Discover Top Posts Tagged with #save the mutter

What makes allyship preformative? Where should change happen and where should change be avoided? What makes a solution to a problem an “over

(Holds up megaphone) censoring the bodies of the disabled isn't fixing the problem Kate Quinn, nor is using random groups of people as buzzwords

#history #museum #history museum #museam #living history #museum work #historian #the mütter museum #the mutter museum #save the mutter #medical history #ableism

As a follow-up to my Mütter Museum post

Why do most museums seem deathly allergic to consulting the groups they claim to be doing things on behalf of?

Like with the case of the Mütter: why the hell is this ethical conversation being dominated by 2 people who do not have any connection to the disabled, black, or native community? Why are they talking over the LITERAL PEOPLE WHO DONATED THEIR BODIES AND OR ORGANS TO THE MUSEUM alongside members of the disabled, black, and Native communities in relation to exhibits and their potentially problematic aspects? Why are these groups not being consulted to fix these problems?

Why the hell has there been a several-month-long kerfuffle that has resulted in nothing being repatriated? Why am I now seeing disabled bodies or bodies exhibiting an extreme/atypical pathology being called "gross" or its discussion/presence likened to a freakshow or being called "inappropriate"? Why is there so little transparency? Why were stories from people who did consent taken down in the name of consent?

This is a genuine ethical discussion but not when it is being controlled unilaterally by 1 clandestine group who seems to just comprise of 2 people.

Disabled and chronically ill voices need to be included

Black voices need to be included

Native voices need to be included

The people in the collection and their families need to be included.

Every aspect of this complex issue needs to be taken into account, not just 1.

If disabled bodies are too icky to look at and they are unwilling to give back the remains that are being asked to be returned: the current administration at the Mütter needs to step down. And this goes for all other museums. If your ethical conversation results in the exclusion of the very groups you are talking about and the removal of their stories from the narrative in favor of comfort you need to be removed from your position at said institution.

You are not being inclusive, you are disregarding the voices of the people who actually have a horse in this race while stigmatizing the overall conversation surrounding both ethics and diversities of the human body.