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 "Photo: Olga Deshchenko/Collegian")
New York hardly ever gets any sleep: tourism keeps it up all night by continuously bringing people from around the world to the city's streets. Some are attracted to the vibrant lights of Times Square, a real party for the senses, while others tend to enjoy more educational and cultural gems courtesy of the several art, natural history and science museums. However, five years ago, New Yorkers and tourists of the Big Apple gladly welcomed a refreshing alternative to fossil halls and postmodern artwork exhibitions when an atypical institution joined the ranks of the city's cultural harbors: a museum with a sexy twist.
The Museum of Sex is housed on three stories of a building on Fifth Avenue and is usually the cause of sudden silence in cell phone conversations of pedestrians who pass it by. Perhaps it is the thick letters of the word "sex" in the front or the sign that politely asks the museum's visitors not to "touch, lick, stroke or mount the exhibits." From time to time, a bunch of daring and intrigued souls step through the "X" marked doors and explore the exhibits that are served with a dose of giggles and blushing.
According to the museum's Web site, museumofsex.com, its mission is "to preserve and present the history, evolution and cultural significance of human sexuality." The three current exhibits highlight the taboo topics of sex, explore the development of sex in film and emphasize the significance of the museum's permanent collection.
"Kink: Geography of the Erotic Imagination" occupies the first floor of the museum, an exhibit that explores a wide array of sex fetishes. Upon the entrance, a sign gives attendees the freedom to "touch and smell the objects in this exhibition." Female latex masks, pony-play, plushies and medical play are just some of the kinks that are presented in the huge fluorescent-pink painted room. Each fetish includes a written description regarding its nature, a visual or audio component and a model or a photograph.
It did not take long for the attendees to asses the parenting skills of a mother who brought her teenage daughter to the museum: she received either looks of shock or approval. She quickly moved on to the second exhibit; however, if she hoped for something more historical and less sexual, she was in for a big disappointment.
"Action: Sex and the Moving Image" is an exhibit that traces the history of sex in film, including oral sex, transsexuality, homosexuality, taboo and censorship. Panels with written explanations are mounted next to movie screens that play the corresponding sex scenes taken from American films. The dimly-lit room begins with the presentations of "stags" or "smoker" films that emerged in the early 20th century and were considered illegal by most state standards due to explicit sexual content. The exhibit explores the development of sex in film throughout the decades and concludes in the present. The use of cell phones is not allowed within the museum to preserve the audile aspect of the experience.
Last week an elderly man, who was unaware of the rule, answered his cell phone and interrupted the mix of moaning and chatter produced by the films and the attendees by speaking in German. A security guard politely asked him to end his conversation and soon people returned to viewing, reading or quietly chatting.
"The film exhibit and how sex is portrayed in the media was my favorite one," said museum visitor Jill Guskin. "In today's world, sex is given so much hype; it is something so shocking and so natural at the same time. The exhibit was particularly successful in pointing that out."
The third floor's "Spotlight on the Permanent Collection" comes closest to resembling the setting of a traditional museum. With the exception of the gigantic sign, "world's first Internet controlled sex machine" and the streaming of a pornographic orgy movie from the 1970s; the objects on display are behind glass. This exhibit presents a sampling of about 10,000 items that are permanent relics of the museum. Everything from condom tins to intricate corsets are available for viewing pleasure. The exhibit presents a variety of books and plays sexual education videos from the 1950s and 1960s. Sex in American art and technology is also featured with provocative art work that can only feel at home in the Museum of Sex.
A set of illustrations taken from the U.S. Patent Office applications submitted between 1862 and 1984, presents computerized graphics of sex inventions from that time period. Some things include: a vacuo-thermic-body-treatment appliance, a device that measures erection girth and length, a sexmachine with male and female attachments and a headboard with attached stirrups, designed to "therapeutically assist with intercourse by easing strain on the top partner by transferring exertion to the legs."
It is no surprise that most museum visitors walk away from the illustrations speechless, either pondering about the practicality of the devices or are simply unable to grasp the ideas behind the inventions. Whatever their thoughts, the attendees are reassured that this is not the kind of museum parents can take their children to on a Sunday afternoon.
"I think it's important to have the Museum of Sex to stir people away from the idea that sexuality is something 'wrong' and 'immoral,'" said Guskin.
The Museum of Sex is located on Fifth Avenue and 23 Street in New York City and is open seven days a week. The price of a ticket with valid student ID is $13.50.
A postcard sold in the museum's gift shop eloquently sums up the necessity of the Museum of Sex's existence: "Because you don't think about Picasso seven times an hour."
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