What
was the impetus which set the wheels in motion for Kinsey’s sex research? It
all started when the Surgeon General, Thomas Parran, asked for nationwide
testing due to a rise in syphilis rates. In response, Indiana University’s student
paper, the Daily Student, published an article on February 15, 1938 calling
for “compulsory Wasserman tests for all Indiana students” (Jones 318). Students
started writing the paper with complaints about the sorry state of sex
education at the university. Kinsey volunteered to develop a class on sex and
marriage. He taught the non-credit marriage course to married couples and
seniors and it was an instant success (Jones 327).
Kinsey offered advice to students
who approached him with questions concerning sexuality. He started collecting
the sexual histories of his students and found that human sexual behavior
exhibited diverse variation, echoing the variation he observed in his studies
of the physical characteristics of gall wasps. He continued collecting sexual
histories, ranging from that of the faculty to the groundskeepers on campus (American
Experience).
Kinsey’s work was not without
detractors. Some of the faculty pressured the university president, Herman
Wells, to remove Kinsey from the marriage course. Wells, who supported Kinsey’s
work, decided to give Kinsey an ultimatum: choose between continuing the
research and continuing to teach the course. In 1940, Kinsey chose the research
(American Experience).
Sexual Behavior in the Human Male
Kinsey continued collecting sexual
histories and in 1941, he acquired a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to fund
his sex research. Between 1941 and 1946, he assembled his research staff: Clyde
Martin (1918 - ), Wardell Pomeroy (1913 – 2001), and Paul Gebhard (1917 - ). Kinsey
and his team constructed a survey containing about 300 questions. The first set
of questions were demographic (age, religious background, work, etc), and the
remaining questions investigated a wide variety of sexual activity. In the
questionnaire, sex was defined as to the
point of ejaculation. First the team questioned locals, then they traveled
the country and questioned over 5,300 males. They interviewed volunteers in
prisons, factories, farms, gay bars, universities, etc. William Burroughs, Gore
Vidal, Leonard Bernstein, Tennessee Williams and the entire cast of the theatre
production of A Streetcar Named Desire were interviewed (Biography).
The
book contains hand-drawn charts and tables, along with demographic breakdown of
behaviors. The research team had devised a way of recording the answers from
their interviewees in a code which only they could read. The result was the
publication of the monumental work, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948). It sold about 500,000 copies
and was an instant success (American Experience).
The
resulting data shattered the way America perceived itself. Kinsey reported that
more than 90% of American males masturbated, 85% have had premarital
intercourse, 70% had patronized a prostitute at least once in their lives,
almost 60% have had oral sex, and 30% to 45% had engaged in extramarital
intercourse. What was most shocking, however, was that 37% of those interviewed
reported to have engaged in homosexual activity at some point in their lives
(Kinsey, Pomeroy, and Martin 650).
Sexual Behavior in the Human Female
Kinsey’s
work collecting sexual histories continued and in 1947, he established the
Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University. In 1953, Sexual Behavior
in the Human Female was published, coincidentally; the first issue of
Playboy came out that same year. 5,940 women were interviewed. It sold over
200,000 copies in the first two months and revealed that more than 90% of
females had indulged in sexual petting, 66% had sexual dreams, 62% had
masturbated, 50% have had premarital sex, 19% had engaged in homosexual
activity, 14 % have had multiple orgasms, and 26% had had extramarital sexual
encounters (Kinsey et al 299).
This data shocked the nation. The image of a
wholesome, puritanical society was forever shattered. Churches and religious groups
were up in arms. Billy Graham (1918 - ) published a pamphlet stating, "It is impossible to estimate the damage this book
will do to the already deteriorating morals of America. Doctor Kinsey's report
shows itself to be completely lopsided and unscientific when it says that seven
out of ten women who had pre-marital affairs had no regrets. He certainly
could not have interviewed any of the millions of born-again Christian women in
this country who put the highest price on virtue, decency and modesty” (Billy Graham).
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