Errrr Bodies

Have you heard of that exposition called "Bodies"? It's pretty gross. It's a bunch of dead asians with their skin ripped off and insides exposed put on display for the world (to pay) to see. Did you know they charge about 30 bucks for this down at the Seaport in New York? C'est vrai. Well I checked this out about two years ago and I thought it was gross. Interesting, sure, if you want to be a doctor or like gross things. They did these weird things to the eyes and lips so that the bodies would be unrecognizable if, per chance, a family member happened to be checking out the exhibit. I could be making this up, but I thought I heard that these bodies were donated to science cus they were unclaimed at the morgue or something. So imagine you have family that won't claim your body but will pay $30 to see like 50 random strangers' bodies. Well, I think people like that deserve to be confronted by the face of those they deserted. Just think, if they were good people they could've seen a dead body for free...

This is taking a morbid and inappropriate turn.

So, anywho, they brought this exhibit to Paris, and changed the name to "Our Body." Nope, that's not a translation from French to English, that's what it's called. They changed it from "Bodies" to "Our Body." I think this was a bad idea and probably doomed the exhibit from the start. Next time you meet a French person, ask him or her to say "our." Then laugh for minutes as you listen to the sounds they make. It's ok, you can laugh, they deserve it. Arrrr. Oerrrr.

So the exhibit was shut down last week due to being indecent. Something about not knowing exactly where the bodies came from and if they were obtained through ethical means. I guess the exhibit had a lot less bodies, though, than the New York one and was censored. Not that this makes body-snatching any more OK just because there are less bodies that have been snatched. So the exhibit was ordered to be shut down immediately or face a fine of something like 20,000 euros per day, so it's shut down.

I've never really thought of France as being a country that was easily offended by indecency, considering that a lot of ads in print and on TV feature a bit of nudity. Not that that's really indecent either, but it's interesting that France would shut down this exhibit while it's still running in America. Americans are easily offended. Remember how we saw Janet Jackson's sparkly nipple covering and the country flew into a frenzy and now there's like a mandatory 8 second delay on live TV and poor Damita Jo became a pariah? I'm sure lots of people complained about Bodies, but apparently not enough to shut it down. I guess it comes down to the question of whether these bodies were obtained by legal, ethical means and not whether it's gross.

So, there ya go. It's been really cold in Paris the last few days. Rain, then sun, rain, then sun.