A notable part of Peruvian culture that stood out to me as we ventured to the Larco Museum was the pride and flow of life often depicted through the erotic sculptures and the exhibition of genitals. Beyond that, as we walked through the museum, our tour guide emphasized how the human body and this specific exhibit are beloved by visitors. There was no shame then or now in discussing sexuality and its role in not only documenting art but also being an integral part of procreation. Despite this open speech and welcoming discussion, I noted that our tour guide mentioned that the erotic exhibition was permanent, but before the 1970s, women were not allowed to enter the museum.
This brings up an interesting point about how this maturity has developed over time in displaying many pieces of erotic art in a vast space with various sizes of sculptures. Anyone can now freely walk in and look at the exhibit, which contains pieces of work of various sizes and meanings spread out in an open space with multiple rooms. The eroticism displayed in those sculptures also countered the cycle of life, as our tour guide spoke about a sculpture of a mother nursing her baby while partaking in a sexual act. When our tour guide inquired what we thought of the sculpture, many assumed it was a way of birth control.
However, it was, in fact, a demonstration of the flow of life through fluids: bodily fluid from the male, which then became the mother’s breast milk that nourished the child. In the United States, an exhibit like this would certainly have an age restriction imposed and experience a lot of pushback for being unsophisticated, vulgar, and perhaps even grotesque. Furthermore, this would spark controversy regarding the traditional and modern art perspectives in the United States, which typically lean towards favoring creativity, but seldom from a sexual perspective.
Interestingly enough, through our conversations, as we explored the city, we found that women in Peru are objectified as a whole rather than through particular body parts, as often seen with viral news stories regarding dress codes in various states in the United States. There is a contradiction and almost a dichotomy between the open discussions of sexuality and the maturity of sex in art in Peru, coupled with the harsh reality of the common objectification, catcalling, and poor speech directed toward women. Of course, the United States also has plenty of those behaviors present; however, there isn’t a harsh parallel in which sexuality is encouraged in conversation or art (in fact, it has been taboo for ages and is recently being normalized by educational organizations). What adds another layer of why this is so interesting is the fact that Peru and many other Latin countries practice Catholicism, which is quite conservative in its ideology and practice. Does this manifest itself because of machismo and the distinction between art (which can be imaginary) and reality?
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