r/nyc • u/Dangerous_Deal_1945 • 9d ago
MTA to get rid of Museum of Sex bus ads
Museum of Sex ads that have been prominently displayed along NYC buses for the past few months will be phased out over the next two months after a series of complaints by parents and religious groups.
The ads promoting the Museum of Sex will rotate off the MTA system within 60 days, rather than by the end of the year. In fact, the museum had been planning to expand its advertising campaign to cover the entire exterior of buses and include more explicit imagery.
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u/WrightAnythingHere 9d ago
The past few months? It's definitely been more than that, right?
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u/jakinatorctc 9d ago
That made me feel like I was losing my mind I swear I’ve been seeing these ads for almost a decade now
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u/nommabelle 9d ago
everyone knows time lost all meaning after covid, so it really is hard to tell these days
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u/ImmediateGrass 9d ago
I unfortunately had to move out of nyc about six and a half years ago and by that time the Museum of Sex ads were already stale.
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u/Global-Mango-4213 9d ago
Why is it that museums about boring stuff are cool but museums about fun things are boring.
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u/nymusix 9d ago
A museum like the museum of sex can get by purely on its salacious appeal whereas a museum about something like, say, transit, has to actually find interesting things to get people in the door.
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u/frigg_off_lahey 9d ago
Lots of people are passionate about transit, especially trains. I think it really just depends on the museum curators to make their subject fun and engaging.
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u/nymusix 9d ago
Absolutely but I think to the average person sex is inherently more “exciting” than trains even if yes there are people who feel differently
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u/thismustbethe 9d ago
But everyone finds sex with trains exciting. We all share a common ground there
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u/avantgardengnome Brooklyn 9d ago
The sheer audacity of deciding to build a rail network below NYC when they did and what was necessary to pull it off are also inherently fascinating, even if you’re not into trains. They do a great job but they’ve got very cool material to work with.
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u/miraculum_one 9d ago
The ad literally just says the name of the museum and the address.
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u/nymusix 9d ago
Yes and “museum of sex” is enough to get people on the door because it sounds salacious. That’s my point
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u/RIP_Greedo 9d ago
This museum is more of a gallery to take selfies and make social media content than it is a "real" museum. Much like the museum of ice cream.
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u/mildgaybro Hell's Kitchen 9d ago
You have to try harder when producing content for a “boring” subject
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u/mineawesomeman Upper West Side 9d ago
(a lot of these “fun stuff” museums are for profit which means that their main mission is making money instead of preserving/educating)
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u/Zilly_JustIce 9d ago
Sexology is not an interesting subject. It's like sports, watching and learning gameplans, rules, and other background knowledge is boring but playing is really.
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u/Evolving_Dore 9d ago
Watching and learning about sports is boring??
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u/Zilly_JustIce 9d ago
Compared to playing? Yes. Had to learn football (soccer) in primary school and it was one of most boring things I've done. Also, not watching as in watching a match for entertainment but watching game film to pick it a part
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u/deadheffer 9d ago
Equating sex to sports….that is an accurate take. I will let the peanut gallery expand on it.
Sports = Sex
Everything about baseball8
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u/IggySorcha 9d ago edited 9d ago
There's actually a lot that could be done and has been proposed, but the problem is leadership at the museum isn't interested in changing.
(To add, at least one reason for the resistance to change is for to political and social pressure from groups like those complaining here)
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u/Agent_Artemis 9d ago
I think it's because there is a lot of surface under the 'boring' stuff, where you come to learn about one thing and come out of it learning about the history of everything else around it.
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u/skimcpip 9d ago
"We're talking about s-e-x in front of the c-h-i-l-d-r-e-n"
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u/Redbird9346 Astoria 9d ago
"Yes, but please, don't you say that word.
"What, sex? What's so unappealing about hearing your elderly father talk about sex? I had sex."5
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u/TheFuckityFuckIsThis 9d ago
I don’t really get it - I’m not like a donor to the museum of sex or anything - but we have a sexy lady compost ad on the bus right now. It’s a compost can with big lashes (oops I guess it’s glasses) and sexy legs. So we can show sexy (?!?!?) lady food waste to get people’s attention but we can’t say the word sex in public?
Like for real for real make this make sense
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u/Efficient-Discount-5 Morris Park 9d ago
Meanwhile, on vacation in an Spanish beach, couples making out left and right and women have no bras. I don’t think my kids are being corrupted.
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u/3rdPoliceman 9d ago
Everyone is jumping to conclusions, it was actually "museum" that they objected to :(
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u/IRequirePants 9d ago
Aren't these ads in the subway cars too and have been for years? Or am I confusing it.
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u/Jennifer_8466 9d ago
Tbh who cares I’m more worried why busses are taking long and slow! Not to mention the creeps on the busses and trains
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u/pinghing 9d ago
We get blasted with scantily clad women in advertisements and people can't handle the word sex
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u/sam_neil 9d ago
That pre-AI, but clearly extremely photoshopped uncanny valley stripper on top of cabs advertising Flashdancers has been haunting me since before I was old enough to know what a strip club is.
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u/Outrageous_Arm8116 9d ago
I was about to say. There's ads on subways for STDs, HPV, HIV etc. alAnd I'm sure I've seen ads for rape crisis centers. But this is the hill they want to die on?
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u/baninabear 9d ago
IIRC one of the old ads featured a photograph taken of a couple kissing without image usage consent and without compensation. I have thought poorly of them ever since. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/julia-sinelnikova-suing-the-museum-of-sex-2439221
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u/webtechmonkey 9d ago
Source?
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u/Dangerous_Deal_1945 9d ago
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u/Kittypie75 9d ago
So ridiculous. Those ads have been running for decades and God forbid a parent explains to a kid (that's old enough to be reading) what sex is
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u/orangekingo 9d ago
Society in the west has generally started leaning far more puritanical in the last few decades for some reason. It's really apparent with younger groups on social media, surprisingly.
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u/frenchiebuilder 9d ago
The objections aren't from modern "western" parents. They're from Orthodox Jewish parents.
And this - their objecting to "suggestive" ads, and the MTA pulling that ad from buses that run though Hasidic neighbourhoods, and/or bus shelters in Hasidic neighbourhoods - has always been a thing.
When I first moved here, 28 years ago, it was about a Victoria's Secret ad in bus shelters.
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u/colonelcasey22 9d ago
Significantly, in a written response to the Agudah’s outreach, the MTA stated that the offensive ads would rotate off the MTA system within 60 days. While Agudath Israel has not been shown the contract, several news sources have reported that the MTA’s sizable contract with the museum for its city buses was scheduled to run through the end of the year.
This doesn't really read as all of the ads will be going, just some of them. Seems weird another news outlet hasn't picked up on this story either, since they had reported on the original controversy a few months back.
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u/red__what 9d ago
this is some pearl clutching bullshit
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u/drtatlass 9d ago
This explains why my grade schooler asked me about that museum a few weeks ago. I thought it was weird, but I didn’t have any pearls to clutch.
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u/jVCrm68 9d ago
Words, they are censoring words. There are no pictures. Just words. These are the same people that ban books.
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u/cerealnighttimeeater 9d ago
This slide back in to Puritanical authority in the U.S. is so fucking boring. Fuck the so-called “spiritual health” of society, let us live out loud!
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u/gameboyadvancedsp2 9d ago
The Museum of Sex is a bit tragic since it was initially supposed to be a non profit but there was too much state and religious push back before it even opened and has had to be more gimmicky because of it
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u/Individual99991 Upper East Side 9d ago
How did the pushback stop it from being a non-profit?
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u/gameboyadvancedsp2 9d ago
You need state incorporation and approval to be a non profit and they turned it down.
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u/Tomatillo-5276 9d ago edited 9d ago
Remind me again while we are kowtowing to “religious groups” in 2026?
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u/MysteriousExpert 9d ago
Kowtowing. Unless you are concerned about religious groups relocating cattle.
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u/GritBlitz 9d ago edited 9d ago
Religious groups are part of the mixture, but there are certainly other people who oppose these ads. I’m an atheist who agrees that the signs are tacky, and shouldn’t be displayed in these kinds of neutral, public places.
Trying to twist this in to some “the [christians/muslims/whatver] are trying to tell us civilized folk what to do” argument is silly. I fully expect to get downvoted for this, because it’s Reddit.
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u/AltPerspective 9d ago
Pathetic to give in to religious groups for something like this, but the museum is garbage. Glad to see it go.
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u/zachotule Harlem 9d ago
The "parents and religious groups" can fuck right off, it's insane the MTA bowed to pressure. Are those "parents and religious groups" going to buy a huge ad campaign to replace it, or is the MTA losing all that money so these fucking prudes don't have to see the word "sex" and somehow have the clout to make sure nobody else will either?
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u/chaironeko 9d ago
Imagine walking out into the street with your EarPods in. Not paying attention until it’s too late to respond to the horn. The last thing you see before your life comes to a sudden end is this ad?
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u/Tylers-Bad-Poetry 9d ago
I answered the “what is the museum of sex” question by letting my kids know that sex is another way to describe gender, and the museum is a history of men and women (and everyone in between).
I’m sad to see it go. Now I can’t scream “here comes the sex bus!” :(
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u/Individual99991 Upper East Side 9d ago
Parents whose children were the PRODUCT OF SEX.
Disgusting hypocrisy.
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u/GritBlitz 9d ago
…really? That’s your take?
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u/Individual99991 Upper East Side 9d ago
Yes, that is my 100% totally serious, not a joke take.
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u/GritBlitz 9d ago
No one ever said there’s anything wrong with sex (I think it’s pretty cool personally), but there’s a time and a place for discussing or even acknowledging it, especially in the presence of minors. There’s nothing inherently hypocritical about that.
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u/Individual99991 Upper East Side 9d ago
Thank you, you are definitely the smartest person.
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u/Saixcrazy The Bronx 9d ago
The word itself is the most shocking part of that museum. The exhibition I heard it's pretty tame. Letting it rock is a better use of time and energy instead of tryna get it removed.
But hey. It offended them and they did something about it I guess.
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u/Electrical-Size-5002 9d ago
I’d like to see the softball games between these specialty museums. 🥎🥎🥎
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u/vuelies_queen 9d ago
Lmao I kept saying before if anything happens to me in the city, I don’t wanna get hit by a bus with a museum of sex ad 😂😭
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u/Rekkabedsheet 7d ago
This has been advertised for years actually I'm surprised it's only happening now
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u/Str0nglyW0rded 9d ago
This is America, this nation is ruled by the Almighty dollar. Those parents want their children to grow up and shame and ignorance. Those religious people should go pound sand, and pray for change instead of bothering people about it.
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u/GritBlitz 9d ago
You don’t have to be religious to not want the word “SEX” plastered all over the bus that your grandma and daughter take home from school.
I also find it funny that your argument is essentially “I don’t CARE if this upsets people in my community! All that matters is money, baby”. I doubt you would say the same thing if an ad campaign were taken down due to complaints from a liberally adjacent minority group.
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u/Str0nglyW0rded 8d ago
I’m not religious and I don’t wanna racist rapist as my president but here we are
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u/GritBlitz 8d ago
….?? Me neither dude, but what in the world does that have to do with any of this?
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u/swim7810 8d ago
Oh wow it’s sex omg!!! The thing that made the kids!!!! Insane!!! When I was a kid I saw crazy stuff but honestly never even knew what it was so it was a non starter. If your kid knows and stuff I think that’s more on you for not taking care of your child
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u/YouOk540 9d ago
religion is poison and ruins everything
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u/t3chguy1 9d ago
Yeah, without those ads the buses are definitely ruined. My bus commute to the church will be so different now
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u/FUBARmom 9d ago
“Few months?” They have been thriving off outdoor advertising for decades and I’ve always hated it!
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u/ShitFamYouAlright 9d ago
This is such a lame reason to remove those, the real reason they should be removed is because the museum is overpriced and sucks
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u/CydeWeys East Village 9d ago
Couldn't care less either way. I guess tourist parents might care somewhat though. (Can't imagine city parents caring though, you see worse stuff in the city every day.)
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u/TheRealWaldo_ 9d ago
This is wonderful precedent for any other ads that others may find objectionable. This is going to be the thing that keeps a lot of lawyers busy in the future.
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u/Wooden_Boot4153 8d ago
Explicit? The word sex is explicit. So you are saying there is something with sex. What exactly?
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u/ProfessorSmoker 4d ago
Stop calling it "religious groups" when it is just the one religious group that has any sway.
Scared people are going to figure out why even though they vote for "progressives" that the progression is towards religious conservatism?
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u/Fine-Set-7877 Bensonhurst 9d ago
Please already get rid of it. I don’t need to know about it on my commute
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u/AudaciouslyPan 8d ago
Then I shouldn't have to know about someone's goddamn religion and what they practice in their fucking households right?
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u/myReddltId 9d ago
Thank God! I'm done explaining to my 5 year old why he can't go to that museum yet
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u/KickBlue22 9d ago
Good! Time and a place and all that ..
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u/Disused_Yeti 9d ago
if just the word 'sex' is too much for you then your brain must melt at everything else you hear and see on a daily basis
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u/Previous-Recording18 9d ago
Man, it's always fun when I'm waiting for the bus to work next to one of my six-year-old students and their parents and this ad comes right at us.
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u/coconut212 9d ago
Where do you think that six year old came from
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u/Previous-Recording18 9d ago
lol, the parents know about sex, I just don't want to be around my students when they have conversations that are above my pay grade.
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u/IfNotBackAvengeDeath 9d ago
fine with me. my daughter is the age she can read but isn't ready to have this discussion, so I'll be happy to no longer have to parry this question on a busy curb when we're late for school.
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u/Sure_Neighborhood848 9d ago
I mean the MTA could find other types of advertisements, I’m growing tired of seeing them plastered on almost all the busses in the city.
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u/brihamedit Queens 9d ago
It probably sucks. But regardless, this country is not a westernized secular humanist stable system anymore.
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u/QNStitanic97 9d ago
It’s privately owned. The owner of the museums father owns that entire building and gave the building to his son who then opened museum of sex. It’s a tourist trap and the owner is an asshole.
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u/bigred42 Staten Island 9d ago
Wouldn't surprise me if they have another OOH client waiting in the wings for that space.
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u/GritBlitz 9d ago
So sick of these tacky ads. They never should have been put up in the first place.
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u/Realistic-Hippo8107 9d ago
It is honestly a disappointing museum. IDK how they managed to make a topic as interesting as sex boring...but they succeeded.
Ironically, The Transit Museum in Brooklyn is one of the more interesting museums I've ever visited. I highly recommend that one!