But in a tiny auditorium in an odd, COVID-quiet museum in the desert capital of Magical Thinking, the contours and challenges of this vision will be described anew.Īs I step into the theater, I spot one of the speakers testing out his PowerPoint presentation. Versions of this dream have flowed from the minds of artists, philosophers, and engineers for decades, if not centuries. The lecture will offer a view of a future in which technology has woven itself into our sex lives more profoundly and seamlessly than ever, a mostly taboo-free realm of carnal diversity where nearly anything goes, except, perhaps, intimacy with other people. I head up a ramp to a small theater, where I find the two people I’ve come to meet setting up for their talk on a topic that, in many ways, is as enigmatic as our surroundings.
It’s a confusing museum, I guess, in a confusing time. The fact that another large swastika sans disclaimer adorns the far side of the wall momentarily jolts me, but I do appreciate how the exit sign bulges almost comically from the upper portion of the painted surface, just where the red field meets the white circle and black tip of the Hakenkreuz, as though even the most potent emblem of European horror is still somehow subservient to Clark County building codes. The most startling part of this display is the large swastika on the wall, next to a museum director’s statement claiming that the “use of offensive symbolysm is intended to,” among other things, “challenge” symbols used for subjugation, “sexual shaming,” and “reproductive influence,” whether from “corporate entities, religions, or governments.” The gesture strikes me as well-meaning, if slightly cockeyed, and I find myself rooting for the weird museum willing to take this kind of rhetorical risk. Nearby, another exhibit tackles “Forbidden Sex in the Third Reich.” Despite the lurid title, it soberly examines the Nazi persecution of those who defied the regime’s racist and homophobic sex codes, and touches on the disturbing romance between Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. A laser-printed sign reads: this doll can not give consent, do not touch her. Yet another figure, female, nude, lies in a bin at the foot of the bed. Beneath wall text describing Báthory’s ghoulish crimes and her macabre punishment, bloody mannequins in nightshirts, one with its throat hideously cut, sprawl across a counterpane.
SKYPE SEXTING BOTS SERIAL
The museum has some intriguing exhibits, including one on Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed, a sixteenth-century Hungarian noblewoman who gained national fame as an alleged serial killer. Erotic paintings and yarn sculptures are also on display.
SKYPE SEXTING BOTS MOVIE
Against a wall to one side, there is a small shrine to Flynt, the pornographer and First Amendment warrior who was paralyzed by a would-be assassin’s bullet and later portrayed in a movie by Woody Harrelson. The lobby features banners with quotes about freedom attributed to Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt. Just inside, standing sentry, are two life-size Madame Tussauds–style figures of stereotypical twentieth-century flashers, replete with trench coats and veiny organs that jut from their trouser flies. A sign advertises a show called puppetry of the penis, billed as “Australia’s greatest theatrical export” (don’t tell Hugh Jackman). Drive, not far from the freeway, near some escape rooms, a liquor store, a shooting range, and a weed dispensary. The Erotic Heritage Museum sits back from a semi-lonely stretch of Sammy Davis Jr. But I remind myself that shame has no place in the brave new world of “digisexuality.”
The possibility of such a tryst has been the subject of some discussion among those involved with my trip, including my editor and the museum director, which has left me a little squeamish, not to mention embarrassed. Still, a part of me wonders if I can capture the whole story without boinking Emma, the museum’s resident sexbot. I’ve come to the Erotic Heritage Museum to attend a talk on sex, love, and technology. Also a roll in the synthetic hay is not the actual assignment.
I’m not particularly interested in having sex with a robot, but the money is good, and I’ve never been to Las Vegas.