Copulating Cadavers
Dr Gunther von Hagens
Scientific or sadistic?
When you hear about an organisation called Body Worlds Exhibitions, you automatically expect a bunch of droning, not-quite retirees making presentations with the help of a plastic skeleton. Well, that assumption is dead wrong. In fact, Body Worlds Exhibitions is in the process of creating a new exhibition, one that comprises entirely of copulating cadavers.
Confused by that term? I was too, so let me illustrate - walking into the exhibition, you are suddenly surrounded by more than two hundred authentic human corpses. Obviously, you feel pretty confronted but how do you feel when you realise every single dead body is frozen in varying stages of having sex? Revolted, embarrassed, appalled or shocked? Possibly even kinky.. But enlightened or educated? I don’t think so.
Body World Exhibitions are first-of-their-kind displays that aim to teach visitors about anatomy, physiology and health through the viewing of actual, donated human specimens. These specimens include whole bodies, single organs and the charmingly named ‘body slices’. The current exhibition "Cycle of life" has caused uproar among German politicians because it includes just two cadavers engaged in intercourse. How will they deal with the proposed show, which will contain two hundred such examples, I wonder?
At least Body Worlds means well, right? "It’s not my intention to show certain sexual poses. My goal is to show the anatomy and the function", Said Angelina Whalley, creative director of Body Worlds Exhibitions. She adds that the show may open next year. Whalley’s husband, Gunther Von Hagens, was the man who made the display of dead bodies possible, actually. In 1977, he invented a method of preservation in which water is entirely removed from the body, which is then preserved with silicon or epoxy resin. This process is called 'plastination'.
Some people see plastination as a preferable option to burial or cremation. I can definitely see why you would prefer to be dried out, turned into a piece of plastic, skinned, sliced, gutted, dissected and eventually displayed, possibly in any number of lewd and disturbing ways. Whalley and Von Hagen have their names on the donation list that started in 1977, apparently not bothered by what part of the exhibition they’ll feature in. They have chosen not to leave instructions on exactly how they are to be displayed, seeing this as a form of vanity. Pity if Whalley dies first and is put on display in full view of her husband, being permanently satisfied by another man.
However sick this sounds to you or I, there must be a market for this, because over 28 million people have viewed Body Worlds exhibitions worldwide. That is an amazing amount of people, you begin to wonder how many went for educational purposes. I’d say the majority visited out of morbid, twisted curiosity and a minority were probably necrophiliacs.
