Alfred Kinsey
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- For the 2004 movie about Alfred Kinsey see Kinsey .
Alfred Charles Kinsey (June 23, 1894 - August 25, 1956) was an entomologist and zoologist at the Indiana University at Bloomington who in 1947 founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University at Bloomington, now called the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.
In doing so, Kinsey single-handedly created the academic field of sexology. His Kinsey Reports led to a storm of controversy and turned Kinsey into an instant celebrity. Articles about him appeared in magazines such as TIME, Life, Look, and McCall's. His reports were regarded by many as a trigger for the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Conservative groups, especially Christian and right-wing groups attacked Kinsey for what they saw as his immoral and dangerous research. Indiana University's president Herman B. Wells defended Kinsey's research in what became a well-known test of academic freedom.
Kinsey has been accused of having unusual sexual practices. In James H. Jones's biography Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life, Kinsey is said to have been a bisexual masochist. He reportedly seduced his graduate students and his staff, inserted a toothbrush into his urethra, tied rope around his testicles and pulled, and once gave himself an unanesthetized circumcision. He is also reported to have encouraged group sex among his staff and to have coerced his wife, his staff, and his staff's wives into making pornographic films in the family attic. Jones states that Kinsey's wife had sex with other men, but that the couple remained married for 35 years, in a relationship that remained sexual until Kinsey became ill near the end of his life. None of these accounts of Kinsey's own sex life are supported by official statements from the Kinsey institute. While a few of them have been confirmed by other biographers, such as Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, others are of doubtful veracity.
Kinsey's most prominent detractor is currently Judith A. Reisman, head of RSVPAmerica. Reisman alleges that Kinsey and his staff sexually abused children to produce some of the data in the Kinsey Reports. Kinsey Institute director John Bancroft claims that the subject of child/adult sexual interaction was deliberately chosen by Kinsey's opponents to discredit him because of the emotions surrounding it: "In recent years, when there has been anxiety bordering on hysteria about child sexual abuse, often resulting in circumstances where the accused is regarded as guilty until proved innocent, what better way to discredit someone?"
Kinsey's work continues to cause controversy decades after his death. While academic investigation into sex stimulated by Kinsey has resulted in an explosion of knowledge about topics previously considered taboo, there are continuing claims that the Kinsey reports have statistical and methodological errors. Kinsey's detractors often make such claims and state that because of these errors, his data is too unreliable to be quoted; despite this, his data is still widely cited.
His life is the subject of a 2004 biographical film, Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson as the scientist, and a 2004 novel by T.C. Boyle, The Inner Circle.
References
- Cornelia Christenson, Kinsey: A Biography, Indiana University Press, 1971
- Wardell Pomeroy, Dr. Kinsey and the Institute for Sex Research, Harper & Row, 1972
- James H. Jones, Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life, Norton, 1997
- Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, Alfred C. Kinsey: Sex the Measure of All Things, London: Chatto & Windus, 1998
External links
- Kinsey Institute website
- Alfred Kinsey at the Internet Movie Database
- Kinsey Movie at the Internet Movie Database
de: Alfred Charles Kinsey
