Scientific Nerdiness & Sex After Death

I am a science nerd who's not very good at science.

Let me clarify.

I love science. I love understanding how things work. I love getting dirty & having my hands deep in discovery. I love putting together all the pieces of seemingly disparate things and coming to a deeper cognizance and appreciation of how this whole crazy world is stitched together by dreams and fascia.

But I’m also very much a visual kinesthetic learner. If I can’t see it, feel it, do it, it doesn’t stick. When I half-seriously told my girlfriend recently that I wished I could go back & re-do all my science classes from K-12, she helped me clarify & said what I really wanted was to go to lab & do science experiments, dissections, physics model-building, etc. It doesn’t matter how many times I read it or how many flash cards I use, it won’t stick unless I can feel it. When I had the opportunity to ‘meet’ a cadaver earlier this year, it was incredibly intense—the body that had once been a person, the flesh that had been preserved so stringently, so long ago, that it now was just meat on bones. No face, all cut up. I held a heart in my hand. I felt the sinews of connective tissue. I held a slice of brain. It was amazing. This, plus whatever spark of magic that animates us, is all we are.

I bring all this up because I’ve been thinking a lot recently about BodyWorlds (the traveling exhibit of plastinated human bodies and body parts that are arranged to showcase anatomy, physiology, musculature, organ systems, and so on. I was lucky enough to see it in England many years ago, and it took my breath away (remember, me= nerd). Display after display not only of the general structures and sub-structures, but (parts of) human bodies in action, doing everyday things, and what that meant on many internal levels was amazing to me—finally, concrete, relatable evidence of how we are pieced together biologically. And not only that, but in a way the absence of skin made me feel a deep resonance and connectedness with the bodies—this could be any of us, this could be me. And then I launched into all sorts of philosophical ponderings which I will not bore you with here.

Some were definitely more intriguing than others, and some certainly served as frightening reminder of the consequences of our actions—hello, cirrhotic liver! In any case, I only wanted more.

The exhibit has always been controversial, but now they’re stepping it up to the next level by planning an exhibit where some of the preserved cadavers are ‘copulating’. I think this sounds fascinating, and oh! the anatomical detail that could be demonstrated in a way that brought us back to the science of how bodies work when we do this thing called sex, rather than getting lost in the external fluff of how most of us engage in it. For this sex nerd, it sounds like an amazing opportunity to have a fuller understanding of the aspects of sex I personally don’t think about very much—but damn if the processes our bodies go through in getting us where we want to go aren’t amazing & something to approach with at least a touch of wonder & reverence.

Unsurprisingly, the Swiss were the only ones to give a full green light on whatever von Hagens wanted to show. Everywhere else was…well, there wasn’t exactly a welcome party with balloons.

I find this all fascinating, especially the cultural conversations about what a body is, what it means, and who gets to speak for or regulate what is proper to do with those bodies when those voicing out are not related to the deceased; what is appropriate to do with a body donated to such an exhibit after death—what activities are deemed ‘socially acceptable’ enough to be allowed; what is ‘decent’ versus ‘indecent’ and where are those lines drawn?

I understand that many people have intense gut reactions (no pun intended) to death & what is done with bodies after death, but I do not understand how demonstrating daily activities in a way that illuminates the magic and sheer humanity of what and who we all are can be so problematic.

But then again, I’m a science nerd who needs to see and relate information to my world in order for it to make sense. What about you?