Getting eyeful at N.Y.C.’s Museum of Sex

While Manhattan is home to dozens of cultural museums dedicated to high-brow art, it has only one cultural institution where you can fondle a love doll, watch panda porn and learn about the sexual habits of the honey bee. 

The Museum of Sex, which opened in 2002, claims to be the most “stimulating museum in New York.” You can find a handful of sex museums scattered across Europe and Asia, but this one favours information rather than just titillation — specifically, it aims to “preserve and present the history, evolution and cultural significance of human sexuality.”

 Since the Museum of Sex, a.k.a MoSex, is set to spice up its permanent collection, I figured this was a good time to check it out.

The first — and certainly most interesting — of its three galleries contains an exhibit called The Sex Lives of Animals. Strolling amidst photo displays and anatomically correct statues of creatures mid-coitus, I learn that plenty of animals mate for reasons other than procreation. Apparently, they engage in all sorts of acts for pleasure — just two of the more memorable pursuits I learned about involved the West Indian manatee and the Gray whale, both of which indulge in some remarkable group activities.

The exibit also illustrates how prevalent homosexuality is in nature. It’s a form of social bonding, affection and courtship that has been documented in over 500 species, including lions, penguins and primates.

I walked past a wall of tapir, ostrich and killer whale genitalia to the next exhibit, called Action: Sex and the Moving Image. This selection of media clips looks at the history of sex on film, from metaphorical movies dating back to the 1930s through  burlesque flicks and modern-day pornography. 

Surprisingly, the most shocking things I saw were Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton’s explicit sex tapes. With videos like these, it’s no wonder that visitors have to be at least 18 years old to enter the museum.

I dragged myself from the den of cinematic sin to the final gallery, a room filled with a mishmash of paraphernalia: squeezable latex love dolls, a nine-foot S&M suspension cage,  anime videos, pinup posters and antique vibrators. 

I leave the Museum of Sex with the following conclusions:  one, human sexuality is complicated; two, our concepts of sex, norms and taboos are constantly changing and three, West Indian manatees are having more sex than I am.

MoSex
For information on admission fees, hours and discounted tickets visit www.museumofsex.com.

– Julia Dimon is co-host of Word Travels, airing on OLN, and editor of www.thetraveljunkie.ca.