The “Museum of Sex” is pretty close to the Baruch vertical campus, as my friends and I got there by walking from Baruch. It is located on 233 5th ave. Going to “MoSex” was an odd experience. My friends and I went blindly not knowing how it was or worked except that we had to be 18 years of age. We all went because we were overworked from studying and just wanted to take a break from college. It wasn’t too far and it was surely a fun experience mostly because of my friends.
Before the entrance there’s a sex shop with both serious and funny apparatuses. Walking around there seemed to be “sexperts” who would walk about and inform us on what specific things did and would add random fun facts. Overall, the sex shop in itself was pretty entertaining.
The price of entry isn’t too expensive as it was 20 dollars (it’s even more for the breast bouncy house). (You also have to show ID). They also allow the option of holding your extra baggage for you and give you a ticket.
The museum was completely different than I thought it would be. I thought it would be much more informational and museum-esque but it was more leaning to aesthetics and pornography with a few exceptions. Starting at the apparent main exhibition on Nobuyoshi Araki, a Japanese pornographic photographer who seem to be particularly interested in bondage. This room was extremely dark and had a very weird oaky smell to it. It felt rather ominous and influenced a sense of silence even among my friends. It was pretty silent as well. It was highlighted quite often that Araki was a figure that used his paintings to in some way be rebellious towards the “system”. He wanted to stand different, using taboo materials to shoot his pornography. Another thing that not only caught my attention but as well as my friends is that he tend to have sex with many of the models. This was interesting as this didn’t seem to be that controversial even when there’s an obvious power play going on. His works can vary to extremely beautiful to very rough around the edges. His shooting was extremely fascinating as some made you feel confused whether to feel dirty or cleansed. His photography seemingly was a mix of those two feelings.
Another exhibit that comes to mind is “The Sex Life of Animals”. This was an extremely funny and informative exhibit. This one was very much what I thought I signed myself up for. This exhibit was extremely loud, as it had speakers all over the place playing animals making sex noises. I learned quite a bit from this exhibit. Ducks have corkscrew penises and also are extremely demented animals. Dolphins use more than one type of penetrative places. Some animals have more than one male member. This is in my opinion their most successful exhibit as it was both informative and entertaining.
The other exhibits were really forgettable which was quite underwhelming. Some pieces were surely eye catching though. Pieces which got all of us to argue who’s guess on what was the fruit presented as a phallic object was right were fun. At times even the people who worked at the museum would pitch in ideas as well. I loved how some rooms had a great mix of colors. These rooms were very bright and smelled great, with the scent of flowers. Some pieces on the other hand could be pretty boring. After going up some stairs to a room that smelled like knock-off scented candles, we arrived to some kind of book collection taking a large chunk of the entire room where I believe could have had something entirely different. This piece was not only boring but very inefficient considering that I, someone who stands 6 ft tall couldn’t even see the book in the middle all that well.
All in all, this museum is an alright experience. I personally feel like going alone would be very boring so definitely bring friends as it would lighten up the mood. There weren’t many exhibits open when I went so it was kind of underwhelming in some ways. The fact that it closed at ten p.m. was extremely odd as well. What kind of sex museum closes at ten? I would say that going into this museum is not the best thing you could be doing in New York City but its surely not the absolute worst either. The museum itself was very mediocre, but the experience was definitely memorable.
(By Huffington Post)
(By Wikimedia Commons)
I honestly have been trying to go this museum for a while, but never had the time to go. It sounds very interesting and seems like not only you learned some things new, but also had fun. Since it’s an adult museum, I believe it would be more fun because there would be no little kids saying “ewww” as most would probably do. The first picture that you obtained from the Huffington post made me laugh while looking at it. I hope to see that same image when I visit the museum soon.
I have forever been seeing pictures of this museum in the trains I take and have always wanted to visit the place. Reading this post has fueled my decision and interest in visiting the place. I am already planning a visit with my friends and I hope we enjoy the visit. I am especially interested in Nobuyoshu Araki’s work, he sounds like a very distinct, weird, but a fun person to learn about. And who just doesn’t want to be in a room full of animal sex sounds, like? I am excited to experience the feelings that I might get from visiting the place, awkward or not and look forward to it.
I’ve been meaning to go to this museum for a while but never had the chance to. I’m very sad to hear your experience wasn’t all that great because the museum overall sounds like it would be pretty interesting. Reading your commentary on Nobuyoshu Araki’s work was very interesting and has reinforced my desires to take a trip to the museum sometime.
Edgar, This sounds like a very mixed review of your visit to the Museum of Sex. Reading your report, it’s not always clear to me what it is you actually saw at the museum. Perhaps the descriptions could have been clearer. You describe the museum as being “mediocre,” but it’s not entirely apparent what you are basing your evaluation on. There are some mechanical errors that detract from the overall effectiveness of the piece; perhaps you might have caught them in another round of edits? In any case, thanks for this interesting report!
JS