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Message Board > Our Archives > Cruisemaster Road Trip: Summer 2001   Entry Eleven: A Dose of Sexual History

 
 
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Old 29th July 2001, 02:53 AM
Keith's Avatar
Former Cruisemaster
(Deceased 2012)
 
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Talking Entry Eleven: A Dose of Sexual History

Copenhagen played a crucial role in the sexual revolution that swept the world in the late 20th century. To document this there is the Museum Erotica (Kobmagergade 24) located just off the busy pedestrian street, Stroget. It is the second such museum I’ve visited, the first being in Hamburg that managed to make the subject of sex boring. This museum, while not perfect, is at least amusing and interesting. If you’re in Copenhagen you should be sure to visit.

The museum documents the evolving legal role of sexual expression in Danish society while also paying attention to how pornography developed around the world. It starts with ancient erotic art from India and concludes with a ‘Shock’ room where you get to watch a woman being fucked by a horse in modern day porn movies.

The Danes, as is pointed out in the exhibit, were once as anti-sex as the rest of the world with all sorts of ridiculous laws and punishments once having been either enforced or considered. The museum may be most instructive by simply revealing the way one society evolved to a different attitude about sex – instructive to the rest of us who may sometimes have difficulty seeing the possibilities of change.

Prostitution is given special attention to show the way Danes once dealt with sexuality. At one point the local authorities considered a punishment for prostitutes that would have forced a woman to pull a cart around town so as to humiliate her into leaving her profession. You learn where the brothels were (and how did they flourish!) and how the local police set about harassing them in a campaign to put them out of business. You see examples of citizen complaints about lewd behavior dating back to the eighteenth century. The last brothels were closed in the early twentieth century, though a version of them operated to the benefit of American GI’s in post-World War II Copenhagen.

Another important theme of the exhibit is the issue of censorship and the way Danish society evolved in attitudes about freedom of expression and how free speech came to include sex. In a two-part process in 1968 and 1969, Denmark became the first nation on earth to legalize pornography and this is the big claim to fame for the Danes (much to the dismay of many a Dane, I’m sure). At the time it was widely reported and eventually helped in getting changes in laws around the world, as important a development in the sexual revolution as the invention of the pill. It is noted in the exhibit that perhaps the real motive of the Danes was not to make sexual pamphlets more widely available, but to remove the taboo and hence much of the public fascination and interest.

The exhibit has a section devoted to famous persons who were known for their sexual expression. You’ll learn what a sick man Hans Christian Anderson was (the most famous Dane in the world) – unable to cope with his apparent desires for men. Read about famous painter Toulouse-Lautrec whose dick was apparently so large that he gained a ‘huge’ reputation for his sexual prowess among the women of Paris. A special room is devoted to Marilyn Monroe including a dress from a Christie’s auction.

One room shows hard-core gay porn. You also see a dildo that presumes to be the actual size of porn actor Jeff Stryker. Acknowledgement is made of Tom of Finland and Robert Mapplethorpe, but the gay component of the exhibit is very lacking. One would never fully comprehend from this exhibit the role gay men have played in pushing the sexual envelope.

What are missing, besides enough gay content, are the two most important recent developments in the history of pornography: the Internet and the VCR. In fact, it appears the exhibit hasn’t been seriously updated in about 10 years, which would explain why these two recent developments are missed. While the exhibit gives attention to how crucial a role the invention of photography was in the development of pornography (including some very hot early porn photography from France, Italy, and elsewhere), the role of the VCR in taking porn into our homes is missed. The Internet is barely mentioned.

Museum Erotica is a must-see, even with limitations. Copenhagen is not a sexual paradise, but it is a sophisticated culture that has evolved along a different path about sexual expression. In a limited way, this museum helps explain how this happened to an outsider.
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