Beyond the caged strippers and the coterie of men drooling over them were models decked out in the latest latex fashions demonstrating proper whipping techniques. Though such topics are less provocative these days, the annual X-Show, which is in its ninth year, might still be a bit edgy, even if largely subdued by the standards of such events in the West. She said that when she started her show, which for the first time openly confronted topics like H.I.V./AIDS, homosexuality and workplace sexual harassment, “it was like a bomb went off.” “We have always had sex, but information on this topic was practically nonexistent,” said Yelena Khanga, who hosted Russia’s first talk show about sex in the 1990s, coyly named “About That.” In general,” she said, “it was not acceptable to speak about sex.” “There is no sex in the U.S.S.R.” was a satirical slogan of the perestroika era. A lack of private space, especially in the communal apartments of major cities, limited access to sexual encounters even more. The Soviet government tried to drive all talk of sex under the covers, leaving public life effectively neutered. This is partly the legacy of the Soviet era, she said. “There is just no sexual culture, none,” said Nadezhda Dovgal, one of the organizers of the sex shop convention, called the X’Show. Borisova and others said, tastes here tend toward vanilla. Advertisements with busty models have long replaced posters of square-jawed women scything wheat. Sure, sexual innuendo is commonplace: on television and in glossy magazines and in the provocative attire of women on the streets. Despite a burst of licentiousness in the early 1990s, when pornography and prostitution surged through the country, the sexual revolution has never really taken hold here. Two decades after government-imposed prudishness ended with the Soviet collapse, Russians still shy away from embracing European-style sexual mores. Other vendors at a recent convention for sex shop owners in Moscow were similarly vexed. “No one knows what, why and how: what lubricant is, why a dildo is needed, how to use vaginal balls.” Borisova, an owner of Erotic Fantasy, a supplier of German-made intimate equipment in Russia. “We have to try to enlighten the customers,” said Ms. Her wares were housed in immaculate displays, complete with colorful instruction manuals, but after five years in business she was still having difficulty generating much interest.Īs always, sex toys are a tough sell in Russia. PAST the topless woman dancing in a cage and the towering transvestite perched on three-inch heels, Ksenia Borisova was trying to grab the attention of passers-by.
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