Features
Feb 25, 2010 at 4:00 am
Sneaking Hard, Dry Meat into Bodies—an Exhibition of Hard, Dry Meat
THE DART-MAN: I bet the guy never threw darts in his life.
Trent Moorman
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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
It's a much different experience when you don't have to freak out about how creepy the exploitation is (against owners will = very creepy) and you can focus on the extreme intricacy of the human body.
It can still be creepy...
I knew the moral controversies going in. And it is creepy that a lot of people treated it as a date or a family outing. But I look at it like I look at eating factory-processed meat: the body is already dead, and possibly died an inhumane death. By going with an earnest attitude, to try to learn something, I restore some honor and purpose to the body.
To be honest, the thing that offended me the most was the fetus room. Not because it was a bunch of dead, possibly aborted babies, but because they put a special disclaimer and a bypass route for people who might be offended by (gasp!) abortion. People, if you haven't been freaked out by the executed dissident adults on display, I'm pretty sure you can handle looking at a beige dot (the week-old embryo).
I say cook up a few more and put American flags in their hands... lets give them a chance to be Americans finally!
Eating beef jerky inside the Bodies exhibit is exactly like sky diving, yes.
Thank you, Trent. Really really liked it. Sorry you ended up in the Fetus room with a mouth full of beef jerky.
I think I threw up a little in my mouth.
I've always found the idea of these exhibits repulsive on so many levels, but my fascination with human anatomy has tempted me to go anyway. I'll content myself with A&P books to satisfy my curiosity. You did the dirty work so I don't have to.
I think Bodies is really interesting and poignant. It is turning these bodies into plastic. Not the person they once were. This isn't a chinese prisoner; its a body. The chinese prisoner, to which atrocities were committed against, left that body when the person died. The person. The soul. That was the sacred thing; the body is just a plastic shell.
I don't like the gift shop. I do think the body is a mechanical marvel and should be respected. That sicked me out. It sicks me out that people go to Bodies and don't get it. They don't realize the amazing thing they are seeing. But I don't think its the lack of respect for the person that the figures were that bothers me as much as the lack of respect for the incredible gift we are given by having the chance to see natures complexities.
I see Bodies as a celebration of the magical genius that is the human body. We should be seeing it and be in awe. Celebrate our bodies. Respect them. Be amazed. Be inspired to use them.
I like that you ate meat. Its the same thing. That meat wasn't a cow that had a calf it loved. Its the meat that's left over after the cow is gone.
Body Worlds, which originated this concept, is scrupulous in its use of release forms, rendering unassailable the intent to be a part of the exhibition and garnering donations from all over the world. Its displays are marginally more tasteful but infinitely more educational.
The figure in the ad Bodies runs weekly in The Stranger clearly sports the facial features of a Chinese man, a perpetual reminder that People's Republic corpses of "unknown origin" are the exhibition's ONLY source material.
It is no accident that Body Worlds shows up in science and natural history museums and Bodies arrives in convention centers and casinos.
Bodies has now visited Seattle twice. Both Portland and Vancouver have hosted the real Body Worlds. Once again, our neighbors get the ethical win.
Leave the pretentious ooh-I'm-an-edgy-hipster-eating-jerky-in-front-of-dried-bodies thing out next time, and we might have something that people can read without their (non-desiccated) eyeballs rolling out of their heads.
Sorry but this article seems to be an attempt to write another promotion article just to justify attendance when you know good and well every penny of your admission and merchandise purchases just furthers this type of exhibit.
This is a bad exhibit and the Stranger should be ashamed of itself for running its full page ads
and promoting the exhibit.
It has been banned in California, Hawaii,Venezuela and other countries. How does a display of dead bodies ever come into the United States? These are all Chinese persons. If this was a display of African-Americans, or all women, I don't think it would be here in Seattle.
Trent Moorman and past attendees, I expect you to be protesting outide the exhibit every Saturday to correct your karma.
So much for common humanity. Thank God she's not in charge of anything that might affect me -- and if she is, she should be removed immediately.
They can legally enter the U.S. because they are considered "plastics" by U.S. Customs. They aren't human tissue anymore, but plastic.
I'm sorry, but I can't differentiate between any of them. They are dead people in poses and like Trent says, it's all just levels of wrong.
I seriously doubt all the bodies in Body World, the ones that are supposed be donated, knew they were going to be put in sports poses and carted around the world on display. This IS NOT donating your body to science. It's donating your body so that someone else can make money off it.
It's in the vicinity of how I regard, storms at sea (having once beat a tempest to port):
I'm pretty sure I don't anticipate going there, but I'd like to have had the experience of having been there.
The tagline from the poster is "They can't wait to get their hands on you. Your end is only the beginning. "
I think of those movies whenever I see the poor sliced-in-half dude on the billboards all over town.
Entertaining, yes, but not something you want to have been real life for anyone.
Trent!!! Very well done. The solitary butthole / teacup, away from its body is VICTORY.
I've been driving around town for I don't know how long, staring at the billboards waiting for them to go away, now I feel better. Now I feel like I've conquered it, knowing you were in there eating beef jerky. Haaaa.
made my week! Great insight, humor and imagination! Thanks for
the laughs and good insight. John Ryan
- Christian
Not cool.
and i'm sure he never "fought a dictator" or faced an enemy soldier in his entire, uneventful life.
That's why I'd never go. A hall of state sponsored murder victims, posed for your enjoyment.
Almost as if a serial killer put on a neat little traveling display, and everybody came and gawked in wonder.
The Teriyaki jerky, haha, beyond wrong :)
Maybe in the future, when China rules the world, some of us will be lucky enough to be exhibited in this little traveling roadshow of death.
"Oh look, Caucasian! I give no thought to source of this body, but surely must be from one of China's glorious overseas battlezones..."
Put the lotion in the basket!
And you'd be surprised how many people mentioned a hankering for beef jerky to me, or just how generally hungry they had gotten as they and their dates strolled around looking at corpses.
The best part was all the jack asses who tried to shake hands with the whole skeleton near the entrance. I'm like, 'C'mon guys. He was alive at one point, and would probably bitch slap your disrespectful little ass now if he could'.
Premier exhibitions: a morally bankrupt company, and possibly one of the worst employers I've ever had. Good times...
Cheers!
Purchased honey bbq jerky product meat stick and put it in the left inside pocket of my jacket as I entered the exhibit. I was really nervous they were going catch me. I overheard 2 other people in line talking about this article and was pretty sure they were jerky sneaking.
I got in with meat product undetected and like Trent had much difficulty finding a place to nibble. There were many a watchful eye. When my chance came to enact the jerky, I was next to the 'meat and cheese plate without the cheese' body. I quietly unwrapped the meat product, but just couldn't do it. I was too grossed out. I failed at this part of the challenge. My friends laughed at me the rest of our trip.
I couldn't get Trent's scenario of the peasant stealing the pear out of my head.
The Lone Butthole was an enormous highlight of the journey. Dartman had a big crowd. More people talking about this article there. The merchandise yes, a black hole of wrong.
For the post exhibit festivities, I wanted to try to up Trent's upping of the ante and go with McDonalds Chicken McNuggets. I am not a McDonalds eater so this was broadening for me. I was able to eat 5 full McNuggets. I weakly did so. Heavy amounts of Sweet and Sour sauce were needed. Ronald is evil.
I did not sleep so well that night. I still have my uneaten jerky stick. Thank you.
I had a group of friends say they were going to go to Bodies and sneak jerky in. Looks like Moorman has created a thing.
This happens to me like once a day.
I "turn up my nose at things I think are below me"? No, I just recognise pretentious twaddle when I see it. Please, do tell me just what is "beautiful" about eating frigging jerky in that context. As for judging, yeah, there's a nice bout of pot vs kettle going on that you need to check out.
You are exactly what is wrong with the world. You, my boring asshole, are the pretentious twaddle.
Maybe the specimens in this exhibit did come from prisons. Maybe they were homeless people who died after stumbling to the hospital. Maybe they died old and alone with no identification and loss of memory from Alzheimer's. Maybe maybe maybe. The fact is, the company itself states that the bodies on display have all been examined for any unnatural causes of death and any bodies not dead from natural causes are not in the exhibit. Also, none of these bodies had any locatable next of kin who could dispose of their remains, so the fantasy of a family mourning the desecration of their loved-one is unlikely.
I find this article to be juvenile and sloppily-written; touting rumor as if it is fact, breaking the rules of the establishment, and possessing of an intense fixation on testicles. I thought the exhibit was tastefully done and I recommended it to all of my friends. I'm thankful that I was able to see such incredible detail about the body's inner workings and I'm sad the exhibit was only here for a limited time. I have some family coming up to visit this summer and, according to an employee I spoke to during my visit, the exhibit won't be in town after the end of the month, so they won't be able to see it.
& 77, Moorman never says any of this is fact, it's all "alleged". Your reading comprehension seems lacking.
"All the bodies were obtained through the Dalian Medical University Plastination Laboratories in the People's Republic of China. Asia possesses the largest and most highly competent group of dissectors in the world, and they are highly skilled in preparing the bodies for educational and scientific purposes."