Live sex show at Buenos Aires university sparks scandal
School authorities investigating why ‘post-porn’ exhibition was held in an open public lobby
As night fell in Argentina on Wednesday, at around 7.30pm, a group of naked men and women burst into the lobby at the University of Buenos Aires’ (UAB) School of Social Sciences and began indulging in a live sex performance. And there were no limits to what was going on – everything from group sex to S&M.
Hundreds of students, professors, surprised and curious visitors, and even some outraged spectators began taking photos and videos on their cellphones, later posting them on social networks.
Surprised and curious visitors and even some outraged spectators began taking photos and videos on their cellphones
It was part of an international campaign launched by group of activists who take part in “post porno,” a movement that criticizes traditional pornography through “a feminist and subversive view.” That’s according to journalist and academic researcher Laura Martino, who also took part in the live show, which has shocked many sectors in Argentina.
PostOp, a Spanish branch of post porno, also took part this particular evening. The group made headlines this week when Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau appointed one of its activists, Águeda Bañon, as her communications director.
UBA is far from being a conservative university, but the performance set off a heated debate between the Social Sciences faculty, members from the ruling Kirchnerite government and the far-left Trotsky movement, which governs the student center.
The Trotsky faction had complained that the actors went too far by practicing sex on the tables that were set up in the lobby. Some urinated on top of them, refusing to clean them up afterwards.
Judging by the various posts on the different social networks, people were either disgusted, supportive or took it as humorous fun.
The post-porno show formed part of a regular cycle of cultural events entitled “Wednesdays of Pleasures” that began in 2012 at School of Social Sciences and is organized by researchers, professors and students from faculties of communication, gender and sexuality studies.
But the sex show and where it was set up has sparked a debate across Argentina, and UBA officials said they are investigating the matter.
“The post-porno activity was scheduled, like in the past events, to be held in a closed off area with the participation of cutting-edge actors and to be followed by an academic debate,” explained university officials, who said they would call in the organizers who decided to hold the live sex performances in the lobby instead of the area it was assigned.
But post porno representatives defended their decision to set up the show in the lobby, beneath the political party slogans and flags that hang on its walls.
“The public university is made up of an environment that has no restrictions on freedoms, a plurality of ideologies and a permanent exchange of ideas. It’s a community that is made up of adult people who attend each class, auditorium or public space with the prior knowledge of what will be taking place,” said the School of Social Sciences.
If this is one way to defend the public universities, then maybe, one might just join in”
But UAB dean Alberto Barbieri took a hardline stance: “If necessary, we will sanction those responsible.”
Even the national government has jumped into the controversy.
Education Minister Alberto Sileoni said that university authorities told him not authorization had been given for the show and called for sanctions. Some students were “bothered or offended” by the live sexual performances, he said.
But Aníbal Fernández, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s Cabinet chief, took it as a joke. “I am neither one for post-porno or pre-porno,” he said. “But if this is one way to defend the public universities, then maybe, one might just join in.”
Translation by Martin Delfín.
