In January of 2015, Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe, a former diversity chief at Google, had plans approved to build a museum in Whitechapel, London that would “retell the story of the East End through the eyes, voices, experiences and actions” of women. Six month later, construction covers have been removed to reveal few minor changes in Palmer-Edgecumbe’s vision. Instead of focusing on women’s history, Palmer-Edgecumbe’s museum is now devoted to the infamous serial killer, Jack the Ripper.
So, buddy, why the change of heart?
“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,” Palmer-Edgecumbe told the London Evening Standard. “It is absolutely not celebrating the crime of Jack the Ripper but looking at why and how the women got in that situation in the first place.”
That’s right. It’s because the history of women—at least the parts of it where we’re not being terrorized by a murderer or having our uteruses cut out—is so totally boring. Play it Palmer-Edgecumbe’s way and not only do we get to ignore the terribly dull suffragette movement—we also get to focus on women getting violently slaughtered while engaging in some very belated victim blaming.