Proposal for a Sex Museum

I think a sex museum, if done well, would be a huge success. A few exist: in New York, Japan, Amsterdam, and Berlin but they're only fair to good. But even if they were excellent, there's certainly room for an outstanding one in a city like San Francisco.

I was part of the team that was planning such a museum in San Francisco but it died because academics dominated the programming committee and insisted on static, usually abstruse-historical exhibits. Only an academic could make sex sterile.

So I thought I'd share my vision for the museum here in hopes someone realizes its potential and makes it happen. If I weren't so busy, I'd do it. I am open to investing in it.

Today, government places so many restrictions and regulations on private projects, I believe it's best if government could be convinced to make it a public-private partnership, ideally with the government giving a $1 a year lease on perhaps 20,000 square feet of property located in the tourist area of a major tourist city such as San Francisco.

Of course, the government could refuse but I'd make the case that two of its major priorities--increasing tourism taxes and increasing acceptance of alternative sexual orientations--would be addressed by their partnering with the museum. I believe, but am not sure, there's precedence for such a partnership. There are a number of lavish yet poorly attended minority-focused museums and other attractions in the tourist area of San Francisco that would seem impossible to have been opened and run for years without significant government/taxpayer expenditure.

The San Francisco Sex Museum would consist of approximately 20 "experiences," each of which would be one to three minutes long. Many would be interactive. Examples:

• A digital poll of sexual practices in which you vote on the spot: What you do? What you've done? What you'd like to do? What you approve and disapprove of?
• How much do you know about your partner? (a Newlywed-Game-type quiz for sexual partners.)
• What makes someone sexy?  An interactive quiz and experience.
• An IMAX video experience: A crosscultural history of sexual laws and practices from antiquity to today, Asia to Africa to America.

Of course, the museum store would sell all sorts of erotica: books, videos, sex toys, etc.

The museum cafe would include supposed aphrodisiacs and all menu items would have erotic titles.

What do you think?