As a reporter, you learn that there are two sides to a story.
At a minimum. Usually more.
Visitors at the Mutter Museum (Photo: Visit Philly)
Few stories or events are open and shut, but this one is tantalizing to me because of its many tendrils. It defies — for me — snap judgment.
I am talking about the planned restructuring of the infamous Mutter Museum, occasionally called (satirically) the little shop of horrors.
It is famous because its collection is bizarre, or gruesome, or macabre, or disturbing. That is, or has been, its raison d’etre, its reason for being. It is operated by the College of Physicians, at a very nice profit.
Now, suddenly, new leadership wants the museum to switch from grotesque to focus on “health and well-being.”
The museum started out as an institution of learning for doctors and medical students. Starting in the ‘70s, it started admitting the public — that’s when I first went — and it caught on as a niche attraction. In 2022, it attracted a record high of almost $3 million in admission fees, accounting for about one-third of the college’s revenue.
As a traditionalist, my gut reaction is just leave it alone. That feeling is shared by 7,000 people, including Philadelphia magician Teller, who signed an online petition “to protect the integrity of the Mutter.”
So why the Woke change?
In 2021, the college hired pediatrician and geneticist Mira Irons as president and CEO. Irons hired Kate Quinn as executive director of the museum.
In January, the news website ProPublica reported that the Mutter collection contained some remains of indigenous people.
The story, and a follow up by the Inquirer, “jump-started” a review process, said Quinn.
“We are actively moving away from any possible perception of spectacle, oddities, or disrespect of any type for the collections in our care,” wrote Quinn in an email to staff.
And that’s the nub of the dispute. The “possible perception” of exhibits that might trigger someone.
The new bosses stripped dozens of YouTube videos from the Mutter website, along with any images of human remains.
That was countered by people who supported the museum as is.
The Inquirer did a good job of rounding up the sometimes contradictory points of view.
The collection of fetuses looks doomed, because many people “find it disturbing and they find it disrespectful,” said Quinn.
But college fellow George Davis, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, wants it to remain and said some of his patients actually had donated their fetuses so they would have meaning.
It sounds to me like the two new executives have been infected by Political Correctness a.k.a. Woke.
But don’t the leaders of an institution have the right to redirect it?
Things change, don’t they?
Yes, and yes.
Any yet… In this case, it is not a mere change.
It is a repudiation of a museum that dates back to 1863. It would be like redirecting the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History into a delicatessen.
The college board is scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss the controversy, and public meetings reportedly will be held.
Traditional versus PC.
Your choice. I think you know where I stand.
Watch the admissions drop and the new administrators wonder what happened. They are wrapped up in their visions they can’t see others who don’t share their vision. It is fun to watch.
I agree with you here Stu. The Mutter is unique, and is also very interesting and thought provoking. But it’s not for everyone. I am disappointed that someone would take over such a fascinating museum and attempt to remake it into something boring and ordinary. Those who find the museum disturbing can simply not go. Yet, why is it you never miss an opportunity to blame “Woke”, while the unrelenting assault on our rights to enjoy the unique, and “different” in this Country are coming from the “anit-woke” right. Narrow minded Repugs are fighting everything they deem woke, books, entertainment, trans/homosexual rights, even news. Terrifying.
The only way to stop the WOKE weenies is to shine a light on their WOKENESS. And why is showing dead unborn babies so offensive? Hell, we slaughter a million a year in the good-old USA and no one even blinks.
Speaking as someone who is against that slaughter, I think the display of unborn children to be offensive. One certainly does not need to be so-called woke to feel this way.
Seeing the result of the carnage may open the eyes of those who chant the mantra ‘CHOICE.’ But what, really, is the ‘choice?’ Simple: HAVE THE CHILD or KILL THE CHILD. Some ‘choice.’
Not really sure why you are your replying to my comment. Sarcastic and snide without really offering a serious opinion about the Mutter Museum. I’m guessing you don’t have one, and simply use these posts as an opportunity to vent your general Right-wing outrage. Have you ever actually BEEN to the Mutter?
Nope, never been. Never done drugs either, but that doesn’t mean I can’t comment on addiction.
When the show fits, wear it. This controversy was raked up by two women who are either Woke or PC. I use both terms because they are appropriate, in my opinion.
I’m super progressive and weird and inclusive, personally. At the same time, I don’t appreciate how the current leadership has been handling the collection, and I strongly disagree with the direction the museum has been going. The original purpose of the Mütter is being diluted, contorting its spirit beyond recognition in a misguided effort to please the visiting public, the College, medical professionals, donors, and the museum staff simultaneously.
Losing access to online materials means that people who aren’t able to physically experience the museum for whatever reason can no longer appreciate and learn from the collection. Closing the museum to research instantly created issues for students and professionals alike, turning a unique and valuable resource into a big, hostile anatomical storage unit. And the shift in focus by “sanitizing” the collection feels disrespectful to the people whose remains are preserved and displayed there. I mean, I sincerely doubt they intended to be attractions in a glossy and upbeat pathology-themed tourist trap.
Don’t neuter the Mütter!
👍
I don’t understand the change, It is a Museum that offends who? Leave at least one thing in Philadelphia alone! Statues, Streets,Eateries, all have been changed by politics, people who hold their breath until they turn BLUE (metaphore). Don’t screw with museums it’s history, like it or not. You can’t change it just ruin it.
Thew display of unborn children is cheap thrills, not “history.”
The solution is simple. Don’t go to the Mutter museum.
The Holocaust Museum is filled with things that personally disgust me, but the exhibits are important nonetheless. Get the point?
Since you mentioned the Holocaust Museum let me take this opportunity to salute the brave Ally soldiers who invaded Normandy on 6/6/44. (79 years ago) .
They initiated millitary action that eventually put an end to the Third Reich and the Holocaust.
Without question. I saluted them on my FaceBook account and have written several times about ky visit to Normandy to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day. I reprinted one of those columns just a few days ago. You can look it up.
I don’t have to look it up.Your word is good enough for me.
Thank you for trust. But I WANT you to read it. https://stubykofsky.com/d-day-finding-a-hero-to-visit/
Nothing else bothers you ,except that? Obviously you pick and choose your history.
In a few years the new story will be Mutter Museum closing due to lack of funds.
That might be the game plan.
Don’t most things lose their value when making such drastic changes? Not talking about tweaks here and there. Sounds like this dame (yeah, I said it) is not only woke, she lacks business acumen.
“Dame” is OK and I fear for the museum if these wholesale (and unnecessary) changes go through.
Why have anything in the public forum or available to the general public anymore? Day by day, week by week, we are being compelled to walk on eggshells and no matter in which direction we turn, our paths are now being lined with them. The woke crowd seeks to reinvent our collective consciousness. At least, that is how it feels.
It feels that way to me too. Fight back.
PC idiocy strikes again.