A Museum for Women's History Was Changed at the Last Minute to Focus on Jack the Ripper

Remember when you were a kid and you'd ask for something you really wanted for your birthday, only to open your presents and find that you got something totally lame, like socks or an ugly t-shirt, instead? That's the kind of grave disappointment I imagine women felt this week when the covers came off a new museum in East London. The museum had been billed as a women's history museum, celebrating the accomplishments of British women. Instead, it had been inexplicably turned into a museum about Jack the Ripper—who, to jog your memory, was made famous for killing women, mutilating their bodies, and then removing their uteruses.

The original application for the space proposed a museum to "recognize and celebrate the women of the East End who have shaped history, telling the story of how they have been instrumental in changing society." Everyone thought it was a perfectly nice idea, and the local council approved the application. There was no mention of Jack the Ripper in that application.

— JackTheRipper Museum (@RipperMuseum)July 23, 2015

According to the London Evening Standard, Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe—the guy who created this monstrosity—wasn't trying to pull a fast one. "We did plan to do a museum about social history of women but as the project developed we decided a more interesting angle was from the perspective of the victims of Jack the Ripper." Which says a lot about women's accomplishments. :(

While locals feel understandably "hoodwinked," the local council told The Guardian that it "has no control in planning terms of the nature of the museum," which is an awfully polite way of saying "we're shit out of luck."

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