Kinsey Report on Male Sexual Behavior Published
Alfred Kinsey and his team published their first path-breaking report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, on this day. The report generated a national controversy as the first scientific study of sexuality, sweeping away long-standing cultural taboos against frank discussion of the topic.
Consistent with those taboos, The New York Times did not report the publication of the book, did not review it, and published no article on it for almost two full years. The report attracted a wide audience and was on the New York Times best-seller list for 26 weeks.
Particularly controversial –and influential– were the report’s estimates of infidelity and homosexual encounters.The Kinsey Report was influential in suggesting a “continuum” of sexuality among people, rather than rigid categories heterosexual and homosexual orientations.
The second report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female was published in September 1953 (see August 20, 1953 and September 23, 1953)— the Times did publish several articles on that publication.
The two Kinsey reports had a major impact on civil liberties. They opened the door for candid discussions of sexuality, which in turn led to legal challenges to censorship of books and movies with sexually-related themes. They also underpinned the sexual revolution, which led to challenges to restrictions on access to birth control and abortion. Finally, the evidence on the prevalence of homosexuality opened the door for more candid and morally neutral discussion of same sex relationships.
On November 1, 1957, the Kinsey Institute won a lower court decision ending an order that prevented the Institute from importing 31 sexually-related photographs which it sought for purposes of research. The decision of the court was limited to research materials and was not a broad-based First Amendment decision.
Learn more: James H. Jones, Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life (1987)
Learn about Kinsey’s battles with censorship: Leigh Ann Wheeer, How Sex Became a Civil Liberty (2013)
Read the famous report: Alfred Kinsey, et al., Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948)
Read about the history of sex, censorship, birth control, abortion and homosexuality and the U.S. Constitution: Geoffrey R. Stone, Sex and the Constitution: Sex, Religion, and Law from America’s Origins to the Twenty-First Century (2017)
See the movie: Kinsey (2004)
Learn more about the history of the Kinsey Institute: http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/about/history.html