Top Comments: the MoSex edition

A look at an unusual museum, fifteen years after its opening, after the jump ….

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Twice (in 2002 and 2006) a group of friends and myself cased-out a new museum in NYC, in no small part due to friends across the country asking “What’s it like?”

Lo and behold, I was able to track down my notes on an old ListServe from the day. And so when I recently traveled down to NYC for a dinner with my siblings (and had two hours to myself), your faithful correspondent decided to go on another fact-finding mission … the twelve-years-later edition.

Located several blocks due south of the Empire State Building, the Museum of Sex (or MoSex, in common parlance) has undergone a noted building makeover, and its presentation is a bit more modern. Yet other things have not changed, and I’ll try to present a then-and-now portrait of a place that is neither an essential place to visit, nor anything sordid (except for the Falwell/Pence/Dobson gang mentality).

First, here is its background/mission statement:

The Mission of the Museum of Sex is to preserve and present the history, evolution and cultural significance of human sexuality. The Museum produces exhibitions, publications and programs that bring the best of current scholarship on sex and sexuality to the widest possible audiences and is committed to encouraging public enlightenment, discourse and engagement.

Next, some reassurance: (a) There is nobody in a trench coat, (b) many couples are there, plus women singles and groups, (c) there are adults of all ages (plus some foreign accents), and (d) while the exhibits are meant to be educational, sometimes humorous and are not gratuitous: there is some explicit content here-and-there. If you’re uncomfortable: you can easily bypass and see other exhibits.

From my 2002 notes:

The exhibits in its first year were more rudimentary, yet instructive. One was on brothels in the first half of the 20th Century: and since personal testimony was required for a conviction, printed trial books of those prosecuted were on display.

Another exhibit was on burlesque (with Mae West and Gypsy Rose Lee as featured exhibits). It was Mayor LaGuardia who was determined to end burlesque, with the last hall closing in 1942.

The best exhibit was about the public morality zealot Anthony Comstock, who was determined to prevent the spread of birth control (and was deputized by Congress as well). He met-his-match in Margaret Sanger, who eventually defeated him in court over the matter of distributing family planning materials, and a distraught Comstock died shortly thereafter, circa 1915. Yet police harassment of birth control clinics continued on into the 1920’s.

    The face of repression … long gone

And there were other references to the nation’s first transsexual (Christine Jorgensen), to the Stonewall Riots and the effect of BDSM on the outfits of TV stars such as Catwoman to Emma Peel of the BBC television series The Avengers.

The drawbacks? Somewhat cramped aisles, no overall guide that you might have to plan your time, a lack of benches to sit on, and the main exhibit just “stopped” with no summation or perspective sign, just a This-Way-Out  sign … almost as if a funding grant ran out. Finally, the $17 admission fee was high for 2002 — as the museum said it spurned large offers of money from the adult film industry.

From my 2006 notes:

Some of the physical drawbacks had been improved, and the admission price had been lowered to $14.50. It had two major exhibits, plus some minor ones.

One was a look at Japanese sexuality through art (circa 1603-1867), then delving into the role of geishas (not prostitutes, the exhibit duly noted) and observed that prostitution was not outlawed in Japan until 1958.

A humorous exhibit was on “stag films” of the early 20th Century, which were intended only for private audiences. There were police raids sometimes …. but most policemen merely confiscated the films and gave them to … “upstanding” citizens (and instructed to be discreet). Some had subtitles and many directors left-in “mistakes” (say, a cameraman who didn’t quite get out of a scene change) because viewers found them amusing. They faded by the 1960’s, but are now collector’s items.

There were also films purporting to teach women how to walk(!), some patent applications for chastity belts and medical quack devices, and a look at the change in sex manuals: going from religious propaganda, to (dull) clinical analyses to the more accurate and easy-to-read works from Alfred Kinsey’s research.

Now … the 2018 edition:

The current admission is $20.50 ($3 less before 1:00 PM weekdays) and the current offerings can be found at this link.

One featured exhibit are prints and photos by Nobuyoshi Araki (1940 —).

Their permanent collection is large enough that they rotate the exhibits. Currently, they have vintage 1940’s vibrators that had “disguised” plausible deniability stated purposes. And one that caused me to laugh was such a device by …. Hamilton Beach. (I don’t think I’ll look at a milkshake mixer quite the same way again).

Another current exhibit was even reviewed in Forbes… this time, not using a rolled-up copy as a striking implement for our-man-in-Washington:

There is an intriguing conundrum in the Museum of Sex’s viewership…... Therefore, there might be plenty of viewers who find themselves shocked when coming across raw art imagery that puts the sexualities of its creators on display. The upcoming exhibition, NSFW: Female Gaze, will undoubtedly make some feel uncomfortable. Curated by curator and fine art photographer Lissa Rivera and Editor-in-Chief of VICE Creator's Project Marina Garcia-Vasquez, the exhibition provides a portal into the raw and diverse forms of sexualities that are reverberating throughout the work of young women in contemporary art and, in turn, are altering the ways in which female sexuality is presented in the broader culture of fashion, cinema, television, literature, and otherwise. Drawing on photography, video, illustration, craft-based art, and painting, NSFW highlights young female artists that brazenly challenge their audiences by using their own sexualities and desires as creative catalysts.

But most important are the physical changes to the venue the past twelve years:

1)  Their old obscure entrance was on East 27th Street, which you could easily miss. The entrance is now prominently at 233 Fifth Avenue, quite distinctive.

2)  The exhibit space used to be kinda spartan and clinical. Now the exhibit space (and lighting) resembles more of a natural history museum (on multiple floors).

A prior exhibit, but the lighting fits

3)  They have now added a café and bar with evening music.

4)  Plus the adult gift shop just inside the main entrance (which is open to the general public, one need-not pay the museum admission fee) is large, with sales help, is brightly-lit and very female friendly. Historically, adult bookstores/sex shops are dingy places with a bored, unshaven guy reading the Racing Form behind the desk. Not here: and the merchandise goes from mild (feathers, lingerie, lotions, books, comics) to …… ummm …………... plus they sell online, too.

Only complaint now: the lobby has a separate cashier for the store, museum ticketing, the café, plus the museum entrance staircase is off-to-the-side …. very confusing. I had to ask for help from the staff (and you may need to, also).

Overall? Not a must-see place; it took three visits over a sixteen-year period to appreciate all that they have. And $17-$20 is not cheap, plus the exhibits at any given visit may/may not appeal to you. But you’ll learn something, have fun …. and most importantly: the other visitors will look like you, not some 1970’s adult film. 

Let’s close with an apropos tune: written by the Jamaican composer Walter Bishop, it was a featured song of the late jazz singer Dakota Staton, and here performed by Vanessa Rubin.

x xYouTube Video

Now, on to Top Comments:

From Wee Mama:

In today’s Abbreviated Pundit Roundup, this great comment by durrati starts off a great and sardonic thread about what underpins how we treat certain shooters.

From belinda ridgewood:

The front page story about Stormy Daniels' 60 Minutes interview examined the idea of consent in the situation Ms. Daniels described. Cecelia S responded with a comment that perfectly mapped out what frustrates women when any situation of this kind is discussed. 

Highlighted by Gwenned:

In the diary by Calvino Partigiani about the disaster that was averted in Wisconsin — Captain Frogbert has an extended comment about law enforcement shootings.

And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........

In the diary by ericlewis0 about the sudden resignation of Rep. Blake Farenthold— in looking at future employment prospects, bakeneko has a suggestion that just might work.

TOP PHOTOS April 5th, 2018 Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. (NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.)

And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:

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