Take Heart--Museum of Man Is Really MOM in Disguise

The San Diego Police Department is cleansing the macho from its titles and job descriptions.

The City Council is in high dudgeon over reports of fanny-patting and more.

But there stands the 75-year-old Museum of Man in Balboa Park: Large, unreconstructed, that name in bold relief over the door. The question: Is that name misogynist, making female-gender people feel second-class and excluded?

Three board members of the local chapter of the National Organization for Women say yes. At their request, a museum committee is researching the issue.

“ Man is not a term that is inclusive,” said NOW board member Michele Lyn. “It’s symbolic of excluding half of humanity. It gives off a subtle message that women don’t count.”

Ernie Miranda, NOW chapter co-president, says the name is a vestige of the hoary old days when men made the rules and women made dinner.

He wants it changed to Museum of Humankind, Museum of Humanity or Museum of Cultural History.

There’s a mini-trend. The Smithsonian hasn’t changed its Museum of Man, but it has hidden the sign; a museum in San Francisco switched to the Museum of Modern Cultures.

Douglas Sharon, director of San Diego’s Museum of Man, is willing to listen. The majority of his staff wants the name changed to the Museum of Anthropology, which the museum board rejected in 1988.

Sharon stands on language: Liberation politics aside, the term man is still officially defined as including the entire race.

He asks: Would it be presumptuous to change to Museum of Cultural History when only the cultures of North America are included in exhibits? Would that trade sexism for cultural imperialism?

The committee is polling anthropologists and museum directors. The museum board will ponder in the fall.

Meantime, the name Museum of Man stands.

So does its acronym, used by insiders: MOM. Call it half a loaf, linguistically speaking.

Seen One, Seen ‘Em All

More and more.

* A touching scene.

The hugging of Queen Elizabeth II by a woman in a Washington housing project has set off remembrances of Her Majesty’s 1983 trip to San Diego.

One local rock ‘n’ roll radio station remembered that it was now-Deputy Mayor Bob Filner who lightly grazed the royal personage.

Filner is unannoyed at being misidentified for the actual protocol-buster, then-Deputy Mayor Bill Cleator: “We all look alike, I guess.”

* North County bumper sticker: “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive on Highway 78.”

* Talk at City Hall: Attorney Josiah Neeper will find no laws broken in the $100,000 scandal, but will suggest policy changes to ensure that slippery ways are never again used to keep secrets from the City Council.

* Researchers for “60 Minutes” are already making calls to City Hall to ask about the scandal for a possible story . . . and finding officials not eager to talk.

* City Manager Jack McGrory went to Sacramento on Wednesday to testify on the state budget.

He also had lunch with his predecessor, John Lockwood. You can guess the topic.

* A motion made in a closed council session to provide severance pay for ousted Planning Director Robert Spaulding failed to get a second.

Spaulding had hoped to talk council members out of accepting his resignation. Failing that, he wanted four months’ severance (about $35,000).

* Spaulding told the council that his wife knew of his affair with Susan Bray long before it hit the newspapers.

* The Planning Department on Thursday gave all employees copies of the anti-sexual harassment policy developed earlier this year.

The policy carried Spaulding’s signature.

All Things Considered

Money and timing.

* There’s money in bankruptcy. If you doubt it, look at the fancy digs for this weekend’s California Bankruptcy Forum: La Costa Hotel & Spa.

* Sign at the Jack in the Box in La Jolla: “We Do Not Take $100 Bills.” In less-affluent areas of town, the limit is $50.