Should Mutter get less weird and more PC?

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.