Red Cross: Museum of Kindness

[EmbarrassingHadrosaurus]

I intend to visit this as soon as an opportunity permits.

Locked away in the archives of the Red Cross for decades, the rare artefacts bear witness to the kindness and resilience of women in wartime and have never been seen by the public. Now they will be exhibited by the Red Cross when the charity opens a museum at its headquarters in London on Wednesday.

Mehzebin Adam, curator of the “Museum of Kindness” said: “Women played a really significant role in our history. Not just as nurses, but as leaders who influenced the beginning of the Red Cross, like Florence Nightingale, and as artists who were documenting war and their experiences.”

The quilt on display is one of three handmade in Changi prison by women and children from Britain and its allies, who were imprisoned when the Japanese army invaded Singapore during the second world war.

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/28/florence-nightingales-lamp-and-coded-wartime-quilt-star-in-new-red-cross-museum

[NumberTheory]

That's quite brilliant.

I particularly like the quilts.

[EmbarrassingHadrosaurus]

Aren't the quilts amazing? I'm astonished that they had these items in their archives for so long and have done nothing with them.

[SpindlesWinterWhorl]

Just saw this thread - the quilt featured in the Guardian article and exhibition is amazing.

[EmbarrassingHadrosaurus]

@SpindlesWinterWhorl

Just saw this thread - the quilt featured in the Guardian article and exhibition is amazing.

Looking at that quilt makes me so proud of humanity although I deplore the circumstances that influenced its creation.

[WomanStillNotAFeeling]

I can see why they’d use the word ‘resilience’ but I don’t understand the connection with ‘kindness’

[JellySlice]

Yes, exactly what I wondered.

Kindness - because it's womanly? Sounds self-sacrificing.

Would far rather it have been called Museum of Resilience.

[ASushiBitMyFinger]

Urrg, I cannot bear the way 'kindness' is marketed these days. the title remind me of a t-shirt slogan for girls, never for boys.

[SnoopsCaliforniaRoll]

Exactly - kindness has nothing to do with the horrors that these women had to endure during the Japanese occupation etc. It was pure survival and resilience.

[NumberTheory]

The "kindness" thing is annoying - and really, really annoying that when they do something on women that's the direction they go. And it really seems to be a stretch as a theme if they're promoting Nightingale in it as she was a transformational leader, and a mold breaking statistician and HCP, but by most accounts "kindness" was not her forte. However, with the quilt I think there is kindness in women under the extreme environment of a prisoner of war camp, using the leverage they have to get resources to create a gift for others.

And though I'm annoyed at the way kindness is foisted on women and used to try and control us I'm also a bit concerned at the push back against it sometimes. Kindness is a strength that we should appreciate and highlight. We should be wowed by the kindness that so many people, especially women, show. It does make our lives better - just as bravery can, or self-sacrifice. The issue with "kindness" is when it's something we're supposed to be in order for others to get what they want at our expense and in the sexist way it's so often something expected of women without particularly being appreciated but not really expected of men.

[Ereshkigalangcleg]

And though I'm annoyed at the way kindness is foisted on women and used to try and control us I'm also a bit concerned at the push back against it sometimes. Kindness is a strength that we should appreciate and highlight. We should be wowed by the kindness that so many people, especially women, show. It does make our lives better - just as bravery can, or self-sacrifice. The issue with "kindness" is when it's something we're supposed to be in order for others to get what they want at our expense and in the sexist way it's so often something expected of women without particularly being appreciated but not really expected of men.

I think this is the problem I have with it. And the harsh pushback flows from this sexist presumption that women are put on the earth to put themselves last and that's the most important role we fulfil. Not about "kindness" as a general quality in humans of both sexes, however it's expressed.

[NeverDropYourMoonCup]

I'd prefer a museum of Getting Shit Done and Being Decent Human Beings Despite Male Opposition and Oppression personally.



Because that's what they did.

[CrispAndFrosty]

Museum of Kindness sounds a bit twee to me. I might have found it delightful once upon a time, before I realised how much #bekind is used to mean "shut up and stop having thoughts". Haven't looked at the link but am already put off by the linking of women's work to "kindness".

So yeah, what everyone else said.

[NumberTheory]

@NeverDropYourMoonCup

I'd prefer a museum of Getting Shit Done and Being Decent Human Beings Despite Male Opposition and Oppression personally.

Because that's what they did.

That would be awesome, Never!

[MaMaLa321]

Sorry that this is a diversion, but one of my favourite museums is the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb. Has anyone else been? It's both funny and moving.