off by SIX ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

The Wikipedia article on Body Worlds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Worlds#Controversies) notes that von Hagens exhibited Body Worlds in a German erotic art museum in Hamburg's red-light district (the article notes that taxi drivers and prostitutes get in free, but that's probably the case for the museum at most times), and featured an addition called "Early Bird," a man with an erection. We can agree that the rules are different when it comes to an erotic-art venue, but at least we know that von Hagens isn't above deliberately sexualizing the bodies. Or should I say, sexualizing the cadavers.

[schwa242.livejournal.com]

Did you get my e-mail with the photo of the three of you?