Inaugural exhibition
dal 22/9/2002 al 3/7/2003
Segnalato da
22/9/2002
Inaugural exhibition
Museum of Sex, New York
How New York City Transformed Sex in America investigates the sexual subcultures of the city's past and present, and explores the means by which they have influenced the development of modern attitudes about sex and sexuality. The inaugural exhibition of the Museum includes never-before exhibited selections from public and private collections, including materials once confiscated and classified as obscene.
Museum of Sex will open its doors to the general public on
September 28, 2002.
NYC Sex: How New York City Transformed Sex in America investigates
the sexual subcultures of the city's past and present, and explores the
means by which they have influenced the development of modern
attitudes about sex and sexuality.
Delving into the histories of prostitution, burlesque, birth control,
obscenity, fetish and more, the inaugural exhibition of the Museum of
Sex, NYC Sex, includes never-before exhibited selections from public
and private collections, including materials once confiscated and
classified as obscene. These primary sources of social history - letters,
photographs, films and newspapers - reveal how it has been possible in
New York, more than in any other American city, to form communities
around sex and sexuality.
Robert Mapplethorpe dies of AIDS, and a retrospective including
his photographs of Manhattan's gay leather scene is cancelled,
setting in motion the culture wars of the 1990s.
Sylvia "Ray" Rivera, a transvestite street hustler, is among the
young people who resist a typical police raid on a gay dive in
Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969, thus launching a watershed
event that came to be known by the bar's name: Stonewall.
A former GI from the Bronx goes to Denmark in 1950 and returns
to New York two years later as a woman named Christine
Jorgensen, garnering national headlines as the first celebrity
transSexual.
After nearly three lukewarm decades in vaudeville, Brooklyn-born
Mae West hits Broadway in 1926 with a persona derived from the
styles of Greenwich Village gay men, Harlem dancers and Bowery
prostitutes. Within six years, she is packing her bags for
Hollywood.
Openly defying a federal law that regards such acts as obscene,
Margaret Sanger goes to jail in 1917 for operating a clinic that
dispensed information about birth control. She is well on her way
to making birth control legal in America.
New York City was the locale for many of the most critical events
in the history of Sex and Sexuality in America. And in the process
of these events, many New Yorkers were thrust into the headlines
-- and into history -- either by chance or design.
But New York's role in transforming American attitudes about Sex
was just as much the result of everyday rebellions in the quieter
lives of people anonymous to history, the neighbors in the
apartment next door who lived under the subterfuge of lesbian
"sisters" and gay "bachelors."
NYC Sex: How New York City Transformed Sex in America
investigates the Sexual subcultures of the city's past and present,
and explores the means by which they have influenced the
development of modern attitudes about Sex and Sexuality.
Delving into the histories of prostitution, burlesque, birth control,
obscenity, fetish and more, the inaugural exhibition of The
Museum of Sex, NYC Sex includes never-before exhibited
selections from public and private collections, including materials
once confiscated and classified as obscene. These primary
sources of social history -- letters, photographs, films and
newspapers -- reveal how it has been possible in New York, more
than in any other American city, to form communities around Sex
and Sexuality.
Gay men and lesbians were able to create supportive networks;
heteroSexuals found access to birth control (even when it was
illegal to do so) and non-marital relations or divorce; romance
across ethnic, religious or racial boundaries was more likely to
occur; people with specialized Sexual interests were able to find
like-minded practitioners. This layering of Sexual subcultures also
made it possible to experiment outside one's primary Sexual
identity.
Of course, there have been risks in pursuing such lives. New York
has also been a bully pulpit for those opposed to ideas and
practices deemed to be immoral or in violation of decency. The
city's reputation for tolerance vied with its occasional crackdowns
on "vice" (the meaning of which changes with each generation) to
create a climate that continuously tested the boundaries of what
was considered permissible, and what was considered
prosecutable.
As the first home of modern mass media, and the birthplace of
American tabloid journalism, New York also has a long history of
exposing Sexual subcultures to the mainstream. Sensational
murders, police raids and lurid Sex scandals often brought public
attention to Sexual practices that have shocked or appalled New
Yorkers, yet conversely, they have also led to a greater acceptance
of diverse Sexuality. Today, while New Yorkers are still titillated by
scandals, they are also aware that "only in New York" is such
diversity possible.
Historians Advisory Board
Adults (18+): $17.00
Group Visits are also available
All ticket prices include exhibition audioguide by AntennaAudio
A portion of Museum ticket sales will benefit
Visitor Policies:
All visitors must be 18 or older.
Museum reserves the right to check ID.
Photography is not permitted under any circumstances.
Hours:
Sunday through Tuesday: 10:00am - 6.30pm
Thursday: 10:00am - 6.30pm
Friday, Saturday: 10:00am - 9:00pm
Closed Wednesday
Museum of Sex
233 Fifth Avenue (@ 27th Street) New York, NY 10016