The whole museum is like the workings of a sick mind
Public relations to the rescue.
The Jack the Ripper museum in east London has been ridiculed for attempting to organise a counter-protest against a planned demonstration by the same activist group that last weekend targeted a breakfast cereal cafe.
That’s a terrible opening paragraph. Look – an activist group is planning a demonstration against the horrible Jack the Ripper “museum” in east London, the one that told planners it would be a museum about women’s history. (Yeah, their history of getting murdered, haw haw haw.) The “museum” tried to organize a counter-protest. People are, quite rightly, laughing at the “museum” for doing such a pathetic thing. (And for calling itself a museum.)
The anarchist group Class War has called for protesters to shut down the privately run attraction on Sunday. Flyers circulating on Twitter accuse the museum of “the glorification of sexual violence”.
It has already been the scene of protests and was branded a “sick joke” by residents of Whitechapel when it opened. Its planning application had promised it would be “the only dedicated resource in the East End to women’s history”.
But hahaha it turned out that was a sick joke, aka a big brazen lie.
The owners of the museum issued their call for community action through a public relations firm, Joshua Walker PR. Describing Class War as an “extremist political group”, it said that on Saturday “thugs smashed the windows, frightened staff and customers and thrown [sic] paint outside the Cereal Killers cafe.”
After trying to mobilise supporters with the Twitter hashtag#PROTECTELONDON, the statement concludes: “It’s time for locals and local business to band together and show that we won’t accept it! Join the Jack the Ripper Museum and other local businesses and locals to counter-protest Class War.”
Whoops, a slip-up there, they called themselves a local business. Real museums don’t usually call themselves businesses.
Jane Nicholl, of Class War, ridiculed the call for a counter-demonstration. “If that’s what they want it really is going to be class war,” she said. “It’s going to be posh businesspeople of the area up against working class warriors.”
Nicholl said she and several other activists had been invited to tour the museum, and all had been disgusted by what they saw. “We all left in absolute shock. It’s just so disturbing. I’m pretty tough, but I just couldn’t get the images out of my head. It’s just very unpleasant.
“The whole museum is like the workings of a sick mind,” she said. “If any women who had been sexually assaulted walked past that place and saw what was on offer … it’s just horrible.”
No, it’s educational! Like any other museum!
Yet more cis privilege.
I’m getting very tired of people using the word “extremist” to imply a threat of terrorism. “Extremist political group” is not an insult or in itself a thing to be frightened of.
On the evidence of the Cereal Killer Cafe events, I would say the Class War group could be a thing to be frightened of. And the museum owners didn’t mention terrorism.
@David: I didn’t say otherwise.
Well, I haven’t seen it. From the description, it seems to me neither “educational”, nor “glorifying sexual violence” – it looks rather like an attempt to make money on the human attraction to the morbid and the horrible. I would guess it’s like a horror movie, whose function is not so much to glorify something, as to shock and scare the audience…alright, not too much, just so that they tell their friends that it was worth buying the ticket.
See also here.
I think I am with Ariel on this one. It may not be in the best taste but I don’t think it is any more glorifying of sexual violence than the the gazillion Jack the Ripper movies out there. I can’t see that it causes anyone any danger or inconvenience and so, on the general principle of not banning things even when you don’t agree with them (because that is better for all of us), Class War should shove it.
I’m a bit puzzled by the ‘cis privelage’ comments at the end of the last two posts. Neither news items appear to involve cis / trans issues in the slightest that I can see.
So you’ve never seen people use the word “cis” when talking about things that have nothing to do with “cis / trans issues”? I sure as hell have.
Is the message that cis-women, being oppressed by men, therefore lack cis privilege?
I thought the whole intersectionality concept meant that privilege can exist in many axes, and one can be privileged in one way while being oppressed in another way. Compare for instance privileges and lack-thereof of a white woman vs a black man.
Don’t know why not; private museums, like the ones listed in Ariel’s link, are businesses.
If it hadn’t been for the dishonest bait-and-switch they pulled, I’d have been one of this museum’s customers (had I been in London.) Serial killers interest me, and Jack the Ripper history is fascinating.
I’m one of those people who are interested in reading about violent crime; I also love horror films/literature. Plenty of us, by the way, are feminists. We’re not driven by a need to glorify sexual violence, or violence in general. I suspect it has a lot to do with trying to master one’s fears (in safety.)
(@Ariel–I’ve been to the Museum of Death!)
Oh, that’s bollocks. There’s no controversy about that that I know of (“sexual violence” does not mean he must have had sex with them.) And the key word in the accusation is “glorifying,” not “sexual.”
I take that back about possibly ever being their customer. A Ripper Museum could be interesting in theory (though actually everything connected with the case is available in books and online forever; unless you really want to see an original copy of a hoax letter to the newspaper, I’m not sure what they can offer really.) But the people running this are clearly assholes.