Army Bans Kinsey Report on Women From its Libraries – Claims Subject “Not Of Interest to G.I.s”
The U.S Army announced on this day that it would not place the Kinsey Report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (August, 20, 1953), in its 203 libraries in Europe. A spokesperson said the report “was not thought to be of general interest to G.I.s.” Seriously? The Air Force, on the other hand, said it would have at least one copy of the report in its libraries around the world.
The two Kinsey reports (Sexual Behavior in the Human Male was published on January 5, 1948) were major events in the history of sexuality in the United States, with important civil liberties ramifications. The reports helped to end the taboos on candid discussions of sexuality in America, along with the heavy-handed censorship of books, magazines and movies with sexually related subject matter.
Both before and after publication of the two reports, the Kinsey Institute faced censorship and threats of prosecution because of its research into sexuality.
Read the two Kinsey reports: Alfred Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948); Alfred Charles Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953)
Read about Kinsey, the reports, and the controversies: James H. Jones, Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life (1997)
Learn more about the changing status of women in the 1950s: Stephanie Coontz, A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s (2011)
Explore the FBI files on Kinsey: http://vault.fbi.gov/Alfred%20Kinsey
Watch a harsh documentary on Alfred Kinsey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPhs_y-VKM8
Learn more about the history of the Kinsey Institute: http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/about/history.html