Posted on 02/14/2005 2:26:57 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
MEXICO CITY — The first clue that this wasn't the usual trade conference was the human sign — a 99-percent naked guy slathered in green paint and the Spanish word for restroom written on his back.
Sexual taboos are taking a beating here this week as the "Sex and Entertainment Expo" is in town, expected to draw 100,000 visitors over a four-day period ending today.
Observers say the massive turnout — which rivals the number of seats at the recent Super Bowl in Florida —speaks to a new thirst for well-lighted, open places where people can discuss sex free of the confines of a conservative society.
"It was a subject we could not even touch at home — I learned from my friends," said Lizbeth Martínez, 23. "People are scared to talk about it."
The show billed as "The World's Biggest Sex Event" appeared to cater to many walks of life, even if the tickets were $14 each — quite a sum in a place where the minimum wage is about 65 cents an hour.
There were couples and singles. They wore everything from loafers and hiking boots to spiked heels and sandals.
The human bathroom sign wore what best could be described as cross between a fig leaf and a thong, and sunglasses. An elderly man in a wheelchair rolled by him. Another was perched on crutches. And there was a younger guy dressed like an angel and wearing roller skates.
Each had a reason for participating.
"I am trying to get out of the routine," said Irma Guzman, 38, a fashionably dressed housewife, who sorted through lingerie with two friends.
Beside displays of wild clothing and adult films were pamphlets on sexual health and contraception and books on yoga and erotic massage.
There also were adult film stars from the United States and South America on hand to sign autographs and pose for photos.
While hundreds of spectators were stirred into a frenzy by a pair of strippers on a towering, round platform, in another wing, a woman gave an erogenous zones presentation.
Experts contend television and the Internet, as well as broadened attitudes of returning immigrants, have forced Mexico to become more cosmopolitan about sex.
"The problem is the population does not have basic sexual education," said Roberto Bermúdez, a Mexico City sociologist. "It is very limited; there are many taboos."
But events such as the expo, which was here for the first time last year, help people feel more natural about sex, he said.
"They can analyze and not be scared. They can learn about their sexuality."
The key is balancing the sex industry's need to make money and the public's need for education, he said.
Expo organizer Alberto Kibrit said he was surprised last year when the event drew 80,000 visitors and was so crowded there hardly was room to walk.
This year's event has four times the space, said Kibrit, who expected 100,000 visitors.
Magazine vendor Aretha Islas Souza, 32, said it is easier to stay awake working a sex exposition than a telecommunications event, but some visitors can be strange.
"Last year, a guy grabbed my hand, licked it, and said he would be waiting for me outside," she said. "It was disgusting."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- express@cablevision.net.mx
Wonder what the crime index will this week end with the event in town.
I simply cannot relate to people who are so obsessed with their sex life.
"Oh,Mexico!
It sounds so simple I just gotta go".
I wonder of James Taylor went and "left his land and mind behind",as he used to sing.
Probably-----a lib extraodinaire.
Does anyone remember what year it was that sex was discovered? It can't be more than a few years ago. I think the guy who made the discovery got a Nobel Prize or something.
Well, you pretty much just described the entire Homofascist movement.
Everything in their life revolves around their choice of where to put their penis.
A sexpo ping.
Well, sex is one of the strongest driving forces in the human psyche, second only to survival. Odds are, people are going to get wrapped up in it.
I wrote a very brief poem about that very thing not long ago. To wit:
Sex
Sex was discovered in ’Sixty-Three,
A little late for me;
It happened between the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles’ first LP.
That's it!
Here's another one:
Willie Nelson's They All Went to Mexico (1985)
Where's my pal where's my friend all good things must have an end
Sad things and nothing's on and on they go I guess he went to Mexico
They all went to Mexico buenas dias got to go
Tengo que obedecer mi corazon they all went to Mexico
"The human bathroom sign wore what best could be described as cross between a fig leaf and a thong, and sunglasses. An elderly man in a wheelchair rolled by him. Another was perched on crutches. And there was a younger guy dressed like an angel and wearing roller skates."Are you sure this wasn't California?
Right. And if the "discoverers" can find a way to make some money at it, all the better.
After my first post, I did a little search for a quote I remembered from Malcolm Muggeridge:
"When the devil makes his offer (always open incidentally) of the kingdoms of the earth, it is the bordellos which glow so alluringly to most of us, not the banks and the counting-houses and the snow-swept corridors of power . . . Sex is the mysticism of a materialistic society - in the beginning was the Flesh, and the Flesh became Word; with its own mysteries - this is my birth pill; swallow it in remembrance of me! - and its own sacred texts and scriptures - the erotica which fall like black atomic rain on the just and unjust alike, drenching us, stupefying us. To be carnally minded is life! "
Maybe a bit on the curmudgeonly side, but it might a kind of explanation for the modern world's obsession with sex. I'll that sex is a strong human appetite and need, but the modern world has taken it quite a few steps beyond that.
California, Mexico... what's the difference?
"might a kind of explanation" s/b "might be a kind"
"I'll that" s/b "I'll agree that"
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
Gen 1:27-28 NASB
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.