by Hannah Magen
We were all on a trip to Portland, Oregon and it was a beautiful warm and sunny afternoon, so we decided to go to the park along the water to enjoy the sun and play some football. We sat down on a large patch of grass and hadn't been talking for long, before the people sitting about ten feet away caught our attention. The three people, who seemed to have been simply chatting when we got there, were now, practically having sex!
It was about four o'clock in the afternoon, broad daylight, all sorts of people walking around, families with young children, and these three people were, well, definitely getting it on, in a park! Chris Frenier, one of our ATMI members pleadingly put in “I think that we should move somewhere else!” and Shana Sheehy one of our leaders said, “I keep looking because I can't believe they're actually doing that!”
As we were walking back to the hotel, we came across this statue, a statue that blatantly reminded us of the scene in the park. It had pretty much the same configuration of people situated over a fountain, and we were thinking could this statue have motivated those people to do that...Is it that inspirational?! We later found out that the statue, which is called The Quest, was created by a Count Alexander von Svoboda in 1970. Obviously this isn't something that happens everyday in Portland, but I decided to interview some people to see what they thought.
I talked to a younger guy, who was waiting at a bus stop near the statue, here's what he said…
Hannah : “Um...do you know anything about the statue, or can you tell me a little bit about it?”
“Um…I'm guessing there's some sort of mythological significance but who it is and what's going on I couldn't tell you. There's two female nudes, one male nude. The two female nudes are… their arms are intertwined, the male nude is sort of ascending from beneath them.”
“The statue is a lot more tame than most of the things we see on network television these days…”
Hannah :“We saw three people kind of getting it on in the park Yesterday and um, I don't know, we were wondering if you see that kind of thing often, or…”
“No, um this is a place that sort of prides itself on its more liberal, progressive leanings but no, it's not something I see very often, there are a lot more offensive things, um, going on than nudity and revelry in the parks.”
Hannah : “So would you consider what happened in the park more artistic or would you find offense by that?
“No, It's more a question of the audience, um, certain things I think should be kept from, say, children or even older people who might take offense...but ah it's just a sign of the times if nothing else.”
A sign of the times…huh, Von Svoboda described his statue, in saying that “It depicted the growth of today and tomorrow and the awakening to the future.” So who knows, maybe it really is a sign of the times…
I also talked to an older woman, who was taking a short break from work at the parking garage,
“I remember seeing it for the first time in probably, 68' and I remember coming out with my mom off the bus and seeing it and thinking…huh…you know, I was about six or seven and I was shocked that you know there were naked people on the statue.”
Hannah: “Yesterday we were in the park over there, on the water front and we kind of saw three people sort of having sex on the park…and, um, we were wondering if stuff like that happens?”
“Not very often, no. What time of day was it?
Hannah: “It was about now, maybe three, four o'clock.”
“Yeah, that's unusual, that's unusual….”
Hannah: “Would you find offense in that, or would you find that more artistic?”
“What, if I find somebody having sex in the park in the middle of the day…no I don't think I'd find that artistic, you know. But, would I be offended? I think I'd be more cautious that children wouldn't see…you know that who would be seeing this, right. But myself being offended, I don't know, maybe I'd turn the hose on them…”
It's ridiculously cold up here in Alaska, for naked statues. If we ever had them, people would probably want to put some clothes on them. So, I guess that personally I was more surprised at what happened in the park, than anything else. It could very well be, that the times are changing, that people are a lot more open to things, such as sex in a park…I mean, sex is a perfectly natural action, and who's to say that there has to be a specific time and place for it…
Sex in the Park?
