The Sex Show

Throughout human history, societies have proscribed acceptable manners and patterns of living which individuals are encouraged to follow. These include customs like greeting practices, dietary restrictions, or one's ceremonial entrance into adulthood to only name a few. Such practices highlight a universal truth of the human condition, the desire to fit in or belong to a group of like minded individuals that preach, practice, and breech the same social standards.

With the objects in this space, this student curated exhibit examines how visual and material culture illuminates the customs, beliefs, and desires surrounding sex, sexuality, and gender. It attempts to draw from as wide a variety of source cultures and historical periods as the Fleming's collection allows, showing a varied vignette into sex and gender practices around the world. 

Succinctly, we look to highlight how anthropological and art historical objects cultivate the desire to belong within certain social groups or how these items enable someone to express the opposite opinion, searching for peers within a much smaller subsection of the population that run against the predominate values system. Most of the objects fall into the former category, acting as didactic tools that reinforce standard constructions of sex and gender within a society. The latter show how individuals can and will rebel against such social standards, opting for something that the world at large may reject as improper, dangerous, or even disgusting. 

These marginalized members of society still exist today and the fight for acceptance and open mindedness may never end. Fortunately though, global forms of media and the Internet now allow for these individuals to connect and communicate with other people who identify their gender and sexual preferences in non-standard ways. In turn, these individuals' innate desire to fit in and identify with a group can be fulfilled with relative ease.

As you navigate this space, attempt to draw comparisons or conclusions about contemporary society from these historical examples. How does our society present and cultivate it's standards relating to gender and sex? Do you have any desires of your own that may not be considered socially acceptable by your society or those represented by the objects? What objects best highlight each side of the social dichotomy between teaching standard sexuality and emphasizing that which falls outside the advertised social norms?