Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Show us your corpse: The Body Worlds Circus

By Evelyn Tsitas - posted Monday, 21 February 2011


"This process of subtraction that's taken away all the social markers in a sense idealizes and universalizes these individuals so that symbolically they come to stand for the undifferentiated human, which allows us to look with impunity because we're not really looking at a person or an individual," she said. "Von Hagens' plastinates could never be displayed with their skins on."

Desmond's views are echoed in the comments left in the The Amazing Bodies Exhibition visitor book during the Melbourne season which ended in February 2011; "I feel like eating a beef jerky and having a cigarette!" to "we are all meat puppets".

Indeed, a coronial section of a human specimen, preserved with the resin plastination technique and then sliced into 3 millimeter pieces and cut horizontally from shoulder to shoulder, reminds me that we look like rashes of bacon when cut up so finely.

Advertisement

In another exhibit, there are pieces of muscle and flesh displayed like chops lined up in a butcher's shop. I heard one viewer mutter "I'm not eating steak again," as he viewed the sliced whole body specimen spread out like choice cuts on a grotesque banquet table.

Having visited the University of Melbourne's anatomy museum, I note there is a vast difference between seeing bits of bodies in preserving fluid to that a plastinated body. The overwhelming feeling of an hour looking through a university anatomy museum is of unease, of seeing donated bodies of obvious paupers, toothless old women and men, of diseased figures covered in tumors and foetuses with horrific birth defects.

That is how it should be, of course. The sight of a human being dead in front of us should remind us of our vulnerability, and our fragile grip on life.

Von Hagens has other ideas. He is planning to expand the body-parts store and wants to set up a mail-order business; "so people from all over the world who are interested can buy parts of the body with one click of the button." (www.time.com Jun. 4, 2010)

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Dr Evelyn Tsitas works at RMIT University and has an extensive background in journalism (10 years at the Herald Sun) and communications. As well as crime fiction and horror, she writes about media, popular culture, parenting and Gothic horror and the arts and society in general. She likes to take her academic research to the mass media and to provoke debate.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Evelyn Tsitas

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Evelyn Tsitas
Article Tools
Comment Comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy