An interactive sculpture at Love Land in South Korea. Photo From Wikipedia.
News of a sex museums, called Love Land, in South Korea, attracted my attention. It is an outdoor museum of sculptures on an island which attracts honeymooners.
I have visited sex museums in the USA and China. Now I hear there's one in Korea and that would certainly liven up a trip and compensate for the challenges in learning a language.
I remember my first trip to the sex museum in China. Your first thought may be: I should, I shouldn't. You may be driven by a desire for excitement but what you get is enlightenment. Entertainment and enlightenment.
Museum of sex, New York, USA. Photo from Wikipedia.
SEX MUSEUMS
What is not allowed in the streets might be displayed in museums. In New York, in the USA, I went to a museum exhibition about the sex life of animals. The museum had a large shop, regular displays on everything from the old days and what was banned in the early movies to modern times. Plus the special exhibition on animals.
How the animals and birds varied. You might have memories of the monogamous creatures which pair for life. Very cosy.
Contrast these happy couples with the notorious praying mantis which is more of a preying mantis and the black widow spiders which enjoy sex and then consume their partners.
On a more humorous note, you might have wondered how a porcupine manages it. There's lots to learn.
I had been told at school in the UK about birds which devotedly mated for life and shared looking after offspring. I was shocked to learn how varied is the sex life of animals, insects, fish and birds.
I now have a kind of mind map of animals and non-humans and their sex life. Afterwards I visited Florida where I was told that that encourage pink flamingos to breed, mirrors are installed because flamingoes seeing others mating are encouraged to do the same!
UK FARMS & ANIMALS' SEX LIVES
In the UK I visited a livestock farm which had cows and pigs. the owner told me that the male cows had to be separated from their mother. Otherwise they would breed with the mother. The offspring of such close relations were liable to be born with mental problems - aggressive - injuring others, crazy - running in circles and injuring themselves, physical problems.
That made me wonder.
SEX MUSEUMS & EXHIBITIONS
What is not allowed in the streets might be displayed in museums. Museums of all kinds run exhibitions. It allows them to have a two tier price range, the basic affordable price and a higher price for those willing to pay extra. What's more, they get repeat business. Value for money for those who have previously visited, returning with family and friends and overseas visitors. Publicity from local newspapers and websites worldwide.
In New York, in the USA, I went to a museum exhibition about the sex life of animals.
MONOGAMY
I had been told at school in the UK about birds which devotedly mated for life and shared looking after offspring.
I was shocked to learn how varied is the sex life of animals, insects, fish and birds. At first I was surprised how many videos there were of different creatures mating. Firstly there are the accidental pictures. You are taking a photo of your family and later find something more interesting to the wider world, animals mating in the background.
Secondly, zoos and safari parks have cameras for security. More importatnly, when trying to breed endangered species, they try to find out how the creatures mate. Is it necessary for them to have a dark place to mate in private. they found out the opposite applied to flamingoes, which mate more often in spaces and groups. It appears, from videos, that flamingoes think an orgy is more fun. Much better than one lone, lame flamingo, the forlorn, who you don't fancy making hopeful advances.
USA - Florida
I now have a kind of mind map of animals and non-humans and their sex life. In the centre are the information panels and exhibits from museums. The lines stretch out to other places and information.
After my visit to the New York exhibition, now aware that zoos and safari park photograph animals for scientific purposes, I visited a Florida Flamingo Park. There I was told that that encourage pink flamingos to breed, mirrors are installed around a large open space. The reason is that flamingoes seeing others mating are encouraged to do the same!
It is the same principle as the teenage party in humans. Other couples are going at. The nervous ones feel encouraged to join in. Everybody is doing it.
UK FARMS
In the UK I visited a livestock farm which had cows and pigs. The lady owner had cows which were related in two fields separated by a fence. Why. One was a young male and the other an older female, the mother. She told me that the male cows had to be separated from their mother after a year or so, as soon as they reached maturity. Otherwise they would breed with the mother. That was the first surprise.
The second, equally shocking and memorable for me, was that the offspring of such close relations were liable to be born with mental problems - aggressive - injuring others, crazy - running in circles and injuring themselves. They also had physical problems.
UK CITY LIFE FOR HUMANS
That made me wonder. In the UK we have problems with immigrant families who marry first cousins and have a higher incidence of physical handicaps. (Probably mental problems, too.) At the farm we talked about this. I said that we had only recently discovered this problem of handicaps from children born to first cousin marriages. In the time of the Pharaohs siblings and half siblings married. To keep the money in the family, to stop them fighting each other to be rules. They did not know what we know now.
The farm owner shook her head. She said, "It's not new knowledge. Farming communities have known this for years, for centuries."
I suppose it is us city dwellers who are ignorant about how animals reproduce, and the consequences of breeding from closely related animals.
COUSIN MARRIAGES IN HUMANS
When I was engaged to marry a second cousin, a statistician, we looked carefully at our chances of having a handicapped child. The dangers are much greater if you marry a first cousin than a second cousin. Also, if you have many children, not just one.
But, from the point of view of a doctor or legislator, even a small percentage means a large amount of unhappiness and a large drain on the economy.
Since a farmer is running a business, the economics are a prime concern (apart from caring for the animals welfare). The farmer needs to invest in a separate field and ' or building a fence. If this is not done, or done too late, this cost is offset against and balanced against the cost of finding that an animal is handicapped.
If you think you will start a farm and you are not from a farming family, you might not take other farmers' warnings seriously. You might think: "Books are full of warnings. So are old farmers. It was their bad luck. ... My animal is still young. I am busy with my day job in the city which supports this countryside farming hobby, until it becomes a profitable business, My fence builder cannot come because they are busy with other work, so I will separate the animals next week. Oops - the mother is pregnant. How did that happen? Hope for the best, wait and see."
What losses are caused by the handicapped animal? Damaging other animals, or property. The sick animal has consumed food and workers' time. It cannot be used for meat, nor work, nor breeding, nor as a pet. It can endanger workers and farm owners. If staff are injured, it costs money in time lost off work and compensation for injuries and lost income.
So, not just amusement, enlightenment. Learn about one aspect of life, and the bigger picture becomes clearer.
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As you can see, my learning experience from the sex museums and animal farms, whilst it seems to me the obvious and main lesson learned, could be quite different from somebody else's. They might come back talking about the chocolate covered condoms they were hoping to buy in the shop.
Go with a friend or partner. You will be entertained by your experiences at the museum, and finding out that your friends of family were intrigued and impressed by something totally different.
Useful websites
KOREA
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p074lqmf/the-korean-island-in-love-with-sex
Korean Sex Museum:
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Attraction_Review-g297892-d2203355-Reviews-Museum_of_Sex_and_Health-Seogwipo_Jeju_Island.html
http://www.sexmuseum.or.kr/xe/?mid=main
THE NETHERLANDS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexmuseum_Amsterdam
http://www.sexmuseumamsterdam.nl/
Sex Museum, New York
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Attraction_Review-g60763-d525259-Reviews-Museum_of_Sex-New_York_City_New_York.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Sex
WORLDWIDE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sex_museums
Author
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker. See my post on sex taboos. Please bookmark and save your favourite posts and pass on links to your family and friends and colleagues.
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