Studio International

Published 04/03/2003

The Museum of Sex recently opened in New York City. Unlike the wow TV series Sex in the City, which is strangely, obliquely conservative (well, with a small 'c'), this museum intends to show how even sex in America transforms its meaning and purpose (not part of the war aims in Texas). Like a massive version of a porn shop, the building façade that confronts the passer-by as he or she rounds the corner on East 27th Street, is curiously composed of a frontage of frosted green glass. The Fifth Avenue address belies a certain perceived sleaziness not dispelled by underdressed females at the pay points. The museum aims to reveal all sexual antics and vices galore. There is also a curious sideshow, a cabinet where revolting medical pornography is set out together with cautionary exhibits of the effects of tertiary syphilis.