We heard some very sad news this week that the Sex Museum in Paris is closing due to lack of support. Opened in 1997, when a spot like this that championed as well as displayed a wide variety of objets d’art sexuelle closes, we feel the reverberations. Part of the Erotic Museum Consortium, as is The Erotic Museum of Barcelona & The Erotic Museum in Amsterdam-and we here at the Erotic Heritage Museum-when we lose a brother in the fight to keep places of frank healthy discussions and displays of sex alive, we come to fear the conservative/religious/Puritan hate-mongers are licking their lips and ringing their hands.
Hiding behind Victorian-influenced petticoats, wrapped in raincoats, snickered about in late-night talk show host’s double entendre and damned by firebrand preachers who we always learn so much dirt about in the end, the fact is that sex is what we are all about. Forget the simple fact that we pretty much can’t continue the species without it, sex motivates us, sells movie tickets…feels good! And for something so very important to us, it seems equally important that we keep exploring and pretty much keep healthy and informed about the past, present and future of that which makes us who we are.
This is what erotic/sex museums are all about. Studying, displaying, creating safe spaces for people to explore and discuss that which is so very important to us all. Yes, patrons come to as much learn as to be titillated, to confirm suspicions, find a like-minded community (or at least a display revealing a fetish we might have been all too worried we possess) peruse a library, or purchase a painting. But in the end an adult consideration of that which does indeed concern all adults should not be ignored simply because some people are slightly uncomfortable or someone’s religion teaches them shame about their body and its functions.
If you got it (and you do), want to learn more about it, like to question, tease and see it exposed, we urge you to support sex museums, erotic galleries, an adult toy store book soiree, a sex dungeon supported diner ‘munch.’ You never know when one might be closing.
