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Bodies The Exhibition: What's inside

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  • Bodies The Exhibition: What's inside

    I wanted to share a story with you. This morning is the last day before school starts that we can go holoholo (DS and I) and find educational stuff. So I'm looking up Bodies: the Exhibit online and ask the boy what he thinks, wanna go to the mall?

    He snurls up his nose, looking at the pics on the screen. Says ewww. I ask again, don't you think it would be educational? Wouldn't you like to see what you look like on the inside? His sage response....

    "What's on the inside needs to stay on the inside."

    I'm still perusing the depth of that statement. Guess we will go to the Bishop Museum after he finishes investigating the Pacific Rim on Google Earth.

    Have a great day!

  • #2
    Re: What's inside

    Originally posted by cyleet99 View Post

    "What's on the inside needs to stay on the inside."
    Haha, I totally agree with your son! When what's inside ends up outside, you're in serious trouble!! Guess he's not going to be a surgeon when he grows up...
    ~ This is the strangest life I've ever known ~

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    • #3
      Re: What's inside

      The various "bodies" exhibitions are saturated with controversy due to the possiblility of Chinese prisioners being the unwilling "donor bodies".
      Googling will show an abundance of articles. Here is a fairly recent one:

      http://www.catholicexchange.com/2008/06/02/112765/

      I saw a plastinated bodies exhibit in New York while on a work trip, and the "Chinese" factor was prominent at the end of the display where a table had been set up for comments by customers. Many people had made written comments about it, and some had left informative flyers (which I imagine were regularily thrown away by staff). It was an unsettling eye opener for those of us who did not know of the controversy beforehand.
      Now run along and play, but don’t get into trouble.

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      • #4
        Re: What's inside

        Originally posted by turtlegirl View Post
        Haha, I totally agree with your son! When what's inside ends up outside, you're in serious trouble!! Guess he's not going to be a surgeon when he grows up...

        I thought that was funny, too! Evidently my work (nursing) has not impressed him enough. I did tell him that when he becomes an older teen, I plan to make him volunteer in the ED whereever I am working. Maybe a couple of shifts will assist him in keeping his insides inside.

        Now the provenance issue with the bodies bothered me, too; and there are a lot of online resources for learning about the human body, so I didn't feel it was quite right to add to the take for the promoters of the exhibit. When they started listing prisoners and other possible sources for the bodies, it felt wrong. Oh, well. We enjoyed the Bishop today; watched the lava exhibit and looked at the whales.

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        • #5
          Re: What's inside

          I have no doubt that at least some of the bodies were from unwilling donors. My spouse is from China, and knows about the evil and corruption that exists there. That's why I'm refusing to go. It's a personal decision, so I'm not condeming those who do.

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          • #6
            Re: What's inside

            Ditto that one, Btor. Wouldn't go even if it was free.
            Too bad. It would be educational, even if grossly interesting.
            https://www.facebook.com/Bobby-Ingan...5875444640256/

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            • #7
              Re: What's inside

              Originally posted by cyleet99 View Post
              "What's on the inside needs to stay on the inside."
              Haha, cute response Guess he's not ready for that much reality yet. Like acknowledging the meat we eat comes from formerly living animals.
              "By concealing your desires, you may trick people into being cruel about the wrong thing." --Steven Aylett, Fain the Sorcerer
              "You gotta get me to the tall corn." --David Mamet, Spartan
              "
              Amateurs talk technology, professionals talk conditions." --(unknown)

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              • #8
                Re: What's inside

                Not a vegan yet, and I cannot get him to eat his beans. He'd rather have the hot dog with his two scoop rice.

                I wouldn't mind if he wanted to go with the veggies.

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                • #9
                  Re: What's inside

                  eric and i went this past wednesday to the exhibit. we know about the provenance controversy; for us, the educational benefit overrode any desire to protest by not going. with my corp discount, the tix came to about $50 with the audio presentation.

                  the exhibitors are smart. they start off with bones, then move on to muscles, then nerves, then and so on so that you start off with a certain comfort level. most of the full-person displays were obviously male. there is only one female, and she's in the section about sex/gender. the exhibitors were also good about posting a warning just before the section with fetuses. you are able to choose whether to enter that exhibit, or you can completely pass it without seeing a thing in there.

                  we found the exhibit very educational and eye-opening. you see everything...i mean EVERYTHING. the strangest reaction i had was that the exhibits would make me look at eric and "see" the parts in him and think to myself, "i don't want any part of him to ever be hurt!" okay, i'm goofy like that. but the exhibit really made us appreciate what we believe to be the miracle of life/biology. it also cemented my long-standing opinion that while i love working in healthcare, i never want to be any kind of clinician.

                  those of you who have children and are thinking of taking them: i would suggest that you not bring kids who are not yet high school age, unless they have already expressed a long-term interest in biology, are not squeamish in any way, and have had experience with dissection. i really believe it's not someplace you take a five year old or eight year old or even a precocious ten year old. let me state something so obvious that it might escape your consideration: THIS DISPLAY IS VERY GRAPHIC. besides fetuses, you see guts, brains, sexual organs, real eyes, the entire nervous system separated from all the other parts of the body, a whole skin of a person, healthy organs versus diseased organs (they had a box to collect cigarettes from those who might decide after seeing a smoker's lung to quit) and anuses. at the end, you have an opportunity to hold part of a brain and a kidney in your hands (they felt waxy, like crayola crayons, because of the processing they were put through).

                  keep in mind: never are you ever able to disconnect completely from the fact that all these displays are parts of real people or are real people who once lived, breathed, ate, picked their noses, etc. it takes a certain level of maturity and a strong constitution to be able to be bombarded with these sights and yet not be utterly disturbed by them. what you see will definitely leave an indelible mark on your mind. many adults would find the exhibit too much to take, and to expect most children to be able to process at that level is, in my opinion, asking too much.

                  that said, the exhibitors do provide a "kid version" of the audio program, and we did see one intermediate-aged child there with his parents (he was on the floor, raptly staring, open-mouthed, at the display of the entire alimentary canal, starting with mouth all the way to anus). most everyone there was high-school aged and above.

                  if you decide to go, i suggest you go on a weeknight. we went on a wednesday night and sometimes we had to wait a couple minutes before we could move on to the next display. if you're like us, you'll want to read all the notes on the displays and listen to all of the audio program. i can't imagine how rushed i'd feel if i went on a weekend. then again, i'm not always comfortable in crowds.

                  when we left, eric and i felt it was appropriate to say thank you and offer a prayer for those who are in the exhibit.
                  superbia (pride), avaritia (greed), luxuria (lust), invidia (envy), gula (gluttony), ira (wrath) & acedia (sloth)--the seven deadly sins.

                  "when you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people i deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly..."--meditations, marcus aurelius (make sure you read the rest of the passage, ya lazy wankers!)

                  nothing humiliates like the truth.--me, in conversation w/mixedplatebroker re 3rd party, 2009-11-11, 1213

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                  • #10
                    Re: What's inside

                    Originally posted by cynsaligia View Post
                    we know about the provenance controversy; for us, the educational benefit overrode any desire to protest by not going.
                    You are correct in that we all get to make our own choices in life; to weigh an issue and then make a decision.

                    And then we live with our conscience.
                    Now run along and play, but don’t get into trouble.

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                    • #11
                      Re: What's inside

                      Saw the Bodies Exhibit twice, once in Boston and the other here in Honolulu. It's a great exhibit, if you do have the opportunity to go I would high recommend it!

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                      • #12
                        Re: What's inside

                        Originally posted by cyleet99 View Post
                        I wanted to share a story with you. This morning

                        "What's on the inside needs to stay on the inside."

                        I'm still perusing the depth of that statement.
                        Have a great day!
                        ===========================
                        A little humor on this macabre thread.

                        "Skin"
                        Allan Sherman song parody 1964.
                        Sung to the tune of "You gotta have heart"
                        -----------
                        You gotta have skin.
                        All you really need is skin.
                        Skin's the thing that if you got it outside,
                        It helps keep your insides in.
                        -----------
                        etc.etc...
                        google it, it's a pretty funny song.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: What's inside

                          Originally posted by DNR55 View Post
                          -----------
                          You gotta have skin.
                          All you really need is skin.
                          Skin's the thing that if you got it outside,
                          It helps keep your insides in.
                          -----------
                          etc.etc...
                          google it, it's a pretty funny song.

                          Hey DNR, thanks! Very funny. I liked "It covers your nose, and wraps around your toes...."

                          So it is Allan Sherman who did all those funny songs...(didn't know who the artist of Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah was!) Wonder if that's one of Weird Al's mentors?
                          Last edited by helen; July 30, 2008, 02:45 PM. Reason: fixing the quote tag

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                          • #14
                            Re: What's inside

                            Originally posted by Ron Whitfield View Post
                            Wouldn't go even if it was free.
                            We'd have gone if it was free. The ridiculous ticket prices were the primary barrier. If anything, the controversy heightened my interest and curiosity. But that curiosity wasn't worth $50. Or even $20.

                            The ifs and maybes and possiblys of the sources of these bodies are, IMHO, extrapolated into huge mountains of ethical anguish that are wholly out of proportion relative to the other kinds of corporeal horrors (human and otherwise) you could similarly link to everyday activities if you stretched things far enough. From a non-spiritual angle, our bodies are just meat we get to wear for a while. Might as well try to appreciate 'em.

                            Of course, I similarly don't begrudge anyone who opts out due to these concerns. It's those that endeavor to eliminate the choice that bug me.

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                            • #15
                              Re: What's inside

                              Originally posted by pzarquon View Post
                              From a non-spiritual angle, our bodies are just meat we get to wear for a while.
                              Yep - one of the many reasons that, when I'm finished on Earth, any organs that are still usable to anyone get donated, and whatever remains goes to a local university to be dissected and studied; after that, the leftover bits get cremated. Did the paperwok on all that a quarter-century ago.

                              But at least I get to choose that fate for my corpse; it's strongly suspected that was not the case for those in the cases on display.

                              I didn't go when it was in Seattle. But I didn't protest against those who did go, or the presenters. If I went that far, I would probably have to protest the existence of zoos as well.

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