Dear Museum of Sex,
I recently visited your museum with a friend of mine and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. The various interesting and vastly different exhibits really caught our attention as each one revealed new perspectives on embracing sexuality and how people portrayed doing so. After visiting the museum, I realized how educational it was in terms of sexuality: how it’s evolved over the years and different ways in which it can be embraced as well as the different lenses from which its viewed. The museum includes various floors that focus on specific aspects of sexuality such as The Sex Lives of Animals exhibit which shows how homosexuality is seen in all species of animals demonstrating that it is a natural and acceptable aspect of life, the NSFW: Female Gaze in which powerful feminine narratives are used to “reclaim and break out of women’s historical roles as muse and object” to reflect male perspective. These are just two of the few exhibits that provide insight into the taboo subject of sex and its various subtopics.
What stood out to me as I left the museum was they made sure my friend and I were 18 or older to get in. Although I understand the initial idea that anyone younger must be “protected” from a concept that society has decided is “too much” for anyone who isn’t 18 to see, I feel that the museum could actually be very beneficial to certain people under 18. Adolescence is one of the most confusing and difficult times for a human since they are just starting to explore their changing bodies and emerging sexualities. Schools nowadays don’t do the best jobs at educating students and even if they did, there are many groups of students that are left out of the health class conversation since curriculums are so cisgender and straight focused. Museum curator and now consultant Sarah Forbes acknowledged this in an interview with 6sqft where she said the following, “We are so inundated with sexual information and misinformation through popular culture. And really, there is a lack of real sexual education out there either from our young schooling days or even in college. With our exhibitions, we want them to appeal to a wide segment of the population. We are an 18+ institution, so this could mean someone who is not exposed to the subject matter at all or someone who has written a dissertation on the topic”. My question to her and the museum staff is, if you can see that sexual misinformation is so uncommon, why cut-off such an important and unique learning experience off from the teens that need it the most?
The Museum of Sex could be a valuable resource for adolescents in terms of educating them on sexuality and possibly giving them insight of their own sexuality. Teens who don’t have the resources or can’t utilize certain resources due to the risk of being in danger would benefit immensely from the exhibits. An LGBTQ+ teen who isn’t sure of sexuality, a girl who feels that society is placing men at the center of her sexuality, etc. By opening your doors to adolescents who can learn and grow from your museum, you could be helping to cultivate future generations that are more comfortable, positive, safe, and overall understanding of sexuality.
Sincerely,
Sergio Flores
