ABSTRACT
Like those of all great museums, the MoMA's ritual transmits a complex ideological signal. This chapter concerns only a portion of that signal-the portion that addresses sexual identity. It argues that the collection's recurrent images of sexualized female bodies actively masculinize the museum as a social environment. But unlike women, who are seen primarily as sexually accessible bodies, men are portrayed as physically and mentally active beings who creatively shape their world and ponder its meanings. The chapter discusses the works by de Kooning and Heinecken that, along with similar works by many other modern artists, benefit from and reinforce the status won by the Demoiselles. De Kooning's hot mama has a very different purpose and cultural status from a Penthouse "pet". By way of exploring how that pornographic element works in the museum context, the chapter looks at how it works outside the museum.
