OTTAWA – Canada’s federal science museum has removed an animated video showing youth masturbating from an upcoming sex exhibit following a public outcry, a museum spokesman said.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum will open the “Sex: A Tell-all Exhibition” as planned despite strong criticism from Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore, who has called it an insult to taxpayers.
But the facility has decided to remove the video and raise to 16 from 12 years the minimum age for unaccompanied children to tour the exhibit designed to answer questions youth have about sexuality.
“The museum has received a higher than expected amount of expressions of concerns from the public,” spokesman Yves St-Onge said.
“We take the feedback of our community seriously, and so we have carefully considered their suggestions, and taken appropriate action that we believe will best serve our audiences.”
The show includes life-sized, full-frontal nude photos of males and females at various stages of life, and Canada’s Sun newspapers have described a “climax room” showing animations of aroused genitals with a voice of a man describing an orgasm.
Moore spokesman James Maunder said it was clear the exhibit fell outside the museum’s mandate of fostering scientific and technological literacy.
“This content cannot be defended, and is insulting to taxpayers,” he said.
Responding to criticism, St-Onge said: “The exhibition is designed to present information in a scientific, frank and accessible manner, an approach that the Canada Science and Technology Museum supports.”
Oh Noes!!!! No masturbation time for the 12 year olds because we all know 12 year olds do not masturbate, never, ever, ever.
Last time I checked a little solo action never resulted in a pregnancy.
Lack of morality goes before a fall. Look at past civilizations. The western world is on its way down & out if people don’t wise up.
So you are against teaching children that masturbation is 100% perfectly normal and they should not be ashamed of their bodies?
SEX IS UNNATURAL!!!!
Sex is natural, porn isn’t and this is porn.
This isn’t about teaching about masturbation- it’s about who should be teaching it. I don’t think this belongs in the public eye and if I was a Canadian taxpayer I’d be angry.
I guess we’re all doomed because we don’t believe in the same things you do. What gives you the power to dictate exactly what is “moral” and what is not?
I guess I missed the part where april dictates exactly what is moral…
Where did I miss that part?
Sad that it was ever included in the first place.
Care to explain why?
At least in Canada they only cut out part of the exhibit, had it been here in the United States the so call great moral majority would have made such an issue that the whole thing would have been cut.
Actually, did you ever read about the Maplethorp exhibits in the past?
While certainly controversial, and I certainly did not approve, they seemed to enjoy the extra press and continued on for some time.
Too bad all these Moral Majority quips aren’t really particulary accurate on these pages.
Well you know how it is the last thing that many people want to have talked about to kids in any form of sex education is anything that actually has anything to do with sex. Somehow I think by sixteen it might be a little late for information on mastuation, and somehow I doubt the exhibit has anything on showing sexual techniques which might be what sixteen years would be more interested in. It is only in rather modern times that people were shocked by the idea that teenagers might have been doing sex. Ironcially we now have kids hitting puberty as young a nine years old so even twelve might be a bit late to talk about mastubation. Well don’t worry they can always ask their friends, like the rest of us did at their age. [Grin] Now the information may not be correct, but they will get told something by their friends. I mean what kid is going to admit to not knowing anything about sex.