Teenagers - The Exhibition

So today I went to see Bodies - The Exhibition. I couldn't find anyone willing to go so I went by myself. Good thing, too. I think one more person in there would have exceeded the capacity set forth by the fire marshal.

Now, I called before I went down. I asked the woman in the box office about crowds. She said, "No one is here right now. It's empty." That was at 9:10 am. So I headed down. I arrived at about 10:00 and found school bus after school bus unloading. I should have turned back but I didn't. I wasn't sure about when I would have another chance to see the exhibit as it leaves on September 4th.

Once inside the first room I was confronted with the realities of high school mentality. They all had been given paperwork to complete as they toured the exhibit. What they hadn't been given were clipboards. So the tops of the display cases were where they placed their paperwork, obscuring the view for the rest of us. The paperwork seemed to encourage a scavenger hunt mentality where they merely were racing from display to display to collect the required words for the blanks on their pages. Few of them paused to wonder at the displays and the careful means by which they were created.

When they did stop they offered such pearls of wisdom as, "maybe your [penis] shrinks when you die." There were a lot of genitalia comments as most of the cadavers were preserved with genitals intact.

The exhibit contained entire bodies arranged for views of particular systems of the body. Each room was organized around different systems of the body; circulatory, nervous, respiratory, etc. Organs were preserved alone sometimes. Entire systems were displayed, such as the whole nervous system of a person in one piece isolated from all other tissues, or the arteries and veins of a leg without the leg. Amazing stuff to see. Still the crowd made it very difficult.

Perhaps the low point came in the room which detailed the developing fetus. A sign at the entrance warned of the nature of this particular portion of the exhibit and offered a chance to bypass it through a door. I took the door around but ten minutes later decided to go back after much careful consideration. The hesitation I experienced was completely absent in the teenagers. They poured through the door as if there were prizes inside.

I previously had said aloud to others that these were merely bodies; bodies whose owners no longer needed them. But bodies that were able to continue to give through educating the public. However, once inside this room my rationale evaporated. These were babies.

The comments from the teenagers continued. I heard one girl ask, "are these real?" Apparently the entire concept of the exhibit had escaped her. Then I heard, "Ewww! This one's got hair." Instead of getting upset, I did what most men do when they feel that sad; I got angry. I was already irritable at the crowd and this just put me over the edge. So I left.

One day, if they are lucky enough to have children maybe they will understand. Hopefully they won't remember the comments they made. I am sure that as a teenager, I made tasteless and offensive comments. I never went to see anything like this exhibit but I'm sure the occasion presented itself when I said or did things that hurt others, and it is a subject of constant regret for me.

So I'm glad no one came with me. It was hard enough negotiating the crowd by myself but with someone in tow...?

Still, I recommend it. It really is amazing stuff. There really isn't an ick factor as the specimens have been presented well. They play tennis and volleyball. They seem to live. Just go at night or after 1:00 pm. That's when the field trips stop. That would have been good to know when I called, Ms. Box Office Woman On The Phone.